What credit score do I need to get an iPhone?

Last Modified 16th of February 2021

When you get an iPhone on contract, or any phone for that matter, it might seem like you are getting it for free, or at least some portion of it for free but in reality you will be paying for it as part of your bill for the next 24 months. For this reason, a free or partially free iPhone is actually given to you on credit and in order to be accepted you will need a credit check.

Exactly what credit score you need is pretty hard to say, the credit company will look at your whole credit file and use their own criteria to assess whether you are a safe risk or not and phone companies don’t make a habit of revealing their credit checking criteria.

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The good news is that generally credit criteria for phone contracts are pretty low, because mobile phone contracts are highly profitable and therefore the phone companies are very motivated to get you as a customer. That said, if you have a very bad credit history (defaults, CCJs or bankruptcies) you might find it a little bit tricky.

How to better your chances

To better your chances of getting an iPhone you need to lower the risk to the phone company. One way to do so is by improving your credit score, but that can take time, so what else can you do?

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Well an easy way to help your case is to go for the cheapest iPhone option, so ask for the most basic model available; or even an earlier iPhone model if that is an option. You can also go for a smaller contract and one where you have to put in a larger contribution for the actual handset.

Finally, just be aware that some providers have more lenient criteria than others, so have a look around online to see what other people’s experiences have been and apply to whichever network seems to have the ‘softer’ criteria.