To buy a secondhand phone?

[HellloBambinos]

My iphone has given up the ghost after 3 years so I need a new one. However I’m bloody gobsmacked at both the monthly and upfront costs of the current models, and by the length of the contracts (36 months!). I also know that constantly manufacturering is electronics is awful for the environment.

So I’m looking at the secondhand market instead, but is this a bad idea? Music Maggie seems to have some reasonably older models in pristine condition but I’ve never bought from them before so I’m nervous.

Has anyone had any experiences with them, or could recommend me somewhere else?

I thought the same OP. I've just got the new iPhone SE and it's costing £26 a month through mobile phones direct which I think is reasonable for 30GB a month. It's the 128GB one, so there are cheaper deals on the 64GB if you're not bothered about more storage.

I would not buy a second hand phone now as most phone have been over used due to lockdown. I would go new .

I always buy second hand phones as I love my iPhone but can't justify the outright cost of brand new or the extortionate monthly costs for a new one (also not that bothered about the latest model).
I also bought my dd an iPhone 8 for her birthday from Facebook market place at a great price!
You can find out the battery usage before you buy it too.

I would buy two-year-old used android phone.

Looking on ebay now, I can see an LG G6 advertised as "Grade A perfect condition" for £119.

Don't bother with a new phone plus contract which is a complete waste of money. Buy a new phone from a reputable company and get a sim only contract.

I’ve used music magpie for reconditioned phones. Had no problems and as good as new. Also more environmentally friendly and half the price

Never had a new phone always a second hand one and contracts like giff gaff, I have no idea how people afford to keep getting new phones and contracts. Never had a problem.

^RandomLondoner

I would buy two-year-old used android phone.

Looking on ebay now, I can see an LG G6 advertised as "Grade A perfect condition" for £119^

I wouldn't get a two year old phone when I can get a perfectly decent new Motorola from the G7 or G8 range from about £100 and then £5-10 a month from whichever cheapy network has the best coverage in your area (Lebara, Smarty, Giffgaff etc).

Music Magpie have been used by me and friends - all happy with the quality, the price and the warranty.

I’ve bought second iPhones twice now for my daughter. First from envirofone and recently from theioutlet. Both have been superb, and I will probably do the same for myself when my rather old iPhone finally gives up, allowing me to keep my cheapo phone plan.

I’ve bought 3 iPhones from Music Magpie over the last few years. The phones themselves were absolutely like new, would definitely recommend

I haven't used music magpie but have bought two refurbished phones from Argos which have been great and you get a 12 month warranty. I use them with id sim only plans which are very cheap.

They're selling Huawei p6 for £100; I've just looked.

Oops *y6

The dc's have reconditioned Samsungs from Giffgaff. No problems.

DD had a reconditioned iPhone for 48hrs that wouldn't work from Giffgaff but she smashed it in a meltdown so I never got to test their returns policy 🤷‍♀️.

Of course you aren't unreasonable to buy a second had phone, how could you possibly be?

But you are being unreasonable to base your decision on whether I or anyone else have done so. What you need to be asking is about posters experiences with how any problems were dealt with.

It's like buying a car, I could buy a second hand car from person A and it's fine but that has no bearing on you buying a different car from person B. What's more important is if you buy it from Garage C that they have a good reputation for dealing with problems

How much are you prepared to spend and how much will the sim deal be . Calculate what the total will be over say 24 months and compare it to some of the deals on sites like mobile phone direct. You may find that there won’t be much difference .

mobilephones.comparethemarket.com/phone-deals/results#/?contractLengths=24&data=5GB&deviceCondition=New&deviceType=&giftCategories=&handsetColours=&handsets=84cea430-be80-495d-a3e0-49cf35951f86&includeExistingCustomers=true&includeExistingCustomersHandset=&includeResellers=true&internalStorage=Any&isExclusiveDeal=&isFiveG=&merchants=&minutes=Any&monthlyCost=Any&networks=&phoneCost=Any&productType=handset&simType=Any&sortBy=Contract%20length&texts=Any&variants=

I'd be a bit nervous, though not from personal experience. You can get some very good brand new android phones for about £100.

Which mobile company are you with, OP? Some companies have better deals than others - Virgin and Tesco Mobile seem to have cheaper deals on better phones, I have found.

We have been doing this for years, I wouldn't hesitate. It's much better value and it's also more environmentally friendly. We usually buy from Cex due to decent guarantee periods.

I wouldn't get a two year old phone when I can get a perfectly decent new Motorola from the G7 or G8 range from about £100 and then £5-10 a month from whichever cheapy network has the best coverage in your area

Doing a quick comparison, I think you are right, G8 new from Argos at £180 probably is a better option. £70 more for two years newer plus runs Android 10 sounds worth the extra to me. (I'm keen to get Android 10 as I think it's designed to last longer, easier for updates to be added.) The only aspect where it seems significantly worse is screen resolution, but I suspect that I won't care about the difference.

For network I use 1pmobile, which costs me £2.50 a month (actually £10 every four months) to keep alive. (I use less than £2.50 of calls and data per month.)