Applies to any phone….

There are probably a lot of you out there wanting to buy an iPhone 6, but the contract deals seem awfully pricey at the moment and so does the handset. The best deal for an iPhone 6 16GB on O2 via MoneySuperMarket is £29.00 upfront for the handset, and then £43.00 per month on a 24 month contract. It comes with unlimited texts (which now means nothing), unlimited minutes and 2GB data. I don’t know about you, but my data usage rarely gets to 1GB in a month.

There is a better and cheaper way to fund your iPhone 6 urge and that is to buy an unlocked phone direct from Apple and then go looking for a SIM only deal that suits you.

OK, so finding £539 (for 16GB iPhone 6) of loose change down the back of your sofa is going to be tough, but here’s the trick. Buy it on an interest free credit card deal. There are lots of good deals around. You can check the following price comparison sites:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/purchases/

http://www.uswitch.com/credit-cards/0-percent-purchase-credit-cards

http://money.gocompare.com/creditcards?media=GG003&device=c

All of these list credit cards that give between 12 months and 20 months interest free on purchases. Depending on what you can manage per month, go for a longer deal to keep your monthly outgoing down, or go for a shorter deal to get the debt out of the way. You can always make over-payments as well.

You can apply online and within 5 days you’ll have the card which you can then use to make the purchase.

A word of caution though: A credit card is a good way to get into uncontrollable debt, so my advice is that get enough of a credit limit to fund the purchase of your phone and no more unless you are really good with your finances.

Comparison:

O2
Handset – £29.00
Contract – £43 x 24 months = £1032
Phone cost £539 (£22.46 per month)
Contract cost £522 (£21.75 per month )
Total paid: £1061 

Sim Free
Handset – £539
SIM free on Giffgaff – £10.00 per month (1GB data, 200 mins, unlimited texts) £240
phone £539
Total paid £779

You save £282

It’s a no brainer really, and you have the flexibility of not being tied to a lengthy contract with an locked phone which most networks will charge you £20 to unlock (O2 do it for free).

So, instead of going for a 24 month contract with a phone locked to a network and with a tariff that you probably don’t need, it is better to have no contract, buy direct, have an unlocked phone and then choose a suitably cheap SIM only deal.

I can’t see myself going for a contract phone ever again.