Cheap mobile: MusicMagpie claims you can save on your monthly bills by renting your device

Renting handsets is more flexible and can work out cheaper than buying the handset outright, but there are downsides to consider.

Mobile phones have become an essential piece of technology for many of us, but they aren’t cheap.

And given the cost of living crisis and the way it is impacting people across the country, it makes sense to consider whether there are ways that we can reduce the amount we spend on our phone bills.

One of the factors in the amount we spend each month on our mobile phones is that that cash often goes not only towards the tariff we sign up for, but towards paying for the handset itself.

Given the fact that mobile phones are expensive bits of kit, those additional costs can be pretty significant, easily running to more than £20 a month for many of us.

It doesn’t have to be like that though.

You can instead opt to rent your handset, with MusicMagpie ‒ a site that came to prominence by offering people a quick way to flog their old and unwanted DVDs and CDs ‒ having moved to offer a phone rental service.

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How does rental work?

The cost of renting a handset varies based on the actual handset you go for, but you can pay as little as £6.99 a month for an Apple iPhone 6S (you can see more options here).

It’s worth pointing out here that some of these handsets are refurbished. In other words, they aren’t fresh out of the box ‒ they have all been used in some way already.

Refurbished phones by their nature are generally cheaper than buying an entirely new phone, so represent good value if that’s your priority when hunting for a handset.

If you love the handset and want to keep it after 12 months, then the amount you’ll pay each month will fall. In other words, if you stick with the phone for longer, you end up saving more money.

You can choose between network and unlocked phones, while importantly you also benefit from a lifetime warranty.

It means that if the phone develops any issues, MusicMagpie will cover those technical defects and problems.

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Can renting save me money?

Let’s start by looking at that Apple iPhone 6S.

You could buy the same handset from MusicMagpie for £95 ‒ in other words, 13 months of the rental price. It’s worth pointing out though that you could potentially get it cheaper elsewhere ‒ I’ve found it available for around £70. 

What about Samsung phones? You could pick up a Samsung Galaxy S10+, with 128GB of space, for £13.99 a month from MusicMagpie.

If you bought the same handset from them, it would set you back £260 ‒ the equivalent of 18 and a half months of rent.

While this is pretty competitive, I have found it available for as low as £190, so again a little shopping around could secure you a better deal.

However, it’s certainly likely that renting a handset in this way, and combining it with a SIM-only deal from your network of choice, will work out cheaper than actually purchasing the handset through that network and signing up to a tariff. 

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Rent more than a mobile

The success of the mobile leasing service has led to MusicMagpie branching out beyond smartphone handsets and into other technology products.

As a result, you can now rent tablets, gaming consoles and Macbooks through the firm.

At the time of writing, you could rent an iPad 4 for as little as £8.99 a month, or a PS4 for £15.99 a month. As for a Macbook, you could land one for just £20.99 a month.

Is it worth it?

There’s no catch-all answer to this, but I can certainly see some of the upsides.

By renting your phone you can regularly update your handset, without any of the up-front costs that come from buying a phone outright, or the additional costs you’ll pay if you’re paying off a phone in stages with your mobile network.

There is also an environmental element at play. As some of the handsets are refurbished and then rented out again it means that handsets are in use for longer, making the whole thing a little more sustainable.

Renting your handset can work out budget-friendly too, combining it with a cheap SIM-free deal from your network.

There are downsides to consider as well though. There’s no option to buy the handset if you fall in love with it ‒ you simply have to keep renting it. Equally, you don’t have anything to show for the money you spend each month.

If you buy a handset then at least when it is time to upgrade you can trade it in for some cash to devote towards a new handset, but when you rent that money you pay is gone for good.

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