24 Month Contract vs PrePaid - Which is cheaper?

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Al1

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Hi.

As per my previous post i am considering 2 phones - iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4

Contract Deals :

1. iPhone 5 @ MTN R349 per month with R100 Airtime , 300MB Data , 25SMS

2. Samsung Galaxy S4 @ CellC R389 per month with 100minutes , 1GB data , 100sms

PrePaid price for these phones currently at say Makro is R8499 each

Would it be cheaper to buy either one of these phones cash and go pre paid and buy data bundles and pre paid airtime? Or would a contract work out cheaper?

Benefit of doing this is u can upgrade any time u like to a new device. Dont have to wait 24 months for contract to expire!

Any thoughts?
 
Al1 said:
Hi.

As per my previous post i am considering 2 phones - iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4

Contract Deals :

1. iPhone 5 @ MTN R349 per month with R100 Airtime , 300MB Data , 25SMS

2. Samsung Galaxy S4 @ CellC R389 per month with 100minutes , 1GB data , 100sms

PrePaid price for these phones currently at say Makro is R8499 each

Would it be cheaper to buy either one of these phones cash and go pre paid and buy data bundles and pre paid airtime? Or would a contract work out cheaper?

Benefit of doing this is u can upgrade any time u like to a new device. Dont have to wait 24 months for contract to expire!

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Contract is cheaper. Yes you'll be able to upgrade more often on prepaid, but then you're paying off a R8k phone every year.

Rather get two staggered contracts. 1 will be your normal contract, the second will be with no minutes, but you take this one after a year.

This then also means you could cancel cellphone insurance as that R200 a month is almost a decent phone contract anyway.
 
MightyQuin said:
Contract...obviously. You get a subsidised phone and pre-paid is rip off.
Click to expand...

It used to be that pre-paid was more expensive. Its actually cheaper than most contracts now.
They claim that the phone subsidy is what makes contract more expensive. I have even considered cancelling my contract when its due and going on pre-paid because of the price difference.
 
Rocket-Boy said:
It used to be that pre-paid was more expensive. Its actually cheaper than most contracts now.
They claim that the phone subsidy is what makes contract more expensive. I have even considered cancelling my contract when its due and going on pre-paid because of the price difference.
Click to expand...

Well for a decent phone at R8k, that's R333p/m. R6k phone is R250p/m. Suddenly contract is still cheap.

Then of course you need to add the free minutes, data and sms.
 
Hi I done the workings and Cell C wins hands down vs MTN regardless of phone.

Below are some key findings:
MTN - completely out priced ( Anytime 500 - 256 mins included )

Cell C - current rate is 99/min this is on Pre paid
They also offer a supa charge deal for now which means you will have more than enough data for your phone. If you recharge with R150 at once you will get 400mb for 15 days. or R300 per month you will get 900mb for 30 days.

You can also load a recurring R7.50 MB data bundle and then are billed everything out of bundle at 0.15c per mb.

My workings showed that compared to my current MTN package ( old iphone 4 ) I could either get 500mins talk time 1gb of data and still save R126 per month or save close to R318 if I used the same volume of minutes. The beauty of pre-paid was that if I did not actually use much airtime in a month I could save it all rather than carrying over minutes.

The more you use the more you save. The less you use the less you pay. From my side its a win win, yes I have to keep my phone but I can also at any time opt to upgrade. All these exclude the added bonus of tons of cell c to cell c free minutes.
 
Dr Who said:
Hi I done the workings and Cell C wins hands down vs MTN regardless of phone.

Below are some key findings:
MTN - completely out priced ( Anytime 500 - 256 mins included )

Cell C - current rate is 99/min this is on Pre paid
They also offer a supa charge deal for now which means you will have more than enough data for your phone. If you recharge with R150 at once you will get 400mb for 15 days. or R300 per month you will get 900mb for 30 days.

You can also load a recurring R7.50 MB data bundle and then are billed everything out of bundle at 0.15c per mb.

My workings showed that compared to my current MTN package ( old iphone 4 ) I could either get 500mins talk time 1gb of data and still save R126 per month or save close to R318 if I used the same volume of minutes. The beauty of pre-paid was that if I did not actually use much airtime in a month I could save it all rather than carrying over minutes.

The more you use the more you save. The less you use the less you pay. From my side its a win win, yes I have to keep my phone but I can also at any time opt to upgrade. All these exclude the added bonus of tons of cell c to cell c free minutes.
Click to expand...

You can't just exclude the cost of the phone to make your calculations look nice. An S4 is R7600 cash. That's over R300 p/m you need to budget for.
 
the contract isn't exactly free either. you still pay a monthly subscription for it. and if you aren't using all the free minutes and data then it might end up cheaper to go prepaid
 
Things changed.

I did these calcs over the years and contract was always cheaper if you opted for a decent or even half decent phone.

When I had to upgrade recently the figures just didn't feel right so I did the exercise again... and without boring you with the different options, it worked out that if I bought the handset somewhere in the developed world, and took a prepaid or top-up contract without a device, it was much cheaper.

I have to admit though, buying the same device in SA caused it to almost break even between contract and pre-paid.
 
Bought last phone cash & will do that going forward.

Try to get the phone from overseas if you can - much cheaper.

Then again I don't use my phone for voice
 
ConradvD said:
I did these calcs over the years and contract was always cheaper if you opted for a decent or even half decent phone.

When I had to upgrade recently the figures just didn't feel right so I did the exercise again... and without boring you with the different options, it worked out that if I bought the handset somewhere in the developed world, and took a prepaid or top-up contract without a device, it was much cheaper.

I have to admit though, buying the same device in SA caused it to almost break even between contract and pre-paid.
Click to expand...

Pity the OrangeZA online store is gone, they had great prices.
 
ConradvD said:
I did these calcs over the years and contract was always cheaper if you opted for a decent or even half decent phone.

When I had to upgrade recently the figures just didn't feel right so I did the exercise again... and without boring you with the different options, it worked out that if I bought the handset somewhere in the developed world, and took a prepaid or top-up contract without a device, it was much cheaper.

I have to admit though, buying the same device in SA caused it to almost break even between contract and pre-paid.
Click to expand...

And if you don't use much more or much less of anything in the contract. The exception was iPhones last time I looked. They were heavily subsidized.
 
LCBXX said:
The depreciation on smartphones is ridiculous, yet people still want R18,000 Note8's and Iphone X's.
Click to expand...

That is why I spend around R3K for a Chinese phone with good specs. After 8-12 months I replace it. So in 24 months I would have paid around R12K and have had 3 very good phones verses spending R12k now, having a nice phone for 12 months and a below par phone for 12 months.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
That is why I spend around R3K for a Chinese phone with good specs. After 8-12 months I replace it. So in 24 months I would have paid around R12K and have had 3 very good phones verses spending R12k now, having a nice phone for 12 months and a below par phone for 12 months.
Click to expand...

While I support your argument, the expensive phone doesn't suddenly become below par after 12 months, maybe after 36 months it does...
 
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