Refurbished phones

[Grimmie]

Are they any good? I can save a fair bit and get a slightly nicer model if I go for a refurbished model, but I have no experience nor do I know anyone who has one. Presumably as long as the warranty's decent there's not much to worry about?

I found this deal on 3-mobile-store.com, which seems to list third-party refurbs as well as the official 3 handsets.
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobile-phones/HTC/HTC-Desire-S-Refurbished/3/23-Text-900-All-you-can-eat-Data-(24mths)/11443866?adnetwork=af

Thoughts?

[Lateralus]

My old Nokia 5800 was a refurb model. The phone itself was completely fine, but it didn't have the full set of accessories as a new one - missed the TV out cable and spare stylus off the top of my head, so probably worth checking stuff like that before committing. However, it was significantly cheaper, and also came with either a free gift or credit on my account, can't remember which.

Only got the one experience myself, but I had no complaints. Was through O2 online, and all arranged on the phone.

[deject]

I have an old refurbished LG Vu that was totally fine aside from being a shitty phone in general.

[spoodie]

My old employer provided all employees with refurb phones for work, they were essentially as good as new.

[Grimmie]

Thoughts on having a 24 month contract, but the refurb phone only having a 12 month warranty?

[fabyak]

If it dies, just get a cheap pay as you go and use the handset from that for the rest of the contract, failing that: ebay. I don't think I've ever had a phone properly die on me

[Grimmie]

To be honest I'm probably going to tack it on to my house insurance any way, and that should cover most mishaps.

[Grimmie]

Thoughts on phone insurance? Worth getting, or worth tacking it on to home insurance?

[FatherJack]

Thoughts on phone insurance? Worth getting, or worth tacking it on to home insurance?

Either way you get a replacement phone but still have to pay the contract, I'd ask the company about the disparity between the contract length and the warranty, because it's not right that you'd technically still have to pay monthly for something you can't use (if it broke after the first year).

Claiming (should you need to) on the house insurance might put your premium up, but competition's pretty fierce in that market, so you could switch to another insurer pretty easily. Unless phone insurance added up over two years of paying is a small fraction of what replacing yourself would cost, forget it.

Lastly talk to your bank, a platinum or gold account often grants you free phone insurance, plus other benefits like car breakdown cover, hotel/shopping vouchers, holiday insurance and Sentinel credit card/fraud/important docs insurance as well as a tag to put on your keyring so your keys can be easily posted to you if you lose them.