Thread: Harmattan?
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krisse is offline krisse
2009-05-19 , 12:40
Posts: 1,540 | Thanked: 1,045 times | Joined on Feb 2007
#27
Originally Posted by RichS View Post
I think the point about carrier subsidised phones (at least in the UK) is that on a 'pay as you go' phone you pay for the phone and then pay for your calls. If you have to buy X amount of credit a month every month for 12 months and buy a phone you end up paying 12X+Y. If however there is a contract that costs X per month, including the phone, it totals 12X per year. It turns out cheaper and 90% of the time you get a better phone than you could afford otherwise.
Why buy a PAYG phone instead of an unlocked phone though?

PAYG phones usually cost about the same as the same model unlocked, unlocked phones do everything a PAYG phone can do, but unlocked phones can also be used with all other SIM cards from all other networks on all other tariffs.

PAYG handsets are a total con, really. The only reason people buy them is because they think they have to buy them.


It turns out cheaper and 90% of the time you get a better phone than you could afford otherwise.
You're not getting the phone any cheaper on contract, all it's doing is spreading the cost of the phone across a year or two in monthly installments.

You can achieve exactly the same price by buying an unlocked phone on credit or bank loan, but the unlocked phone is a heck of a lot more flexible and easier to sell at the end of it.
Last edited by krisse; 2009-05-19 at 12:43.