Who Offers the Cheapest iPhone 4S?

Over the last week, no-contract carriersCricket and Virgin Mobile announced upcoming sales of the iPhone.  If you can swing the initial expense of purchasing an iPhone for $500 or $650, you may be surprised at how much you will save over the course of 2 years compared to AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless. We know we were when creating this chart.

We’ve calculated the cost for all of the carriers over 2 years of service. The cheapest option possible is the $35 monthly plan with Virgin Mobile–even though the initial cost for a 16GB iPhone 4S is $650. The $35 Virgin Mobile plan offers 300 min of talk time, 2.5GB of data, and unlimited text. This plan is even cheaper if you sign up for automatic bill payment with a credit card or PayPal–the price drops to $30 per month.

For those who need more than 300 minutes and 2.5 GB of data, Cricket is least expensive.  The initial cost of the 16GB iPhone 4S is $500. The monthly plan is $55, and that includes unlimited text and talk time. Data is also unlimited, but only 1GB is promised at 3G speeds. Virgin Mobile also offers a $55 unlimited plan with 4G internet speeds. The only difference in total price for 2 years is that you have to pay $150 more initially to purchase the iPhone through Virgin.  It might be worth it for faster internet.

Don’t want to spend $500 or $650 upfront for a phone? You’ll want to go with either AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. Sprint might seem a little bit more expensive in the 450 Min level but it includes unlimited texting and data– where as AT&T and Verizon only includes 300MB and 2GB respectively. There are many ways to text for free on a iPhone with iMessage or 3rd party apps but if you want texting, you will have to add $20 to the AT&T and Verizon prices.  At the end, if you are a big data and text user, Sprint is no doubt the best option for you.