Daytime TV whore and self-proclaimed money-saving expert, Martin Lewis, has posted some curious iPhone tariff calculations on his own-brand website (go on then – it’s Money Saving Expert, and correct hyphenation be damned).

The breakdown pinpoints apparent savings to be made by exploiting O2’s willingness to allow subscribers to switch tariffs after 9 months.

So, taking the 8GB iPhone as an example, plump for the £45 tariff and then downgrade to the £35 plan halfway through the 18-month term, it’s possible to save £9 over the term. This is because the £35 tariff has a £99 upfront fee for the iPhone, where the £45 plan has none. Simple maths and £9 saved, thank you very much Money[-]Saving Expert. But Lewis overlooks a much simpler way to save rather more money when bagging an iPhone. You’ll find our real money-saving tip after the cut.

The trouble with Lewis’s expert money-saving advice is that he’s overlooked one crucial point – the cheapest way to buy an iPhone from O2 is on the, er, cheapest (£30/month) tariff.

Here, some sums: take Martin Lewis’s advice and go for O2’s £45/month 8GB iPhone plan, switching at the halfway mark to the £35 tariff, and over 18 months you’ll pay £720. This is £45 times 9 plus £35 times 9. The iPhone, remember, is 'free' on the £45 tariff. You’ve saved £9 by not sticking on the £45 tariff for the full term.

Now, some alternative, money-saving, sums: instead buy an 8GB iPhone on O2’s £30/month plan. You’ll pay £99 for the iPhone and £540 in subscription charges (18 times £30). Add it all up and you get £639 – that’s £81 less than you’ll pay by following the Money[-]Saving Expert’s advice. We expect a GMTV booking for tomorrow morning.

[Money Saving Expert]

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Andy  - No, YOU miss the obvious - you missed the point of   |30/07/08 12:27 PM Sorry Scott, but I doubt GMTV will be booking you for anything other than a report on how bloggers have lost the ability to read... Mart in's article isn't entirely about how to get the cheapest iPhone; indeed, his charts clearly show that yes, the £30-a-month tariff is the cheapest overall. How ever, if you read the article properly, you'll see that what he's actually saying is you can get more minutes for less money. He shows you can do this by going with the £45 tariff then changing down to £35 after nine months.  :oops: Reply | Quote

Scott Colvey   |30/07/08 1:01 PM Yep - you're right. He discusses, among other stuff, how to get more minutes; and how to save £9 by switching tariffs. But the article is entitled 'Cheapest iPhone'. The article does not describe how to get the cheapest iPhone. The way to get the cheapest iPhone is described above. My point stands. Scot t. Reply | Quote

howells   |31/07/08 3:27 AM Questioning Martin Lewis? Are you mad? Get ready to be screamed at, Scott (have you signed up for his email, quick, do it now). Misleading title because he writes first for the search engines, second as content to stuff with paid for links which he misleading terms 'helping the site' links, way down on the list somewhere, the poor readers (got his email yet, quick, Scott, hurry). 'Articles' (which he told the independent are generally taken from ideas posted on his forums which have copyright terms that basically say anything you post is mine to make loads of money from without crediting you for doing the work in the first place, or paying you a penny of the millions I am making) are titled 'cheap' whether it's cheap or not so he gets returned in google search results for searches like cheap phone, cheap tickets etc. At least that's what Hitwise suggests (Scott, why haven't you signed up for his email?). He's a slick Kirby salesman who bullies people with a really, really complicated approach to personal finance, out of which he's made himself shed loads while leaving most of his forum members in severe debt, and the UK with its worst personal debt problem ever (got that email yet, Scott?). Reply | Quote

Ste94   |31/07/08 11:09 AM I think it's extremely unfair to make those comments here. Don't get me wrong - There's many things wrong with MoneySavingExpe rt.com. Like the way they often insert a post by Martin at the top of a useful forum thread where he summarises the deal - and at the same time if you didn't read the thread carefully you'd often be under the impression that it was he that had found the bargain. But there is a feedback forum on MoneySavingExpe rt and I've never seen a critical post be deleted there. Since Martin very often replies to negative posts there I think it's a bit wrong to make accusations here where he won't see it and be able to defend himself. Reply | Quote

Scott Colvey   |31/07/08 1:36 PM I'll question anything that doesn't seem quite right. I do not have intimate knowledge of Lewis's modus operandi and nor do I much care about it. I was merely highlighting the fact that an article entitled ?Cheapest iPhone? does not show how to get the cheapest iPhone. This article shows how to get a nine months? worth of additional minutes/text and save £9/10 into the bargain. Whether or not it is his idea or that of someone on his forum is not my concern. Indeed, the idea is a good one for anyone who might anyway have been considering the relative merits of the £35/45 price plans. But it is not the way to get the cheapest iPhone. So I?ll say it one last time ? and this really is isn?t a complicated message, people ? what Lewis advocates his readers to do in an article entitled ?Cheapest iPhone? does not explain the cheapest way to buy the iPhone. The cheapest way (currently) to buy an iPhone on an O2 tariff is to buy an iPhone on O2?s cheapest (£30/month) tariff. This is not a way to engineer lots of minutes/text ? follow Lewis?s suggestion for that ? but it is definitely way to buy the cheapest iPhone, according to that thing we humans call mathematics. There ? are we done now? Scott. Reply | Quote

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