Contract V Sim Free

displaced dub

Hi All

Firstly i use my iPhone for business and its a bill pay on O2 not pre pay and i removed myself from contract on Friday.

I see a lot of you are buying sim free(unlocked) from apple in Belfast, what in your opinion are the benefits of doing this versus a contract??

We all need an operator for our phones so can someone please explain it to me.

Thanks

dougs09

over the long run though i think if you sit down and do the maths, ie, price of the phone you pay for both sim free, and what the network charges.

then work out over a 18 month period how much you'd spend, ie if your on a twenty quid deal x 18 and then, we'll say, 45 quid x 18, then add the difference onto both costs of the phone, and you would find that in the long run, gonig sim free, is the best option, yes, its a lot to pay up front, but if you can afford to splash the massive amount on the phone now and buy sim free, i'd advise it.

yeah it seems bloody crazy spending that much though dont it

dougs09

you always get free text offers on PAYG anyway,so no you shouldnt really go over it, i never used to when i was on vodafone PAYG, so i would recommend the sim free option for someone tbh, contract you always pay alot more then what you did if on PAYG, ie your twenty quid could go towards your minutes usually as opposed to paying ie 45 on a contract.

dougs09

yeah well i guess its down to the person themselves, i know i can honestly say, i hardly ever make calls, i'm always a texter rather then a talker.
all i will say is, i took out a o2 contract last year, and i regretted it for so so long.

dougs09

yeah i never saw it that he used it for business so yes your prob right

i have a vodafone simple contract, i pay thirty euro and i get free voda texts and calls, 100 texts and minutes, and 1 gig of data, its a thirty day rollong contract so just gotta give 1 month notice to cancel it, and that ran me on my iPhone for ages. and i;m just gonna carry that into when i get my iPhone 4

displaced dub

hi all

thanks for the replies above, my average bill is 150.00euro, roaming is about 40.00 of that and the balance is my plan plus calls, so i guess a sim free might not be for me.

i have an upgrade to use with O2 so i might have to use it, my 3G is almost 2 years old now and the new software has slowed it up so will be going for the 4 as i thought the 3GS was not a big enough step for me to use that upgrade on.

i reckon just on a quick calculation in my head that the phone will cost me approx 200.00 with O2 so going on currency rates i will save about 420euro which is almost 3 months on a plan.

The people who put these plans together are very clever cause its melting my head, right off to bed now.

dougs09

haha yeah when you put it like that your prob as well sticking to contract mate

go for the higher tarriff, get the phone cheaper then that way, and hope that your minutes and that will hopefully cut some of that bill down

Simon201

Of course it does all depend on how you use the phone as people have said. Big talker? Big texter? do you even need a data package of any sort?
But this is my circumstances

iPhone sim free 32gb
Cost of phone.............................€730
Vodafone Simply, plus 10gb
data add-on €30 x 18...............= €540

Total cost over 18 months....= €1270
(or with '3' @ €20 a month........=€1090)

iPhone on VF contract
Cost of phone............................€300

18 x €45 perfect choice
access.....................................€810
Total cost over 18 months.......€1110

So it's kind of swings and roundabout as there's only €160 in it if you really want an iPhone today, but having said that, if you are able to upgrade after 12 months when Apple bring out iPhone 5 or you're able to break the contract due to something like what has happened in O2 recently it makes the contract option much more appealing.

These figures are optimistically based on the fact that Apple/VF wont screw us too much (which they probably will!) and that the iPhone 4 price and tariffs will be much the same as they are now.
(by the way, can anybody who bought one in Belfast tell me what the Euro amount came to on their CC yet for a 32gb?)