Why do you buy sim free?

[bp1000]

For anyone who buys their iPhones sim free, why do you do this?

I was thinking about it today, why lay out £500 minimum on an iPhone, instead of taking out a £30 a month contract.

It isn't saving money for me, in some cases over 2 years it's not that much more on contract. I'm not sure why I do it. I guess it gives me flexibility to change more often and I don't like being in contracts.

Am I right in assuming if I sold the 4s next year before the 5 comes out I wouldn't loose that much money? Do you think I could sell for about £380?

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

To stop my out of contact Deal from being lost!

 

[superdudeo]

For a start, who wants to be locked in for 2 years? Also, the £30 a month deals are pretty rubbish. So 24 x 30 = 720. Would probably go over the minutes or data so would work out even more. Probably won't be able to sell for £380 because next iPhone will be a big update so will be very desirable. Should get close to that amount though.

 

[Certinfy]

1) Unlocked. I travel around Europe and have most of my family in the US (LA).

2) Cheaper. If I put in a Giffgaff sim for £10 each month it works out £740 over the 2 years, much cheaper than any contract.

3) Can sell when you want. Of course you can still do this with a contract but then you'll have to pay off the rest of the contract or pay for the remaining xx months.

 

[Mr.C]

Two reasons. Firstly I have no desire to be locked into an 18 or 24 month contract. Secondly I want to be able to upgrade to a new phone anytime I choose.

 

[salacious]

heres the best and most simple answer... would you prefer a non-comitted relationship, with a hot girlfriend and being able to date other girls, or would you prefer to be tied down within the first weeks, its kinda like getting the woman pregnant, no escape... when you try to, she makes your life hell

il let you figure out which one is contract and which one is sim free

 

[ZBoater]

Two reasons. Firstly I have no desire to be locked into an 18 or 24 month contract. Secondly I want to be able to upgrade to a new phone anytime I choose.

Wouldn't you be able to do the same with a contract? By the time you pay ETFs and resell the old phone its almost awash.

New iPhone 4s 64gb w/o contract is what? $849? $399 + 350 ETF you end up $100 ahead. Or did I goof the numbers?

 

[Mr.C]

Wouldn't you be able to do the same with a contract? By the time you pay ETFs and resell the old phone its almost awash.

New iPhone 4s 64gb w/o contract is what? $849? $399 + 350 ETF you end up $100 ahead. Or did I goof the numbers?

I live in the UK. It doesn't work the same way here. Besides not all networks are happy to unlock the phone whilst on contract and even when they will they charge for it. If I by a subsidised phone and terminate the contract early I would typically end up paying around the same anyway.

 

[erasr]

Personally I think it's the financially astute people who do this. Yes I buy it sim free too.

£/$30 a month out your bank is a liability. You are not in control of your finances. More importantly, you are committing to something you can't afford (you're having to pay it off monthly rather than out right).

I like to buy things without direct debit monthly payments because I see those as one of the reasons why our economy is slightly messed up: people wanting things they didn't have the money for. Cars, houses, electronics, etc.

 

[0970373]

In the US, it only makes sense for people who want to be able to use their iPhone overseas w/ a local carrier. I'm one of those people.

I've kept my old jailbroken/unlocked 3GS around for when I travel overseas. It's a pain to carry 2 phones. I carry the 4 w/ me so I can take pictures w/ the better camera but then I can't immediately email or post to FB/Twitter because the UK or international SIM is in the 3GS. It's pretty annoying.

There are contract, tired of waiting to upgrade the OS, etc are other reasons but that's the main one. Unfortunately, we don't have the same kind of pre-paid SIM packages they have in the US since there isn't any competition to force that issue.

I'm anxiously waiting for the factory unlocked iPhone 4S.

 

[Phil A.]

Wouldn't you be able to do the same with a contract? By the time you pay ETFs and resell the old phone its almost awash.

New iPhone 4s 64gb w/o contract is what? $849? $399 + 350 ETF you end up $100 ahead. Or did I goof the numbers?

UK Carriers don't typically have ETFs - if you want to terminate the contract early, you have to pay the full balance of the contract.
I buy my phones sim free because it gives me flexibility to change my phone when I want to and my monthly fee is much lower as I'm not buying my phone in instalments

 

[HeatherA]

For anyone who buys their iPhones sim free, why do you do this?

I was thinking about it today, why lay out £500 minimum on an iPhone, instead of taking out a £30 a month contract.

It isn't saving money for me, in some cases over 2 years it's not that much more on contract. I'm not sure why I do it. I guess it gives me flexibility to change more often and I don't like being in contracts.

Am I right in assuming if I sold the 4s next year before the 5 comes out I wouldn't loose that much money? Do you think I could sell for about £380?

I hate being under contract. The rule in our house ever since the introduction of 2 year contracts is we buy full price phones or we don't buy them. So far we've been able to work that out and have been out of contract for 4 years or so.

As for us buying our 2 iPhone 4s out of contract it's going to save us money in the long run even though it cost a lot up front. We're on T-mobile and the two lines that have the iPhone 4s have $5.99 and $9.99 internet plans and our total bill is less than $120 for four lines including the data. It pays for us to stay with T-Mobile from a budget perspective.