Britons are always on the lookout for the next best piece of tech that can end up costing a fortune in the long run. When it comes to mobile phones in particular, the Apple iPhone is normally at the top of the ‘wanted list’ for many, but why waste money on a brand new one that you will undoubtedly break within the first few months, when you can buy a refurbished one that is just as good for a lot less money.
A new study conducted by the team from www.weselltek.com has found that many Britons are starting to choose the refurbished route instead of brand new and from the research they uncovered just how good those savings are. Want to find out exactly how much you could save? Read on to uncover the savvy savings so you’re not literally throwing away money the next time you accidently drop your iPhone.
Savvy Savings
Fancy some extra cash for 51 happy meals or 28.5 pints? Buy a refurbished phone instead of a new one and you’ll have the money to buy just that! The study found that the average iPhone on contract in the UK sets you back £859.10 over the period, including upfront device costs. In comparison, buying a refurbished iPhone and taking up a SIM-only deal – which costs £13.33 on average – will pocket you £126.23 instead.
Biggest savings by contract
The team can also reveal where the biggest cost savings will come from too.
If you’re thinking of the idea of a second-hand iPhone and different operators, it’s important to consider just how much you could save by device, and also which operator or retailer you’re considering a contract with too:
- Choosing a refurbished iPhone 11 on EE’s 24-month contract will set you back £476.85, compared to a refurbished handset
- The second most expensive iPhone on contract is EE’s iPhone XR on a £39 per month contract – where opting for refurbished could save you £376.85
- The third biggest saving to be made on contract is by considering a refurbished iPhone instead of Three’s 24-month offer, which could mean £359.85 extra in your pocket
Biggest savings by device
On average, the biggest savings could be found on the iPhone SE 2020 model.
An iPhone SE as a refurbished handset could save you £132.76. An XR is the second most cost-effective to opt for refurbed on, saving you £130.15, and a refurbished iPhone 11 on SIM-only will save you £115.90.
The biggest individual iPhone SE refurbished saving came from opting for this instead of Three’s 24-month contract of £33 per month.
Why are people choosing refurbished?
Paul Walsh, Director at WeSellTek gives his thoughts on the findings:
“One of the most common things we hear is that people can’t actually tell the difference between a brand-new iPhone and a refurbished one. Quality is a common misconception that comes from the days of dodgy second-hand phone shops, from which the phones break after two days and you are left with nothing except a wasted trip and a hole in your pocket. It’s great to be able to dispel this misconception every day and spread the word that you really can save money without being taken advantage of. We confidently offer a 12-month warranty and every single handset we sell goes through a rigorous testing and refurbishment process before they become available.”
“People are starting to realise the environmental impact that the increase in new gadgets and phones being manufactured and sold every year are having. With each phone being so small in size, it’s hard to comprehend straight away, but when people are taking a moment to think about just how many phones there are in the global population, they quickly understand the scale of the problem manufacturing these devices are contributing to. Choosing refurbished means that there is no additional contribution to the number of phones being produced, as well as reducing the demand,”
“We were surprised to see that there wasn’t really any order to the savings in terms of how old the model of the iPhones were too. For example, the iPhones which people have been saving the most money on (the SE, 11 and XR) aren’t in order of age, with the XR being older than the 11. This is again another myth that we hear all of the time: in order to save really big on refurbishment, you need to get a really old phone. The study shows that this just isn’t the case.”
Methodology
We compared the cost of iPhone contracts from seven of the UK’s biggest operators and phone providers for some of the UK’s most popular models, against the WeSellTek refurbished handset price (coupled with the average UK SIM-only costs) to reveal the difference in lifetime cost over each contract period.
This study takes into account differing contract lengths, upfront phone costs and each operator’s average SIM-only deals too. Effort was made to ensure we were comparing similar phone contracts by data, minutes and text offers.
