Phone Upgrade

[garrchau]

How often do you upgrade your mobile phone?  Do you go for a handset/sim deal, stick with your current service provider or do you go sim-free and separate deal on your handset?

Me personally, I find that the updates from Samsung and Apple happen all too quickly, and I can't afford to keep up with the latest handset (nor is there a need to).  The pattern now seems to be I'll upgrade my phone once every 2 years (3-4 generations) - and I split do sim-only and get my own handset, often on finance direct from the manufacturer, e.g. Apple finance.

[evansbron45]

I upgrade every 2 years as I take out a 2 year contract and then just upgrade and start a new contract when it’s finished! 

[sc1999]

Do you shop around first to check prices?

[Springwater35]

I know what I want when buying a phone and I already know where I will buy it from and I want be shopping around. As it will be Apple. 

My Sim Card is based on Price, Signal and Roaming 

[sc1999]

My contract is 24 months at which point I change network as it is usually far cheaper to move than upgrade. I saved £15 per month by moving to 3 from EE. If 3 cannot offer a competitive upgrade price then I'll move. Insurance companies can no longer use existing customers to subsidise new ones but I think the networks may get a chunk of change on new handset sales, may be wrong.

[Springwater35]

I am a sim only person.

Buy my Phone outright from new maybe every 4 years or more 

[Viksmath]

I upgrade my phone only after it stops receiving regular software / security updates or if it becomes too slow or has any major hardware issues (usually around 4 years).  Prefer to buy the phone outright and a separate SIM contract, not necessarily sticking with current service provider.  And if you shop around, finance and/or cashback offers are available from few sellers like Amazon, Apple etc.