When you bought your last cell phone did you buy any accessories from the cell phone provider? If so then you probably spent too much.
I have a Blackberry phone that I got from T-mobile. Right now the only accessories I own for it are the the charger and corded headset that came with the phone. I wanted to get a couple more accessories for it so I went straight to Amazon.com to shop around. I went to Amazon rather than T-mobile cause the accessories that I've seen at T-mobile shop have been over priced.
To illustrate how over priced the phone accessories sold by cell phone carriers can be I did a little comparison shopping.
Here are some examples:
A micro-USB cable on Amazon was about $3 including shipping. T-mobile charges $14.99 for such a cable. AT&T has one for $9.99 Amazon is 70% or 80% cheaper.
The Blackberry brand car charger is $9 on Amazon. The cheapest car charger at T-mobile is $29.99 or at AT&T you can get one for $17.99 Amazon is 45% or 70% cheaper.
Motorola HK210 Bluetooth Headset is $22.99 at Amazon
Motorola H730 Bluetooth Headset runs $29.99 at Amazon
The accessories at Amazon are 25-80% cheaper than the T-mobile store.
Lets say you wanted a spare data cable, car charger and a basic HK210 bluetooth headset. If you bought these 3 items at Amazon you'd be paying about $42. If you bought them at the T-mobile store then it would run you almost $85. You'd be spending over twice as much at the T-mobile store.
Of course this is just a random sample as an example. But it proves the point that the cell phone carriers (at least T-mobile and AT&T) do have a higher profit margin on their accessories. Amazon is just an example and they too may not be the cheapest. If want to save money on cell phone accessories you should shop around.
-This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.
November 8, 2011
Don't Buy Cell Phone Accessories from Cell Phone Company
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