How Smartphone Retailers and Networks Are Secretly Taking More Of Your Money, Each Year

Mobile phone networks and retailers have been extremely nifty when innovating contract deal plans that we assume are the norm: in reality, every year consumers are paying more and more for their mobile phone, especially in the smartphone market. And here's the proof. Apple have recently released their newest pair of models: the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.

If you take a glance at the best iPhone deals in the UK market today, you'll notice nothing too drastic in terms of monthly payments. Let's take one of the better value deals, that Vodafone is offering: you pay £34.50 a month, and receive the iPhone 6 in grey, along with 600 minutes, Unlimited texts and 500MB internet. That allowance is pretty standard, no major increases, a good number of minutes and adequate internet (remember, the iPhone 6 is essentially a mobile computer, where most apps will connect to the internet and eat data allowance).

Here's the cheeky part which we tend to scan over.

Firstly, we have to pay an upfront cost. Here, the retailer and network is grabbing an extra chunk of almost £50, asking it upfront simply to lower to monthly cost and "appear" cheaper than other deals on the market. This tactic has become very common now: a few years ago, we would never have seen an upfront cost for a mobile contract (it would be included in the monthly payments).

Secondly, the contract length. Many of us assume a year long contract is the norm: this is no longer the case, especially with premium smartphones such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. You would strike gold if you were to find a 12 months long iPhone contract now. The majority of deals will lock you in for 24 months. That means sticking to your agreement for at least two years. It does not matter how amazing new deals are when they come to market over the period: you won't be able to leave that contract without a hefty fine.

So let's take all the costs and contract length into account, and work out the cost of this "better" deal described above. £34.50 a month, for 24 months, plus a £44.99 upfront cost. Over two years, that's at least £872.99. So over £435 a year. A few years ago, prices like that would be laughed at, but society has now come to accept their obsession with the latest technology, jumping on the bandwagons for paying premium prices (close to laptop prices!) just to have a smartphone that can only do a little more than predecessors. And paying higher and higher prices to satisfy that demand.

The point of this article? Carefully consider what deal you will take up, do your research, collect as much information as possible from all retailers and all networks. Because the difference in prices varies significantly. Rush into a contract and you could have made a serious financial mistake, regretting not completing that small amount of work that could have occurred.

http://www.best-iphone-deals.co.uk
Compare The Best iPhone Deals, Offers & Contracts In The UK and Save.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_French

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8743637