Chances are there 2 different routes to buying you next contract mobile phone. The first one is a retail establishment and the second online off the Internet, both of these options suit a different type of shopper. The first option of buying your next phone from a shop, suits someone who does not know much about mobile phones or and impulse buy. The benefits are having a trained assistant tell you about the phone, show you how it works the monthly costs, and if there is a problem a personal contact to return to.

The second option is the Internet where you can order you phone online at anytime of day; anywhere where there in Internet access and in some cases have it delivered the next day. There are benefits from both ways, but there is one major benefit that clearly suits buying online and that is, it is very rare that you will get a better deal in a shop than online. In fact if you look hard enough we are not talking about a few pounds but substantial money. That is because their overheads are lower; not paying commission to salespeople and most online firms only has one unit rather than hundreds around the country. If you are unsure about your next phone, visit the shops, see what you like but before you commit, check it out online. My next bit of advice is to check out the spec of the phone. It seems like an obvious statement but last year I upgraded my phone to the newer model. It seemed like a good idea as I had liked my previous phone and the newer model was more up to date. After a few months I decided to look at the improved spec of my new phone just to find it had a better camera in it that the last. As I never use the camera in my phone and use a separate digital camera, it then became apparent that my upgrade was unnecessary. The killer for me was, had I kept my existing phone my line rental would have been 75% cheaper than the new phone. A while ago, upgrades went from having black and white screens to colour or monotone to polyphonic ring tones. But in recent times the advances have not been so great, so make sure that upgrade really is worth the money. In fact if you look hard enough you can find contract mobile phone deals that give you back your line rental over the year to make your phone affectively free. These phone are modern, have colour screens, WAP, polyphonic ring tones the only difference is they are not the latest model.

So to summarise, if you see a phone you like in a shop, take a breath and compare it to the same phone online. I am sure there will be an exception somewhere but my experience is, it will be cheaper online. Then make sure you know what the phone does, if you dont need it, then why pay for it. Of course there will be some of you who will want the latest model for no other reason than it is the latest model and thats ok. There are some of you who will still buy in a shop, but at least you have had the choice.