"Fair market value"

[#1]

Hey

Hypothetically speaking...if I were to lease a Samsung Note 9+ and at the end of the 24 month lease I decided I wanted to keep the phone. What do you think id be looking at paying? What would the "fair market value" for what would then be a 2 year old SN9+?

[#2]

Which is exactly why I would strongly recommend you not lease a phone - you sign yourself up for a range of obligations and loss of control over the whole process

Optus offers an exact duplicate monthly payment contract that ends up with you owning the phone outright. If you want to keep it it costs you nothing if you want to sell it then you can and you'll by defintion get 'fair market value'. Options to upgrade the phone after 12 months for $99 are also still available.

A leased phone is also 100% required not to be lost, stolen or damaged in any way. If any of those happen (perhaps a scratch on the screen?) you must use either Optus or Samsung to repair or replace it. Get the phone stolen or lost on the last month of the contract you'll need to buy another one and hand that over to Optus. Insurance is a must for any leased contract IMO.

A lease will save you about $240 over the life of the plan and you end up with no phone. A standard contract you miss out on the $240 but also end up owning a phone worth $1000+ (second hand).

As for what Optus considers 'fair market value' that's up to Optus - you don't get any say in it. Perhaps another crowd member could say what they got for their Note 8 under a similar scheme? 

Peter Gillespie

[#3]

Thanks for the reply.

I've looked into it a bit more and leasing actually does seem like quite a terrible option. I had the concept explained to me by someone who don't seem to really understand what they've signed themselves up for. =S 

I think ill just buy the phone outright, all the plans lease or otherwise are mostly terrible and over the course of the 24 months I would have spent enough to almost buy the phone twice anyways. 

[#4]

It used to be you could get significant subsidies tying a phone into a plan for 24 months. But those days seem long gone. 

If you can afford to grab the phone upfront then IMO that's the best both financially and gives you the greatest flexability. These days flagship phones don't seem to be offering anything much over the model before so if you can keep it for 3+ years you're well ahead. Personally I tend to stay a model behind and try grab a refurbished unit (So a Note 8 would be around $650 on Kogan). 

Optus SIM only plans are very competetive (and the Optus mobile network pretty damn good IMO if you're not out in the middle of nowhere usually). CUrrent $35 for 30Gb or $41 for 80Gb are v good. 

Good luck shopping in the New Year

Peter Gillespie