Can anyone help me with mobile phone upgrade?

[Margaretscratcher]

So the 24 month contract is up with Vodafone ...

what are my best options?

I pay £34 a month for an iPhone 7+ at the moment, and ideally want to pay less. Not remotely bothered about having the latest phone but current handset is cracked and the camera lens is knackered. So some sort of new iPhone (only ‘cos I cannot be arsed to get to grips with a new make) would be good. A new 7+ would do if they still make them?

I want to keep my same number as I’ve had it years.

Do I have to go through Vodafone? Or can I find a deal through another site/network? I honestly dread this kind of thing and am hopeless at it.

I'm with Vodafone and they no longer do 7/8s, think the most recent model was an 11 when I looked or maybe an XR. And the plans were terribly expensive for anything half decent data wise.

Once my contract ran out I switched to sim only, and when my iPhone 6 finally have up I bought an 8 outright from apple.

My daughter is £24 a month with sky for an iPhone 11 but was on a deal when we got it so not sure if they are still doing it. Depends on how much data you need I guess.

Thanks Moly. Sorry to be so clueless but how does the sim only thing work? Do you still pay a monthly amount, and if so, roughly how much if you don’t mind me asking?

Do you think it works out to be much cheaper?

If you want an iPhone go to the Apple store, they frequently do interest free payments over 2 years. I upgraded to an iPhone 10 2 years ago, cost me £25 a month, then have a GiffGaff card for £7 a month, phone is now paid off so only pay the GiffGaff. You just port your number over which if you’re out of contract you can do now. Go to GiffGaff and they’ll send you a SIM card and the instructions. It’s more simple than you think! Then buy your new phone from Apple and they’ll transfer everything over in store.

Meant to say, you buy sim only from Apple. If you keep your phone for more than 2 years and don’t need lots of data it’s far cheaper than a contract.

www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-11/6.1-inch-display-64gb-white
Current deal via Apple on an iPhone 11 is £25 a month for 2 years, plus you’ll need a sim.
Do you have Virgin or Sky? If so, they often have free SIM cards available linked to your account.

@Margaretscratcher

Thanks Moly. Sorry to be so clueless but how does the sim only thing work? Do you still pay a monthly amount, and if so, roughly how much if you don’t mind me asking?

Do you think it works out to be much cheaper?

@Margaretscratcher in currently paying £25 a month for unlimited data, minutes and texts. Yes you keep your phone as it's now paid for, you're just paying for the service. It also extras like the ability to take my plan abroad to over 80 countries (I have family abroad) and included now TV for a year when I first switched to that plan.

Contact Vodafone to find out how much data you are actually using. They will give you an average of the last year.

A sim only contact is always cheapest as you are only paying for mins, text and data. Make sure you pick a data amount that is close to what you actually need. You can sign up for 30 days, 12 or 24 months. Longer contracts give you a slightly cheaper deal.

Buying the handset outright is cheaper.

Carphone Warehouse are currently cheapest for handset only iPhones.

If you can't afford to buy the handset outright then Apple and Sky do deals where you can pay for the handset monthly. Check who works out cheapest.

You are just buying the phone so you can put any sim in it.

Check your coverage before you move to another network. Swapping your number over is easy and happens within 24 hours. Usually faster.

Just buy the handset separately outright. It is significantly cheaper.

Then you can go to any provider, transfer your number over and pay significantly less.

For example, I got an iPhone X from apple. Then I got a 12 month contract with Three (transferred my number from Vodafone) for £12 a month. This includes unlimited texts, calls, go binge (unlimited use of Netflix) and 13 GB data.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a no brainer about buying the phone outright, or per month. Then the sim separately. The bit I was worried about was keeping the number but if that’s easy to do, then great.

@Margaretscratcher if you stay with Vodafone it's easy to switch to a sim only plan, and your number will stay the same. You can buy the phone outright from any company with the best price

I have sim only with Tesco Mobile.i pay £10 per month for unlimited calls & texts and 6GB data which is more than I use.

I then bought a handset separately.

Have you looked into whether you could get the handset the handset and camera lens fixed?

Other options to add - second hand mobile from CEX which comes with a 2 year warranty and a SIM only deal for a tenner or less.

The Money Saving Expert website is also a good place to look for the best deals.

You can port your number, it's really easy. You used to have to get a code but I don't think you even need to do that anymore, just call Vodafone and ask when you cancel your contract. You'll have about an hour or 2 without your number.

If you're not bothered about having the latest phone, drop your contract to sim only and buy one from somewhere like Game or CEX. Had a few from CEX and their guarantee is really good.

Musicmagpie does excellent second hand phones btw

I have always bought outright as well and had sim only but recently upgraded dd and it wasn't any cheaper to buy outright, so I got an iPhone through Fonehouse (lots of similar ones if you use a comparison site for phone deals like uswitch )

Also I have a 7 and thought it was busy but a little man fixed it for me for barely anything!

Ds recently dropped his iPhone 7 in a stream.

We bought him a reconditioned iPhone X from Amazon. It cost about £300 though a 64gb would have been cheaper.

We have Voxi which is £10 per month for 8gb data and unlimited calls, texts & social media.

Voxi is part of Vodaphone

I have sim from smarty (three network). 30gb data, unlimited calls & texts, free EU roaming. £10 paid monthly, no minimum length. Suits me fine when I don't need to replace handset