The cheapest iPhone we hold a verified price on is the iPhone SE 3rd Gen 64GB from £65 (used). The cheapest refurbished iPhone — tested and usually warrantied — is the iPhone 15 128GB from £349. Both figures are rows in the list below; we keep used and refurbished clearly apart so you know exactly what you are buying.
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Used is the cheapest route and sold as-is. The two things that matter most on a used iPhone are battery health (look for the percentage; under ~85% you may want a battery replacement soon) and that Activation Lock is off. A graded used unit from CEX still includes a warranty; a private used listing usually does not.
Refurbished (and certified refurbished) costs more because the phone has been tested and restored, normally with a fresh battery threshold and a 12–24 month warranty. You are paying for assurance. On a higher-value, current-generation iPhone where a failure is costly, that premium is often worth it; on an older model you will case anyway, used usually wins on pure price.
Read the title and condition together. A low price next to “for parts”, “spares or repair”, “cracked”, “iCloud locked” or “no Face ID” is honest about being a partial or locked unit — not a working phone. The dangerous listing is the one that looks whole and genuine but is priced like junk: a “brand new, sealed” current iPhone at a fraction of its normal price is a classic counterfeit or scam pattern.
Our matcher takes precision over recall: where an iPhone price is unverifiable or counterfeit-suspect — no trusted anchor, a clone tell, a wrong-model code — we suppress it rather than show it. The prices above are the ones that survived that filter, so a “too cheap to be true” listing never becomes the headline here.
For most people it is the one-generation-old model bought used or refurbished: you skip the new-model premium but keep years of iOS updates ahead of you (recent iPhones get roughly five to six years of support from launch). The cheapest SE is the budget pick if you only need the essentials; a one-gen-old Pro is the value pick if you want the better cameras and screen. Compare every tracked model on the cheapest phones live-price guide.
Yes, with care. A used iPhone from a graded seller like CEX is tested and comes with a warranty and returns. From a private eBay seller, check the exact condition, the seller feedback, that iCloud Activation Lock is off, and the battery health figure. Avoid anything titled “for parts”, “spares” or “iCloud locked” — those are not whole, usable phones.
Usually a meaningful chunk, and more on older models. A one-generation-old iPhone is the value sweet spot — most of the experience for noticeably less. Right now the cheapest refurbished iPhone we hold a live price on is the iPhone 15 128GB from £349. Used drops the price further still, trading the warranty for the saving.
Usually, yes. Certified refurbished and graded-seller refurbished iPhones (including CEX) typically include a warranty, often 12–24 months. Private used listings on eBay generally do not — that warranty is the main thing the refurbished premium buys you.
It depends on how much assurance you want. CEX is strong for graded, warrantied used and refurbished stock with easy returns; eBay often has the lowest outright price and the widest model choice, but assurance varies by seller. This page tracks the live cheapest verified price across both — currently from £65, and we leave out listings that look too cheap to be real.