posted on ukdeal website thingy
Alright its official. No not the official Apple iPhone UK announcement today but the fact that rip-off Britain is still going strong. So lets look at the steps you need to follow to get the iPhone for under £260 (or £230) unlocked without a contract right now rather than £269 PLUS £35/month PLUS 18 month contract PLUS waiting until November 8th.
The big thing holding this plan back was the hope for a 3G iPhone. Well unless Apple is playing clever the UK launch is going to be the same EDGE/GPRS 8GB iPhone that is currently being sold in the US.
So heres the step by step guide to your ahead of the pack sub £260 iPhone. Please note that although Im going to go through my recommendations that I cant be liable for any cock-ups that might happen along the way!
Step 1. Buy one from the US. Its currently $399 (£199.75) on the Apple.com site. Wait you need an American cc...and shipping address. No prob. Theres plenty of services out there to handle this for you but many charge a sign-up fee or monthly fee. I used the services of lovely Dutchie Ellen who runs FromUS2EU.com and had no problems so I guess this is my personal vouch
You pay Ellen (paypal or bank transfer) and then she will buy the iPhone for you, have it delivered and then re-ship to the UK by USPS (important!!). Her pricing is $35 plus 5% surcharge to cover currency exchange etc. That works out to a fee + iPhone cost of $418.95 (£209.70).
PRICE TALLY: iPhone ($399) + collect/reship costs = £209.70
Step 2. Have it shipped to you. Ok heres the thing. You want this item shipped by USPS because they will not charge a flat brokerage fee unlike couriers (UPS/DHL/etc) and if Im being really honest...you have a high chance of not getting charged duty either altogether. Please be aware that any product over £18 value is liable for VAT! However, when shipping with national post carriers this often slips through. I am NOT advocating adjusting the value of the package etc, I"m just saying Ive observed this with USPS quite often. If your parcel happens to attract VAT youll have to add some cash on and this will bring you to $492.26 (£246.53). The shipping charge by USPS should be approximately $25 and should arrive in a week/10 days. You can pay more if you want it faster.
PRICE TALLY: (If charged VAT): iPhone + USPS + VAT = $517.26 (£259). (if not charged VAT): iPhone + USPS = $443.95 (£222.31).
So your final cost to get this in your hands from the Apple Store to you in the UK is £222.31 best case scenario or £259 worst case scenario. Worst case this is STILL £10 CHEAPER THAN o2 and no 18 month contract!! Plus youll be getting it more than a month before anyone else.
So now you have this lovely American iPhone but alas it has an AT&T sim and wont work with your UK network. However have no fear because geeks have been working iPhone overtime for several months now to release an increasingly simple software unlock. Its pretty straightforward right now to unlock but I bet by the time its in your sweaty hands therell be an even better software unlock.
Step 3. Unlock the iPhone. I am not going to link directly to a tutorial because by the time you get the phone the link would probably be outdated. Instead here is a link to the hackint0sh forum where they have the latest and greatest unlock software plus detailed tutorials on how to do it. Honestly almost any idiot can do this if you follow the steps and it only takes about 1/2 hour. The most complicated thing you will have to do is type a username and password in or create a folder on your computer.
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=127Step 4. Pop in your lovely UK sim and enjoy!! Youve got the hot phone a month before UK release with the same specs it is announced as having on the November 9th launch. Youve also got a fully unlocked iPhone with no contract obligation for less than you would have to pay for the phone PLUS contract at o2.
Step 5. I was going to say something less than nice about certain UK networks or price plans but way-heh dont want the hassle of nastygrams
