Ideal for those looking to upgrade without spending a fortune.
If you’re in the market for a new phone, you probably know that you have a few different options to consider. You could purchase the phone outright from a manufacturer like Apple, sign up for a smartphone contract and spread the cost over months or years, buy a second-hand phone from eBay, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace, or opt for a refurbished handset.
In recent years, many consumers have been leaning into the latter, and there’s a reason why refurbished phone handsets are getting more and more popular. Not only do they help reduce significant expense and financial commitment, but you’ll also often get a wider choice of handsets to choose from.
If you’re not too fussed about getting the latest model, then this is perhaps the most savvy option you can choose. Just ensure that you buy a phone case for your refurbished model as all modern phones, regardless of make, are fragile and prone to damage – in fact, every year in the UK £680 million is spent fixing broken phone screens. You don’t want to be part of that statistic, do you?
Still not convinced? Let’s delve a little deeper. Here are 4 reasons to buy a refurbished smartphone, IDEAL for those looking to upgrade without spending a fortune.
THE POTENTIAL TO FIND A BETTER DEAL
First and foremost, you’re going to save money prioritising a refurbished phone over a new model, no matter which way you look at it.
Handsets are a bit like cars – the minute you take a phone out of its box, it’s lost some of its value, just like driving a brand new car out of the showroom depreciates its value rapidly.
Compared to getting your new smartphone handset via a monthly contract, a refurbished phone can also work out much cheaper over the long run. While you’ll probably pay more initially to cover the cost of the phone when you buy it, after a few months, you’ll begin to see huge savings as your monthly expenses will clock in at far less.
We’ve all looked at the breakdown of a contract and wondered why on earth it has to be quite so expensive, right?
Let’s undertake a little case study. If you purchase an iPhone XR from Apple, it would currently cost £25.99 a month over 24 of them, or £629 upfront for handset only. That’s not even including a plan.
Or, you could get a refurbished model for around £400-500 depending on the condition, and a SIM card separately. As an example, in the case of UK company Lebara Mobile, should you choose from one of Lebara’s plans, you could instead start your contract at just £5 per month for 1,000 minutes and texts and 2GB of data, which over 24 months would add up to £120. The handset and contract combined, then, still wouldn’t cost as much as the handset alone from Apple. Food for thought, for sure.
ENJOY THE SAME FUNCTIONALITY
One of the biggest worries that most people have when they decide to purchase a refurbished phone is whether or not the device is going to work as well as a brand-new one. Many people mistakenly believe that refurbished phones must have been broken or damaged in the past and are, therefore, more likely to have something go wrong with them, but this simply isn’t the case.
In fact, any reputable seller of refurbished phones will provide a guarantee on the functionality of the phone via warranty. Should such a provision not be in place, then shop elsewhere. But if this is offered as standard, then you should be reassured moving forward that the phone’s reliability isn’t compromised.
This isn’t usually the case when you’re buying second-hand. Doing so represents greater risk because you’re buying the phone as seen and if something does happen to be wrong with it when you get it home, you likely won’t be able to return it or have any repairs covered.
Most reputable sellers will provide you with a twelve-month warranty as standard. In that first year of owning your phone, if it breaks down or has any other faults that aren’t caused by accidental damage, all you will need to do is take it back and you’ll be entitled to a refund that you can spend on replacing the phone, or a like-for-like replacement.
FULLY TESTED AND READY TO GO
Purchasing a refurbished phone also comes with the guarantee that your new (but relatively old) handset has been extensively repaired and fully tested by professionals to ensure that they are in good working order, with all memories of the previous owner erased.
This marks out buying a refurbished phone from a reputable company as a more hassle free move than sourcing one from, say, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace. The last thing that you want when buying a second-hand phone is to have to waste your time trying removing the old owner’s account from the handset, or even coming across photos or messages that can’t unsee. For the voyeurs among us, that’s perhaps a positive, but for the rest, it’s an unwelcome obstacle to use.
When you purchase a refurbished phone, you can be assured that all data has been completely wiped, so you’ll feel like the phone is brand new and fully yours to get stuck into.
IT’S ECO-FRIENDLIER
Finally, arguably the best thing about buying a refurbished phone instead of a brand new model is that it’s much kinder for the planet, and making conscious consumer choices which lead to a healthier planet should be something we’re all doing right now. The more people buying refurbished phones, the less demand there is going to be for producing brand-new ones and the harvesting of conflict minerals required for their production.
It’s always better to reuse, recycle and favour cyclical purchasing habits, and buying refurbished will prevent a perfectly good device from going to landfill unnecessarily, where the precious metals and plastics contained in the electronics of a mobile handset can pollute the air and contaminate drinking water and soil.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you’re in the market for a new phone, but don’t want to spend over the odds or contribute to pollution in the process, then a refurbished phone could well be right for you. Always buy off a reputable supplier and do your due diligence on the final cost, combined with a SIM and contract, before signing on the dotted line. Good luck!