If you’ve been looking for a new laptop or mobile phone recently then the term ’free laptop’ is one you’ll be used to seeing. Of course, nothing is free and the mobile phone operators and computer retailers are not offering these deals as some kind of charitable endeavour.
To obtain your free laptop will usually involve signing-up to a lengthy mobile airtime or mobile broadband agreement. Most people realise this but think the deal is worth it as sometimes they are offered laptops worth £350 or more in return for a monthly commitment of £25 or less. But would it be cheaper to buy the laptop outright?
To consider whether this is a good deal you’ll need to find out what the laptop would have cost by some other means and whether you would have actually purchased the same computer regardless? You should also consider the length of the contract and what else is included in the deal.
Looking at the various deals available it’s easy to understand why people will think it’s a good deal, a small monthly payment spread over 1 to 2 years can be tempting, particularly when cash is tight. However, would you be better off just buying a laptop with your credit card or simply saving-up until you can afford to buy outright?
Vodafone Free Laptop Deal
Vodafone are currently offering the Acer Aspire 5535 Laptop with a mobile broadband deal which starts at £35 per month.
The Acer laptop is certainly a good buy – a full sized 15.6” laptop with an LCD display, built-in stereo speakers, AMD Dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive.
However, you’ll be hard pressed to find this model to buy elsewhere as it’s been superseded by the 5536 which currently sells on amazon for around £350, but still a good machine, nonetheless.
For the monthly subscription you get the laptop, a USB dongle and 3GB of data transfer per month. The contract length is for 24 months – totalling £840. So, in effect, you are paying a further £490 for the broadband service and dongle. This assumes you are already a Vodafone subscriber. If you are not then the cost is £40 a month, totaling £960.
To buy the mobile broadband service alone, including a free USB dongle, the package cost is just £15 per month with the same 3GB download limits totalling £360 over 24 months. Even for an exiting customer then the difference in cost is £480, so you would be paying a premium of £130 just for the laptop or £250 if you are not already a customer.
- Cash price = around £350
- Free Laptop price = up to £500 for new customers
Not exactly free then?
Tesco Mobile Laptop Deal
An alternative deal from Tesco Mobile offers the Pink Acer Aspire One, with an Orange mobile broadband package, costing £29.36 per month, over 2 years. The total cost would £704.64.
Again the computer is a good model but outdated and would cost, at most, £239 to buy outright. In effect you’d be paying over £465 for the mobile broadband service.
Orange are currently offering a comparable mobile broadband package for £14.68, with a one-off charge of £29 for the dongle. Although the contract length is only 30 days in this instance, for the purpose of comparison this would total £381 over 24 months.
So, compared to Tesco’s offer, the cost of the laptop would be £323.44 – almost £100 over what it would cost to buy on its own.
- Cash price = £239
- Free Laptop price = £324
Not as great a premium as the Vodafone deal, but still an extra cost.
So Free isn’t Free?
As you can see, a free laptop is anything but free and even if you needed the broadband service it would be cheaper, in these two instances, to buy both separately. Obviously, there are many free laptop deals available, and some will offer better value than others.
You should also consider that if you bought a laptop with your credit card and paid the balance over 2 years then it could actually cost more. The figures illustrated are based on the assumption you’d be able to pay cash.
If you are strapped for cash and likely to miss the odd credit card payment then the various deals may be worth considering but, overall, they generally offer poor value and we’d advise against them. By buying separately you’ll have a greater selection of laptops to choose from and you’ll also have the benefit of being able to compare mobile broadband deals on a like for like basis, and that can only be a good thing.