Refurbished phone: cash or financed over 24 months?

Over 24 months, a refurbished iPhone 15 paid in cash with a SIM-only plan comes to €655. The same refurbished model, taken at Proximus in the heaviest joint offer, rises to €1,328.76. Recorded on 10 October 2026. The gap comes almost entirely from the contract that finances the device, and very little from the phone itself.

Cash or financed: €655 against €1,328.76 over 24 months

I took a single model so that both columns talk about the same thing: the 128 GB iPhone 15, refurbished on both sides.

On the left, the cash route. The entry price recorded on 10 October 2026 is €439, at Back Market Belgium and at Swappie alike, to which I add the DIGI Belgium plan at €9 a month for 60 GB, no commitment, as it appears on the site's price grid recorded on 24 August 2026. On the right, the Proximus joint offer for the same refurbished model, displayed as "à partir de € 9 avec abonnement mobile et option DataPhone (24 mois)": from €9 with a mobile subscription and a DataPhone option, for 24 months.

Gap: €673.76.

Two reservations, and I write them down before anyone raises them. The data volumes are not the same, and the advantage rather goes to the left-hand column. Above all, the right-hand column rests on an assumption I set out just below: the page does not say which option the €9 price goes with.

What is behind Proximus's "from €9"?

A monthly option, billed for two years alongside the subscription.

The model's page lists three families of combinations, valid from 3 August to 1 November 2026. Each pairs a mobile subscription with a DataPhone option, which adds a little data and, above all, carries the payment for the device.

The price paid at order for each of these six rows is not published on the page. Only the lowest is: €9. In October 2024, the Belgian daily L'Avenir took the same mechanism apart on a new iPhone 16, and the lowest deposit, €99, went with the most expensive option, at €35 a month. I kept the same match for my table, and I flag it as an assumption. If the €9 is obtained with the €25 option, the total of the right-hand column drops to €1,088.76, and the gap with the cash route is still €433.76.

Look at the device line alone. Nine euros plus €840 make €849, for a phone that Proximus itself sells at €649.99 without a subscription. With the €25 option, the count falls to €609. Between the two, a €240 gap for one more gigabyte of data a month.

I ran a counter in Namur from 2013 to 2020. The price at order was the only figure the customer repeated on the way out. The option, nobody multiplied by twenty-four.

The operator's refurbished phone costs €210.99 more than the market

€649.99 at Proximus, €439 at the entry price of the Belgian market: same model, same capacity.

The comparison is not quite on equal terms. Proximus sells "Grade A+ : parfait état" (perfect condition), checked on 56 points, with a two-year warranty on the smartphone and on the battery. The €439 corresponds to a "very good" condition at Swappie, which announces a 24-month warranty and a battery at 86% capacity at least, and to the headline price at Back Market, which comes with a 12-month commercial warranty and returns at no charge within 30 days.

Another marker: the page for the same iPhone 15 new, out of stock at Proximus on the day of the record, carries a price of €719.99. The operator's refurbished device is therefore only €70 below its own new one. That is consistent with the Test-Achats study of November 2025, which puts the saving between 5 and 40% depending on the model and finds it really worthwhile eight to twelve months after release.

The Proximus refurbished catalogue holds six references: five Apple iPhones and one Samsung, the Galaxy S24 Ultra at €699.99 without a subscription. No Google Pixel was listed on 10 October.

What warranty applies to a refurbished phone in Belgium?

Two years in principle, one year at the least.

The FPS Economy (the Belgian federal economy ministry) puts it this way: for second-hand goods, the warranty period may be shorter, but it must be at least one year, and the seller must inform you clearly, otherwise the warranty period is automatically two years. The defect has to be reported within two months of its discovery, and it is for the seller to prove that it did not exist at delivery. The Test-Achats file on refurbished devices, updated in June 2026, points out that the word has no legal definition in Belgium and that sellers share no common grading scale.

A "12-month commercial warranty" is therefore not necessarily all you have. Before paying, four lines can be checked on the seller's product page:

• the warranty period announced, and whether it is presented as legal or commercial;
• the minimum battery capacity, as a percentage;
• the return period, 14 days at least for an online purchase from a professional;
• the identity of the actual seller, when the site is a marketplace.

Between private individuals, the legal warranty does not apply in principle. Keep the original invoice if the seller has it.

By the tenth month, the cash purchase has paid for itself

The cash route takes €448 in the first month, the financed route €63.99. That is the only advantage of the second. After that, one costs €9 a month and the other €54.99.

The €430 advance is caught up in the tenth month.

Can you leave the contract with a financed refurbished phone?

Yes, by paying the balance. Refurbished changes nothing here.

The Proximus page says it in the same terms as for a new device: if you cancel within the first 24 months, "la valeur résiduelle de l'appareil est due conformément au tableau d'amortissement du contrat", the residual value of the device is due under the contract's amortisation schedule. The six-month rule spares you the penalty on the service, not this sum. On the €649.99 model taken at €9, the advantage to amortise is €640.99. With linear amortisation, which I apply here for want of a published schedule, about €480.74 remains at month six, €320.50 at month twelve and €160.25 at month eighteen. The mechanism is the one I described for the €1 phone and its 24-month credit.

Moving down a plan along the way runs into the same wall, since the DataPhone option is tied to a subscription level: see changing mobile plan mid-contract. And a trade-in of the old phone does not reduce this balance.

With a device paid in cash and a SIM-only plan with no commitment, there is nothing to settle. You leave the following month.

When does financing make sense?

When you do not have the sum, and only after multiplying.

I am not going to pretend that everyone has €439 to hand. On 10 October, Orange Belgium shows a refurbished iPhone 11 from €245.95 in cash, or from €1 with an Orange Mobile Medium subscription. The page gives neither the instalment, nor the price of the plan, nor its post-promotion price: three "not published" cells, for a 24-month commitment on the Smart Deal option. As long as those three figures are not written down, the offer cannot be compared.

If you finance, aim for the lowest option that gives access to the model, and have the matching price at order put in writing. If you pay in cash, a subscription such as the one from Mobile Vikings, at €10 a month on the grid of 24 August 2026, no commitment and post-promotion price not published, would bring the total to €679.

The rule is federal: legal warranty and residual value apply the same way in Namur, in Brussels and in Ghent. In a dispute over the exit statement, the Telecommunications Ombudsman Service handles the case at no cost to you. A defect in a device bought elsewhere is a matter for the seller, not for the operator.

Sources

• Proximus, refurbished smartphones page and product page for the iPhone 15 Refurbished 128 GB: price without subscription, 24-month joint offer, DataPhone options, warranty, residual value, offer valid from 3 August to 1 November 2026, consulted on 10 October 2026. Product page for the new iPhone 15 128 GB, out of stock, price of €719.99 read in the page data.
• Back Market Belgium, refurbished iPhone 15 series: iPhone 15 from €439, 12-month commercial warranty, returns within 30 days, consulted on 10 October 2026.
• Swappie Belgium, product page for the iPhone 15 128 GB black: €439 in very good condition, 24-month warranty, battery at 86% at least, consulted on 10 October 2026.
• Orange Belgium, iPhone page: refurbished iPhone 11 from €245.95, or from €1 with Orange Mobile Medium, consulted on 10 October 2026. Orange's refurbished shop could not be read that day.
• FPS Economy, ConsumerConnect, "Le vendeur doit donner une garantie", consulted on 10 October 2026.
• Test-Achats, file "Appareils reconditionnés", 18 June 2026; "Vaut-il mieux acheter un téléphone neuf ou reconditionné ?", 27 November 2025; "Garantie légale pour un achat en deuxième main", 22 September 2026.
• L'Avenir, article of 16 October 2024 on the iPhone 16 at €99 at Proximus and the DataPhone option at €35.
• The site's price grid, recorded on 24 August 2026, for DIGI Belgium and Mobile Vikings. Prices applied after the promotional period are not published and have not been estimated. The match between the €9 price and the €35 option is an assumption, as is the linear amortisation.