5 Effective Ways to Save Money for Purchasing a New Phone

A smartphone can be a very expensive purchase, especially if you want a high-end model like the iPhone 15 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but there are ways to cut costs.

This could mean waiting for the best time to buy, pulling money out of an old phone, choosing a different phone than you were considering, or a variety of other things.

To help you out, here’s put together five tips to save money when buying a phone.

Wait for a big sale

Many smartphones can often be found at discounted prices during sales. The two biggest are probably Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day.

Black Friday 2024 is scheduled for November 29th, and the next Amazon Prime Day will take place in July. But to make the most of it, you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime member.

In any case, many phones will be on sale at these events at discounted prices, but not all models will be on sale. Therefore, you should consider whether there are other phones you want instead of the one you initially dreamed of, so that you have some options.

You can also look at what devices were discounted on past Black Fridays and Amazon Prime Days to see if your favorite phone might be eligible this year.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was heavily discounted on Black Friday 2023, so it’s quite possible that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be on Black Friday 2024. To see some of the discounts from last year, check out our Black Friday phone deals page and our Amazon Prime Day phone deals page.

Compare the lowest price

Not all stores and providers charge the same price for mobile phones, so if you don’t want to wait for a sale, it’s worth at least comparing prices. Some stores may also have sales outside of the main sale periods mentioned above, so keep an eye out for those too.

To easily see the best options at any time, visit our articles on the best mobile phone sales, the best iPhone sales and the best Samsung smartphone sales.

And in addition to comparing current prices, you can also use a tool like Camel Camel Camel to view Amazon’s price history, which you can use to see if the price is likely to drop or to set a price drop alert.

Trade in your old device

An easy way to get the price of a new smartphone down is to trade in your old device.

Many providers offer trade-in programs, and they sometimes have special offers that give you a higher credit if you trade in your old device.

If you’re buying your new phone outright, or from a provider that doesn’t offer trade-ins, some companies will pay for your old phone. For example, Amazon and Apple offer trade-ins, but there are also companies that specialize in this.

In the US there are companies like GadgetGone and igotoffer, and in the UK there are companies like Mazuma Mobile and Music Magpie. Alternatively, you can visit eBay and try to sell your phone to an individual. Make sure you reset your phone to its factory settings before doing any of these things.

Buy a Used Phone

You can sell your old phone to save money on a new one, or buy someone else’s old phone as it’s cheaper than a new one.

You can also go to eBay to buy a second-hand device, but it’s usually safer to buy one that has been professionally inspected and refurbished. You can find this type of device on Amazon or specialist websites such as Back Market in the UK.

Refurbished phones are usually fully inspected and come with a warranty. They often look almost new, but the website you bought the product from might detail any problems with the product.

Also, buying a used or refurbished phone can be much cheaper than buying a new one, even if the device is in near-new condition. Read the description carefully and look at the photos provided to get an idea of exactly what condition the phone is in.

Once you receive it, it’s worth checking it yourself, especially the condition of the battery, camera, microphone and speaker functions. Also, take a close look at the screen to see if there are any dead pixels or other problems. If you find any problems not listed, return it for a refund.

Buy an older model

You might not want to buy a used phone, but newer but older models can be just as valuable. For example, you could buy an iPhone 14 instead of an iPhone 15.

Generally, phones don’t change that much from year to year, so you won’t necessarily miss out on much by choosing an earlier model, or even one from two years ago, but you’ll probably pay a lot less.

When you buy an iPhone, or any of the latest phones from Samsung or Google, you also get years of software updates (usually around five for an iPhone and seven for the latest Samsung Galaxy and Pixel models). So if your model is subject to these longer update periods, it will continue to be supported for a long time, even if it is not the latest version.