Buying a new phone can be thrilling, but it can also get very expensive if you’re not careful. If you’ve definitely got your heart set on a particular model, then you might find yourself quite limited when it comes to the options you have for contracts. But, in general, there are a few things you’ll have to consider when it comes to picking between a variety of phones and contracts if you want to get the best deal possible.

Handset cost

The vast majority of contracts will see you get the handset – i.e. the phone itself – for free. However, it’s been noted that the practice of charging people something to get the handset on top of the contract fees is becoming more common. There are certain phones out there, such as the iPhone, that you shouldn’t expect to get without paying almost full price for the handset as well as the contract prices. www.insidermonkey.com has more information on the most expensive handsets out there!

While contracts are certainly easier to deal with in terms of costs in the short-term, more people are exploring the possibility of simply buying the handset outright and getting a SIM-only deal. In the long run, contracts will end up costing you a lot more – sometimes hundreds of dollars more – than purchasing the handset in the first place. Of course, having several hundred dollars in the first place with which to buy a handset isn’t something a lot of people have the luxury of. You can look into saving up money every month and taking this route if you want to save more money in the long run, however.

Credit concerns

A lot of people seem to think that it’s possible to get a new mobile phone without having to go through a credit check. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. Network providers will want to check your credit score because they need to be as sure as possible that you’re going to be able to make the monthly payments before signing a contract.

This doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be able to get a new phone if you don’t have pristine credit, however. Websites like www.zaggor.com can help people with bad credit get a contract with the mobile phone provider they wish to go with. Otherwise, you might want to consider looking at low-end phones (which providers tend to be less strict about) or simply hanging in there a while longer and fixing up your credit.

Data allowance

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a phone contract is how much you’re going to be charged for data. Once, the thing you had to consider was how much you’d be charged per text message, or how much you’d be charged per minute while making voice or video calls. But these days, a lot more emphasis is put on data usage – precisely because people are using the Internet to communicate instead of their networks.

You can go to www.makeuseof.com for useful ways to cut down on data usage, but you should ensure that you’re getting a good deal on data in the first place. As long as you have frequent access to WiFi, however, you should be okay.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.