Potential buyers of the Apple iPhone 6s or 6s Plus to be launched on Friday, need to think carefully about how they are going to pay for it.
- Subscribe to Money’s weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Conventional wisdom has it that it's cheaper for heavy data users to buy a mobile phone outright rather than go onto a plan.
However, Angus Kidman, the tech expert at finder.com.au, says some telcos are now offering much better deals for heavy data users.
He says that taking out a two-year contract on a new iPhone is likely to be cheaper than buying the phone outright and taking a month-to-month plan. "However, if you only use a small amount of data per month, outright will be your best option," Kidman says.
Finder.com.au has compared more than 200 plans from telcos for a two-year period. Contracts and month-by-month deals are included in the comparison for differing amounts of data usage.
Each of the six new iPhone models is compared and the cost of the phone itself, where applicable, is included in the comparison. There are big differences between the cheapest and most expensive deals.
For example, the difference between the best and worst deals for the iPhone 6s Plus 128GB using 1GB of data per month is $720 over two years.
The analysis finds that for 1GB-a-month deals, buying the phone outright is the best option, with Boost's month-to-month plans the cheapest.
For heavy users of data, the most expensive 10GB a month plans are Telstra's pre-paid plans; though coverage can be better in regional areas with Telstra.
The telco's month-to-month plans are the most expensive across all of the data usage pattens and for all models of the new iPhone.
The cost over two years of a Telstra month-to-month plan for the iPhone 6s Plus 128GB is $4169. The cost of the two-year contract from Optus for the same phone is $2904.
Rent or buy? What suits you best? Have your say here:
