@IJ Reilly
Yeah sure but the net result is the same wether you buy and 5(c/s) upfront or with contract. You'll end up with paying well above 500$ for the phone with just 100$ difference in between 5c and 5s.
In the days before the c&s became available I was considering my options:
- I needed atleast 32GB
- I'm not convinced with the 5s having "must have" features
- paying 699€ for last years tech didn't feel right either
Ended up with buying a slightly used 5 for just a bit shy of 500€, got another 32GB more storage

Than added a non-contract which at 9.95€/month gives me:
- 500 of either talk-minutes or messages
- "unlimited data" (will be throttled after the 1st 200MB)
At the end of every billing month I do have option to change that at the same cost to:
- 9ct/min or message
- 500MB high-speed data
Or I could just switch to a completly different plan (or even cancel it).