Trying to get my head around my best upgrade option!

[finglonger]

Hi all,

I have an iPhone X on a sim-only contract. I've had the contract a fair while now and it's been due for upgrade for over a year, but I've stuck with it as it's got a load of legacy loyalty discounts - though it says it costs £36.99 and I get 20GB of data, I get an extra 5GB from having my broadband with EE, a £5 discount, a £10 discount and a £17 discount, and I also have Apple Music and a cellular Apple Watch tied in (and the Apple Watch is also out of contract, apparently). The upshot is, with all the pluses and minuses my bill comes to around £25 a month, which I'm happy with for what I get.

I'm planning to get a new iPhone 12, but I will buy this direct from Apple as I never buy contract phones. What I want to do now is take out a new sim only contract so that I get a bit more data (as now seems the norm) but most importantly access to 5G to go with the new phone. What I *don't* want to do though is end up worse off!

I phoned customer services on Monday and the person I spoke to said to wait until the new iPhone is out and then call again, with the implication there'd be new/different deals on offer - but there aren't as far as I can see, so I'm not sure what I was supposed to be waiting for?

The existing subscriber option I get for a £22.50 a month sim-only contract with 1 smart benefit (which i would set to Apple Music) and 200GB data looks to be a good choice, but I can't see anywhere whether the data for Apple Music is covered or comes out of the 200GB allowance, or anywhere where I can see what my options are for renewing my Apple Watch contract and whether the pricing has changed!

Any thoughts, anyone? 🙂

[bristolian]

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@finglonger wrote:

Hi all,

[snip]

I phoned customer services on Monday and the person I spoke to said to wait until the new iPhone is out and then call again, with the implication there'd be new/different deals on offer - but there aren't as far as I can see, so I'm not sure what I was supposed to be waiting for?

Any thoughts, anyone? 🙂

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It's certainly common that when new models or equipment are released, prices on (what are then) older kit reduce.

With that in mind and bearing in mind this is Apple, nothing would surprise me as far as pricing goes.

[Schockwave]

@finglonger, if the Apple Watch is out of contract and you got it on contract with EE, you can change to a sim only, which will save you money. As has also been mentioned, you might do well to wait until the new Apple Phones come out, as you might get a better deal on the plans, worth the wait I say!

[Gomrathb]

@finglonger right. Usually if Apple Music is a benefit on a swappable it’s covered by EE data wise.... if it isn’t, I honestly wouldn’t worry as 200gb you would have to listen to music every day 24hrs a day streaming for months on end before you got anywhere near 200gb. To put it in perspective 1 album of 12 songs is approx 40-50mb on a cd. Even less on a streaming site, all depends on your streaming quality. You could download all of your allowance on Spotify around 4000 songs and still be 175gb on your allowance. 4K/HD videos, YouTube, BT sport will kill your data. Anything else is negligible. 
I would either purchase the iPhone from Apple or do what I do with my second iPhone - sign up for the annual upgrade service at the apple store. I believe it’s about £45-£52 a month depends on which phone and capacity but you get the new iPhone every year (just swap the old one) and it also comes with AppleCare +, so your covered for hardware/software and 2 x accidental damage. I’ve had it for 2 years (almost 3) since iPhone XS Max And I cannot fault the service. Take the 200gb sim only 5G ready sim, it’s a bloody good deal if you ask me! 

[Gomrathb]

@finglonger you can call customer services to reduce your Apple Watch contract to £7 a month if it’s out of contract but you want to keep it connected on a sim only plan. Alternatively you could fully disconnect the watch from EE and just use it as a bluetooth only watch. There’s nothing to stop you doing that! You could also buy a new watch from apple and connect to your new iPhone - the set up for a new watch and sim plan is easy. All done when pairing the watch to the phone for first time. Just follow the simple directions.