Come and talk to me about iphone costs

[evenkeel]

I'm lusting after an iphone and thinking of getting one when my current deal expires. But I'd like a bit of info first on how much it'll cost me on a monthly contract (which is likely to be the way I'll go) - a bit of googling seems to indicate that it's likely to be at least £30 a month.

What do you pay, if you don't mind me being nosey? I'd also be interested to hear if anyone's forked out upfront for the phone and uses it on a PAYG basis.

Thanks in advance...

I think I pay £35 and that the initial outlay was £189 and I am tied in for 24mths.

I got mine about 7mths ago and definitely then there was no difference bewteen providers the tarrifs and outlay costs were set by apple and non negotiable for the service provider.

I think you can now get the iphone 3 for free though.

I bought mine outright - my iphone 3g was on pay and go, but when I bought my iphone 4 I was going to go for the Simplicity tariff on o2, which would have cost £15 a month if I signed up for a year and given me unlimited texts & 300 minutes plus 'unlimited' wifi with 500 Mb data.

But the o2 shop's computer had a hissy fit about my debit card details so I got a pay and go phone (which I could pay for on my credit card)

I top up £15 a month, which gives me free text & web, so it comes to pretty much the same thing - the guy in the shop said I could convert it into a simplicity tariff once I'd got my debit card sorted, but nobody else has any problems with my debit card, so I haven't got round to going to the bank to try to find out what the problem is.

I don't make calls on the phone that much, as I usually text. When I talk to DD at university, she usually calls me as she has a tariff with a lot of minutes.

MArks thread as am due an upgrade and desparatly want an Iphone.

I have a 32gb 3GS on PAYG. I don't use it much for calls, mainly texts. It is under a year old so I still get the monthly 250mb for Internet but I mainly use wifi anyway. If I used it a lot more as a phone it would be better on a contract but I ysuall top up by £10 or less a month and each £10 includes 300 free texts with orange.

I have a 16gb iPhone 4 on an orange contract. £35 a month over 24 months and I think I paid £119 upfront. I get 600 mins and god knows how many texts.

Oh yes and £5 a month insurnace, a must when phone is £500 to replace. I went to an independent insurer as the orange ins was £12 a month

I'm another one toying with the idea. I only spend £10 a month PAYG on my current phone at the moment so don't want to bump up my costs too much.

Those of you who paid up front for the iPhone and went PAYG - what did you pay??

ClairedeLoon - who are you with? I haven't sorted out insurance yet - I am just being very careful...

this insurer

looking at it though it seems to have gone up in price, now £89 for a year

RustyBear this may help.

Thanks, Clair, I'll take a look

MrsDepp, I paid £495 for a 16Gb iPhone4 - if I keep it for 2 years, topping up £15 a month, I'll save £90 compared to a £30 a month contract and paying £225 for the phone.

Though the insurance will add to that - do you have to pay separately for insurance on a contract phone, or is it included? (I've never actually had one!)

Mrs depp I paid £560 ish for my 32gb 3GS. I bought it before the iPhone 4 was out though so probably cheaper now. I think if you are going to buy one the price doesn't vary a lot. I picked orange because mobile signals are fairly rubbish where I live but I can get a tmobile signal (but couldn't have an iPhone with them at the time). I now get to use the tmobile signal as they have merged.
No insurance here. I avoid buying it for gadgets etc. and reckon I spend less overall in repairs and replacements for things than I would on insurance.

insurance is extra on a contract phone

It's free on my house insurance. If it breaks the warranty covers it.

I pay £40 a month & dh pays £35 for contract. Neither of us paid for the phone. I got mine over a year ago hence it being more expensive.

I pay £30 per month with o2 on an 18 month contract. Phone (3Gs) was free. Got the contract 6 months ago. Have unlimited Internet use and texts, only about 100 mins of calls but that's enough for me. Had to negotiate to get that deal but not that hard.

silver28 - worth hanging onto that contract deal since this year the networks cut the data allowance - some to 1 GB some to 750 or 500 MB.

Seems v low when Three charges me 7.50/month for 15 GB (dongle for mobile broadband on y laptop).

I wouldn't add a phone to my household insurance - it is the sort of thing you are quite likely to have to claim for over teh course of a year and it will bump up your house insurance enormously.

My bank insures my iphone for free with my bank account - might be worth checking if yours does?

DH got the same as Clair 2 days ago and I've hardly seen him since except when he says 'oooh you've got to see this app'

Hi network guy, I had heard that more recent deals were limiting downloads so glad I got mine in time. I'm pretty happy with my deal compared to what most other people I know pay.

I'm with 3. Got my iPhone 4 on 2yr contract, £40 month. Paid £59 for 16GB.

For that I get 2000 minutes, unlimited texts, 1MB Internet and 5000 free 3 to 3 minutes (sadly only know one other person on 3!).

Can get cheaper deals for less minutes but for the extra fiver I wanted the enormous amount so I wouldn't have to use my home phone again and have dh moaning about the bill .

Not sure it would help you now, tootiredtothink but for anyone else who makes lots of calls from home (I acknowledge you have the flexibility to call from wherever you are), 1899.com only charges 5p for connection to 01/02/03 (landlines) and 0p per minute for the duration of the call.

I make some calls in 'peak' time and no longer think about the cost as it works out cheaper for me than paying for some 'any time' calls package (I would have to make 100 calls a month to get best value from a fixed fee deal). I still get free weekend calls from BT (in fact I have to make 10 calls a month as they installed the line for free!) but weekdays I can call friends or relatives and if the call goes on for an hour or two (fixing their computer problem, for example) it still only costs me 5p.

Only discipline one needs is to dial 1899