Refurbished iPhone 15: is it worth it, and where to buy one in the UK?

The iPhone 15 is two years old, Apple no longer sells it, and the shops still charge £699 for a new one. That leaves a big gap for refurbished phones to fill. We read every seller we compare on 12/10/2026, by grade and storage, with their warranty and returns.

Is a refurbished iPhone 15 worth it?

Yes, for most buyers. A new 128GB iPhone 15 was £699 at Amazon, Argos and Currys on 12/10/2026, and a refurbished one graded Good cost about half that:

Read on each seller's own pages on 12/10/2026 (Back Market and musicMagpie through a page reader, as both showed us a security check). The eBay phones came from business sellers. Back Market adds a Quality Assurance Fee at checkout.

So a refurbished 128GB iPhone 15 saved £339.01 to £359 against £699 new that day, or £239.01 to £259 against Argos's £599 Pink one. On 03/10/2026 the cheapest was £319 at Back Market, so the price moves by tens of pounds within a week.

The box shows our latest check of each seller, so it can differ from the table by a few pounds: on 12/10/2026 Amazon Renewed's phone was £370 on its page against £373 in the box.

Where to buy a refurbished iPhone 15 in the UK

• Back Market. Refurbishers it vets. Grades Fair, Good, Excellent and Premium (only Premium promises genuine parts, as our Back Market guide found). Its iPhone 15 page on 12/10/2026 gave a 12-month seller warranty and free 30-day returns, and offered a new battery for £14 more.
• eBay. Many refurbishers, graded Good, Very Good or Excellent. The £344.99 phone came from envirofone, a business seller, with a 12-month warranty and 30 days' returns (you pay the return postage).
• musicMagpie. Refurbishes its own phones, graded Good, Very Good and Pristine, with a free 12-month warranty (its warranty page, read 09/10/2026) and 14 days to change your mind (our musicMagpie guide).
• Amazon Renewed. Phones from marketplace sellers under the Amazon Renewed Guarantee, a year's cover if one is faulty (as our Back Market vs Amazon Renewed guide reported on 17/09/2026).
• Apple. Its refurbished store had no iPhone 15 on 12/10/2026, only the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 16, each from £659.

How these sellers compare in general is in where to buy a refurbished iPhone in the UK.

Which grade should you buy?

Good, unless marks on the phone bother you. The grade describes the outside: every grade from these sellers should work fully, and the warranty is the same across grades. On 12/10/2026 musicMagpie's 128GB iPhone 15 cost £359.99 in Good, £399.99 in Very Good and £459.99 in Pristine, so the step up to a near-perfect body cost £100. Check the battery instead: ask for its health, or pay Back Market's £14 for a new one.

Here is what each grade means.

128GB or 256GB?

New, the 256GB is the better buy: Argos sold the 256GB iPhone 15 at £699 on 12/10/2026, the same as the 128GB, with twice the space for photos and apps. Currys listed only the 128GB.

Refurbished, the 128GB is the bargain. The cheapest 256GB on eBay was £389.99 (graded Good, from a business seller), £45 more than the 128GB, at musicMagpie the 256GB cost £90 more grade for grade (Good), and at Back Market £75 more (Fair). A refurbished 256GB at £389.99 still saves £309.01 against Argos's new one. If 128GB is enough for you, a refurbished 128GB at about £340 is the cheapest way to an iPhone 15 with a warranty.

Refurbished or second hand?

A refurbished phone has been checked and comes from a business with a warranty and returns; a second hand one from a private seller usually has neither. On 12/10/2026 the cheapest new iPhone 15 on eBay was £496.30 from a private seller taking no returns, more than any refurbished one in the table and with fewer rights. The difference, in plain terms.

Which refurbished iPhone 15 should you buy?

• 128GB, graded Good, from Back Market, eBay or musicMagpie. About £340 to £360 on 12/10/2026, with 12 months of cover. The best value if 128GB is enough.
• 128GB, Very Good or better. Only if you want a near-perfect body; it costs £40 to £100 more for the same phone.
• 256GB. Refurbished from £389.99 on eBay, or new at Argos for £699, the same as the 128GB new.
• An iPhone 16 instead? Apple's own refurbished iPhone 16 started at £659 on 12/10/2026, almost twice a refurbished iPhone 15. The 15 has USB-C and the Dynamic Island; what it lacks is Apple Intelligence, which needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer.

Here is the cheapest price we have seen each day for the 128GB iPhone 15, new and refurbished together:

Since we started tracking on 09/09/2026, the line has moved between £299.99 (25/09/2026) and £360 (09/09/2026), always on a refurbished phone. For every new iPhone price, see iPhone prices in the UK.

What to do

1. Decide the storage first: 128GB refurbished is the cheapest way in; for 256GB, compare Argos's new £699 with a refurbished one.
2. Compare Back Market, eBay and musicMagpie on the same day, grade for grade; the cheapest moves within a week.
3. Buy from a business with a 12-month warranty and at least 14 days to return it.
4. Check the battery health when it arrives, and the screen, while you can still send it back.
5. Set a price alert on the iPhone 15 page with Refurbished ticked, to hear when it drops.