It is possible to get a mobile phone contract with bad credit.

Some contracts are easier to obtain than others and that is generally due to the phone handset that is bundled (often free) with the contract. As a general rule, the less expensive the current cost of the phone to buy outright, the greater the chance it should be possible to get that phone on contract even with poor credit.

So if you want to maximise your chances of getting a phone contract you should be looking at phones that are at the cheap end of the market. The great thing is that retailers will continue to sell phone models that are a few versions below the latest model. This means, for example, that you could still get a phone such as a Samsung Galaxy S5 on contract even though Samsung have released the S6 and S7 models. By opting for a phone model that is not the latest in the line you would get a cheaper tariff and stand a greater chance of passing a credit check (if required) and having your application accepted.

We have collated a list of popular phones into categories ranging from the phones that would be the easiest to get on a contract, through to those that are a little more difficult, to the latest phones that would require a stringent credit check to be undertaken. That is not to say that phones such as the iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy S6 could not be successfully applied for on contract if you have bad credit – we have seen bad credit customers obtain these phones – but it would be much harder to get them on contract if you had bad credit.

High Acceptance Phones

Applying for phones in this category would give you a good chance of getting a phone contract accepted if you have bad credit. These phones tend to be older models of popular manufacturers such as the Apple iPhone 4S or iPhone 5C as well as the Microsoft Lumia range of phones which are excellent, fully featured phones but tend to come with a budget price.

Mid-range Acceptance Phones

The mid-range level phones tend to be from the top manufacturers but are one or two versions below the latest model, such as the iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S5, or HTC One. All of the phones in this category are extremely capable phones which would be suitable for all but the most demanding of users. In fact, many of these phones were rated at one time as the very best in their class.

Applying for a mid-range phone would get you a very good mobile phone on a competitively priced tariff. Clearly it would be more difficult to be accepted for a contract if you had bad credit than it would for a high acceptance phone but it is possible to obtain one of these phones with bad credit, particularly if you consider a refurbished model or consider paying a deposit towards the cost of the handset.

Lower Acceptance Phones

These phones include the very latest smartphone models from the best phone manufacturers. As they are the flagship phones on the market, they are naturally the most expensive to buy, have the most expensive monthly tariffs and are the most difficult to get on contract with bad credit.

It is difficult to get a phone such as an iPhone 6, iPhone S or one of the latest Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge phones if you are applying with bad credit because a credit check will need to be passed to be successful. We see hundreds of bad credit applications for these phones and some do succeed, but many fail so a mid-range or high-acceptance phone is typically a better choice.

Contract Phone Comparison

Our phone contract comparison table below lists the most popular regular phone contracts on the market. This is comprised from 100’s of thousands of different deals and it is updated regularly to take into account great new deals new to the market.

As it is comprised of the most popular deals it tends to show many of the latest phone models so applications on a bad credit basis may not be successful, but it shows a good snapshot of what is popular in the market and which networks and phone shops have the most popular deals.