Key facts
- Buying an iPhone on contract can cost over £1,000 extra for the SIM plan alone.
- Handset repayment over two years on contract is about £170 more than outright purchase.
- EE, O2, and Vodafone charge about £37 monthly for unlimited data SIMs on four-year contracts.
- iD Mobile has offered unlimited data SIMs for £15 a month on a one-month contract.
Buying an expensive phone on a contract, such as the new iPhone Duo, can appear to be a low monthly fee, but may result in paying significantly more than necessary. Analysis suggests that the total cost of the handset repayment over two years on a contract is around £170 extra compared to buying it outright. The primary additional expense, however, comes from the monthly SIM plan. For example, on a four-year contract with EE, O2, or Vodafone, a basic unlimited data SIM could cost £37 per month, which is over £1,000 more than SIM-only deals from virtual networks like iD Mobile, which have offered similar plans for as low as £15 a month. These contract SIM prices are also subject to annual increases.