On Friday the new iPhone 7 will be available to buy in stores, but eager buyers can pre-order the sought-after handsets from most networks already.
If you have your heart set on one of the smart new handsets you will hand over between £599 and £919 for the phone alone, depending on which model and memory size you want.
Buying the handset outright is typically the cheapest option
in the long run, and savvy buyers can use cashback and trade-ins to help cut the costs of upgrading.
in the long run, and savvy buyers can use cashback and trade-ins to help cut the costs of upgrading. With such a hefty price tag it is more important than ever to get the best deal possible so This is Money has done the work for you and searched the web for the best-value contracts.
Trade in your old mobile first
Often when you upgrade your mobile, your old phone ends up sitting in a drawer somewhere. Selling your handset however could make you some cash to help get you part of the way there.
Mazuma Mobile offers some of the best deals.
You can get as much as £390 for an old 64GB iPhone 6s Plus, a 16GB iPhone 6S would earn £300 and even a 64GB iPhone 6 earns as much as £240.
Also try Compareandrecycle.com, a comparison site that has a list of the best prices for recycling your old phone.
Find out more about trading in your old phone here.
Try to get some cashback
There are two popular cashback websites offering money if you click through the sites before pre-ordering online.
Both Topcashback and Quidco offer the deals with a range of different networks and all you need to do is sign up with your email address.
You will need to be patient however as it can take a number of months for the money to reach your online cashback account before you can transfer it to your bank.
Through Topcashback, for example, pre-ordering through Three earns as much as £123.90, through Direct Mobiles gets you up to £103.95 and you earn £97.65 to pre-order through EE.
Quidco will pay up to £120 to buy through BT Mobile, £105 through Three and £110 through Vodafone.
Remember, pick your contract according to the deal that suits you the best - a handful of cash might be tempting, but picking the wrong bundle could leave you out of pocket in the long run.
Can you buy the phone outright and take out a SIM-only deal?
The cheapest option, the iPhone 7 32GB sells on Apple for £599, while the 128GB handset comes in at £699 and 256GB costs £799.
If you have your eye on the larger 7 Plus model 32GB will set you back £719, 128GB costs £819 and 256GB costs £919.
Once you add on a package including calls, texts and data to the price of the handset the cost shoots up even further.
However taking out a contract that bundles the two together will typically cost even more.
For example, you can buy a 32GB iPhone 7 for £599 and take out a 24 month SIM-only rolling contract for as little as £4.99 a month. The contract includes 1250 minutes, texts and 1.25GB of data from FreedomPop.
Over 24 months this would cost a total of £718.76
The cheapest inclusive contract for a 32GB iPhone 7 This is Money could find was from Vodafone through Mobilephonesdirect.co.uk.
The contract comes with unlimited calls and texts and 1GB of data and costs £42 each month with an upfront cost of £39.99 for the handset.
Over 24 months this would set you back £1,047.99.
This is £329.23 more than buying the handset from Apple and adding a SIM-only option through FreedomPop.
Spread the cost with Apple's iPhone Upgrade Programme
Apple is offering a new financing option through Barclays Bank that lets you pay off the cost of a handset gradually over 20 months without incurring any interest.
This means the cost of a 32GB iPhone 7 would be £27.50 each month with a £49 upfront payment. Over 20 months this adds up to £599.
A 32GB iPhone 7 Plus would require monthly payments of £33.50 - a total of £719.
After 11 months the service also offers the chance to upgrade to a newer handset, the monthly cost also includes AppleCare+ for two years and the phone is unlocked, so you will be able to use it on any network.
While buying the handset separately like this is less convenient than an standard network contract, it means you can shop around for the cheapest SIM-only deal which is much cheaper in the long run (see above).
You can find out more about avoiding the mobile contract trap in This is Money’s guide.
(www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-3789336/The-cheapest-way-buy-new-iPhone-7-7-Plus-consider-Apple-s-new-iPhone-Payments.html#ixzz4KgQFrv8j)
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