Hey guys!
Looks like I need a new phone pretty soon!
I’m after the IPhone 13 mini. Anyone know how I can knock the price down? I can see most of them for around $1200. Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Need iPhone 13 Mini for Cheap
RegentHoney on 26/06/2022 - 23:20
Comments
Any cheaper you find on gumtree will likely be locked as stolen phones
Yeah I’m only looking to get brand new sealed
Not likely.
You should have got in to the iphone 12 mini 128gb for $799 a month or so ago.
The 12 mini is still available at the good guys for $799 but I was looking to get the 13 mini
Two potential approaches come to mind:
- Discounted gift cards, and/or
- Cashback via a cashback company (e.g. Cashrewards).
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi participates in the Ultimate and TCN gift card schemes, which regularly (about 1-2 times a month) has either discounted gift card deals or bonus loyalty program points at Coles, Woolworths or BIG W (or on one occasion, Target).
Giftz occasionally runs deals on Ultimate gift cards too; considering Giftz is owned by Blackhawk Network (the owner and operator of the Ultimate gift card scheme) and plenty of OzBargainers have purchased from them with minimal hassle, they’re legit.
Card.Gift occasionally runs deals on TCN gift cards too; considering Card.Gift is owned by TCN and plenty of OzBargainers have purchased from them with minimal hassle, they’re legit. However, some first-time purchasers had their large-scale orders cancelled by Card.Gift’s fraud detection systems, so be aware…
TCN or Ultimate gift card deals range from:
5-10% of the gift card’s value returned to you in the form of loyalty program points (common)
10% upfront discount (uncommon, as it only happens a three or four times a year)
15% upfront discount (very rare, as it only happens once or twice a year at Coles around Black Friday)
You can use as many TCN or Ultimate gift cards as you want at JB Hi-Fi to pay for the iPhone in-store, although be mindful that redeeming a handful of cards can take a few minutes.
However, you can only use one TCN or Ultimate gift card on the JB Hi-Fi online store. The workaround for the latter is to somehow convert all your TCN or Ultimate gift cards into JB Hi-Fi gift cards, because you can redeem an unlimited number of JB Hi-Fi gift cards on the JB Hi-Fi website.
Exchanging a TCN gift card for a JB Hi-Fi gift card is quite easy through the TCN website.
If you have Ultimate gift cards, it gets much more tricky, as the JB Hi-Fi website may randomly cancel gift card orders paid for with Ultimate gift cards or staff may stop customers trying to purchase JB Hi-Fi gift cards in their stores using Ultimate (or TCN) gift cards.
The problem is that you just missed out on two decent gift card deals at Coles and Woolworths that ended last week, as you could have purchased the gift cards at Coles and then popped over to Woolworths and use those gift cards to purchase the Ultimate gift cards.
Additionally, there are also a number of discounted gift card portals that sell JB Hi-Fi gift cards at a discount everyday (max 5%).
Btw, the statement about cashback via a cashback company doesn’t apply to this situation, as JB Hi-Fi does not participate in Cashrewards or Shopback…
Whilst you’re at JB Hi-Fi, you can ask staff to match the price at another retailer (e.g. Amazon, Officeworks). You may only save a few dollars doing this, but you’ll save a few dollars nonetheless…
There are a number of assumptions with this approach:
You’re happy to purchase an iPhone from JB Hi-Fi.
You live near a JB Hi-Fi store, are happy to order through the JB Hi-Fi website, or you are happy to try multiple times to convert Ultimate gift cards into JB Hi-Fi gift cards.
You’re happy with bonus Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points. Although the last Ultimate gift card deal was an upfront discount at Woolworths, the vast majority of deals at Coles, Woolworths or BIG W are for bonus loyalty program points, not upfront discounts.
You are happy to forego (or do not care about) any perks that may be bundled with your credit card (e.g. price protection, extended warranty, discounted screen repairs, etc).
The Good Guys
The approach with TGG is very similar to JB Hi-Fi, except for the fact that:
You can only use a maximum of two TGG gift cards (in conjunction with one Ultimate gift card) in one transaction on the TGG website.
TGG only appears on one TCN gift card variant and one Ultimate gift card variant, which means that you’re less likely to see TCN or Ultimate gift cards that can be redeemed at TGG on discount (or come with bonus loyalty program points).
Apple
Apple gift cards regularly have deals at Coles, Woolworths and BIG W (about once a month, although in some months, there can be two or three deals in a given month), and the deals have pretty much seen you have 10% of the gift card’s value returned to you in the form of loyalty program points. There used to be upfront discounts at Coles, Woolworths and BIG W for App Store & iTunes gift cards, but ever since those gift cards were replaced with Apple gift cards in Australia in July 2021, there has not been a single upfront discount available through those stores…
Card.Gift (a gift card portal operated by TCN) also sold Apple gift cards at a 10% upfront discount recently, but those gift cards sold out fast (i.e. within a couple of hours of the deal initially going live).
There are also a number of discounted gift card portals that sell Apple gift cards at a discount everyday (~5%).
The good thing about purchasing through Apple is that you can actually stack the redemption of Apple gift cards with cashback via Cashrewards. Although Cashrewards' standard cashback offer is nothing to get excited about, Cashrewards has boosted cashback deals (e.g. 10% cashback, usually with a $100 cap) once every 4-8 weeks, so it is worth keeping an eye out for those deals. Cashrewards also state on their website that the redemption of Apple gift cards will stack with any cashback offers.
On the other hand, Shopback’s terms for Apple clearly state:
Cashback is calculated based on the Order Value, excluding any GST/Taxes, Delivery Fees, & any amount paid for with Gift Cards.
If you purchase an iPhone on the Apple website via Shopback and nothing goes wrong with the transaction, you should get your cashback. However, if something goes wrong with the transaction (e.g. automatic cashback tracking fails) and Shopback staff see you used Apple gift cards as a payment method, they basically won’t help you.
As a side note, if you ever get your hands on TCN or Ultimate gift cards, you can use them to purchase Apple gift cards at a JB Hi-Fi store. (I did this myself a few weeks ago.) You just need to tell staff that you’d like to pay by card (not gift card). This might be handy if you ever get TCN or Ultimate gift cards at a 10% or 15% upfront discount.
If you're not interested in purchasing Apple gift cards, you can still take advantage of Cashrewards' cashback offer and use a credit card as a payment method instead.
Does this help?
Thanks a lot! Definitely did!
FYI Woolworths has a deal starting Wednesday where you'll earn 20 Everyday Rewards points on each $1 spent on TCN HIM or TCN HER gift cards. In other words, you'll have 10% of the gift card's face value returned to you in the form of Everyday Rewards points.
Both these gift cards are sold in $50 and $100 denominations at Woolworths, plus both can be spent at JB Hi-Fi.
Thanks so much! I’ll have a look!
unlikely to get a discount, i got one a few months ago from JB and when i asked if they could do any better on the price, he said they can't because it was already at buy price or something like that, i forgot exactly what he called it, but you aren't going to get a cheaper one unless you buy it secondhand somewhere.