To think that this is a good deal? (iPhone contract)

[Flossyfloof]

Please bear with me. I am pretty clueless about mobiles.
My first ever mobile contract runs out in a couple of days. I had a Samsung S3 for 24 months, pay about £20 for everything, with Tesco.
I have been pretty unimpressed with the phone, to be honest, texting and phoning is fine but Internet accessis really poor, even at home.
I love my iPad and so I think an iPhone is the way to go.
For an iPhone 5c Tesco are quoting £21 per month. Virgin are offering £18. This seems like a good deal. Tesco said Virgin don't offer all the things they do, but actually the only thing that I can see I would be paying extra for is picture messages and it would be rare that I would have to use the phone for them and even then it only costs 20p.
WIBU to go with this? Seems a great deal to me but there may be hidden things I haven't considered.

[fredfredgeorgejnr]

Mobile Phone contracts that include mobile phones are generally poor value, like anything that is hire purchase. Buying a phone for cash and the service you need separately is generally better.

[londonrach]

Know nothing re contacts (love pay as you go as so cheaper than a contract) however if switching to another provider check their coverage in your area, cost per call to phones not covered by them and if you can take your number with you. Someone knowledgable be along soon to help re the contract bit. Good luck x

[Flossyfloof]

Ok, thanks. I suppose I like the convenience. So you buy a phone and then contact Virgin or whoever and buy the service? I didn't know about that!

[Sallyingforth]

Buying a phone on contract is a form of hire purchase, and like all forms of credit costs more than buying outright. It also ties you to one service provider unless you pay extra to buy out of the contract.

It is always cheaper to shop on line for an unlocked phone, and you can then get an airtime contract that you can leave at a month's notice if you don't like the service you get. But of course you need to find the purchase price up front.

The price you quote sounds good, but you do have a choice.

[Flossyfloof]

I have asked about the number, thanks. I didn't think about coverage though. I am making a list of questions, I have asked them to phone me later today! i thought payg was dearer?

[londonrach]

Theres a much between so and cheaper..bad ipad!

[Sallyingforth]

Just to add that you can go into any phone shop and buy a PAYG or pay monthly SIM without being tied.

[maleenteringfemalefacilities]

If your phone dies, sometimes you are still tied into the contract and they won't redirect your number to a non iPhone sim.

Is it a 24 mth contract? So 18 * 24 = 432. How much is the phone to buy separately? How much credit would you use a month on top of the phone cost?

I have had 2 iPhone contracts in a row (as I didn't have the cash upfront for the phone by itself!) However this worked out as a great deal for me as my provider (3 in Ireland) gives unlimited data, and I don't have broadband at home - so I use the phone as a hotspot for my iPad and laptop.

My next phone is going to be a pay as you go though, as for a topup of 20Euro per month I'll get unlimited data. Text messages and phone calls through What'sapp and Viber will keep call costs low/non existent. I rarely do picture messages so will make sure they are all on email from now on.

[londonrach]

Flossy depends on how much you use it. I pay £10 per month approx. sometimes nothing. I only use my phone re contacting husband when i arrive at the station (and playing on station free wifi). My pay as you go phone (nokia 360) cost £15 from orange as if you are a pay as a go customer you get money towards new phones. If you a heavy user contact cheaper but you need the right contact but i know nothing re those.

[toomanypasswords]

I would be a little bit wary about buying an 'older' iPhone, simply because the operating system updates seem to be designed for the latest version of the phone (i.e the 6) and cause issues for older ones. I had an iPhone 4 and after the 5 came out and the operating system was upgraded, my 4 struggled to cope. I've ended up getting so fed up with it that I switched to a Google Nexus 5, which has been great.

[londonrach]

As a pay as you go customer you can get free minutes or texts per month depending on how much you top up. Extra bonus as then i get a free month as my £10 is still there after my free minutes been used!!!

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

18 pm for an iphone 5C seems like a good deal and something I would be interested in later this year when my contract is up (currently have a second hand iphone 4 on sim only and it is starting to show it's age).

But you say your internet access is poor, even at home. Have you used data on that network before? Maybe it's the network rather than the phone? But don't you have wifi at home? Normally you use wifi on your devices at home or wherever it is available and only use the data connection when there is no wifi?

[fredfredgeorgejnr]

You can get a refurbished iPhone 5c for under 200, which would mean you'd be paying over 230 for the phone service, that's an awful lot of usage on PAYG with giff-gaff or similar.

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

I've just looked into this and see that its for quite a low amount of data and includes a 5 pm Virgin Media customer discount, so while it might be a good deal for the OP, it wouldn't work for me as I'm not a VM customer and would probably need the next step up or two in data.

[Flossyfloof]

Internet access on my Samsung is poor. Yes I have wifi at home but emails come into phone way after ipad or laptop, hours after. I would assume that they should come in at more or less the same time.
Sorry ilkley, I am not sure what you mean by using data?

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

if you are a virgin phone, tv or broadband customer you can get some good deals even on the i phones. just got one for DS who was racking up huge bills on his previous package as it only had 250 Mg data allowance and he consistently went over I pay £41 per month now for unlimited everything, more than I want to pay but better than the £60 and upwards he was amassing previously.when my contract is up I am keeping his old i phone and getting a £5 monthly contract sim as it will have enough for me on it as I rarely use my phone for internet.

[UncleT]

It is FAR more likely to be the network or a weak location causing poor mobile Internet performance than the handset itself, particularly on a virtual network like Tesco (i.e. they piggy-back on an existing network and are allocated a certain slice of bandwidth, etc.). I've never heard of any such issues on the S3 and had one myself a couple of years back (as did oodles of people I know). Of course it could be the phone, but really quite unlikely.

[UncleT]

Flossy it depends entirely on how often your phone is set up to sync, whether the email account in question is set up as 'push' and a host of other potential factors, but no - it's not the phone it's your settings.

[Auburnsparkle]

If you are buying any phone or contract you can often get fab cashback deals too with Quidco or Topcashback.

[PrimalLass]

Beware of the Tesco deal if it's the 500mb one. That's not a lot of data.

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

Flossy When you use the internet on your phone but are not connected to wifi, it takes up part of your data allowance - your contract will say that it includes X minutes of calls, Y texts and Z Mb of data allowance - the longer you spend on the internet on your phone, the more data you use.

Ideally, as EcclesCakes has found out, you don't want to keep exceeding your data allowance as it costs a lot of money. My iphone tells me I have used 5.5 Gb of mobile data since December 2013, when the counter was last reset - so about 400 Mb per month - therefore, if I took a 250 Mb per month contract I would have to pay extra for the excess 150 Mb per month, which would probably be v expensive.

The delayed emails could be a settings issue - how often is the phone set up to check if you have any new emails?

[crazykat]

If you go with virgin mobile then insurance is included so if anything goes wrong with the phone they will fix it free, unless it's something you've done like smash the screen in which case you have to pay the excess. If you have virgin tv then you also get a discount on the phone plan, I think it's £5 off the chosen tariff.

Pay monthly contracts aren't always more expensive then buying the phone and getting a sim only deal. Dsd has a lumia 635 for £2.50 a month more than the same sim only plan. Some pay monthly contracts with a phone are more expensive but not all, especially if you get it for half price like I've managed to get for my last two renewals. You just have to shop around and see how much the phone costs versus the difference between sim only plan and the equivalent with the phone.