Where to buy a refurbished iPhone in the UK

A refurbished iPhone is one of the few big tech purchases where the seller matters as much as the price. The same model can arrive with a year of cover and a battery that holds most of its charge, or with a short warranty and a battery nobody measured, and the two listings can look almost identical. Here is where to buy one in the UK, what each seller actually promises, which models are worth it in 2026, and the live prices.

Where can you buy a refurbished iPhone in the UK?

Four places carry most of the UK's refurbished iPhone stock, and each one puts a different business behind the phone.

• Back Market is a marketplace. Independent refurbishers, vetted by Back Market, grade and sell the phones, and every order comes with a one-year warranty from delivery and 30 days of free returns.
• musicMagpie buys phones through trade-in, refurbishes them in its own workshop and sells them directly, with a 12-month warranty from the day you order and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
• Amazon Renewed lists phones from approved sellers and adds the Amazon Renewed Guarantee: if the phone is faulty or does not work as expected within a year of delivery, Amazon replaces it or refunds you.
• eBay Refurbished is eBay's own programme, separate from ordinary listings. Certified Refurbished phones were refurbished by the manufacturer or a manufacturer-approved vendor; Excellent, Very Good and Good Refurbished phones come from sellers eBay has vetted. All of them carry at least a 12-month guarantee on orders to a mainland UK address, 30-day returns and eBay's Money Back Guarantee.

Apple also sells Certified Refurbished iPhones on its own website when it has stock, each with a new battery, a new outer shell and a one-year warranty. OwlyFinds does not compare Apple's store, so its prices do not appear in the live prices below.

How Back Market and musicMagpie differ in the details has its own guide.

How do the sellers compare?

As published by each seller: Back Market and musicMagpie checked 12/09/2026, Amazon and eBay checked 15/09/2026. Terms change; the listing always wins.

The warranty is close to a draw: all four put a year of cover behind a refurbished iPhone. The differences that matter are how long you have to change your mind, who you deal with if something goes wrong, and whether anyone has promised you a number for the battery. Amazon Renewed publishes a battery minimum for smartphones; with the others, read the battery line on the listing itself, and remember that the grade word describes the phone's looks, not its battery.

Which refurbished iPhone should you buy?

Start with software, because it decides how long the phone stays useful. iOS 27, released this month, runs on every iPhone from the iPhone 11 onwards, plus the iPhone SE from the 2nd generation, and no model lost support this year. When Apple does drop models, it drops the oldest first, so a newer iPhone buys more years of updates.

Then decide whether you want Apple Intelligence. It needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, which includes every iPhone 16 and the 16e; the standard iPhone 15 and older models run iOS 27 without it.

After that, the choice is mostly price against age:

• iPhone 16e is the newest affordable model and has Apple Intelligence, but its refurbished stock is thinner, so the saving on new is usually smaller.
• iPhone 15 usually sits at a bigger discount to new, has USB-C and the Dynamic Island, and misses only Apple Intelligence.
• iPhone 13 and 14 are cheaper again and still get iOS 27, which suits a first phone or a second handset.

Whatever you choose, compare it with the new price at the same storage before you decide the saving is worth it.

What should you check before and after you buy?

• Battery. Read the battery line on the listing. When the phone arrives, open Settings, then Battery, and check the maximum capacity figure under Battery Health.
• Parts. Open Settings, then General, then About. If the phone has been repaired, a Parts and Service History section lists the replaced parts: "Genuine" means Apple parts and processes, while "Unknown" can mean a non-genuine part, which may lower the trade-in value later.
• Activation Lock. Setup should start with no previous owner's Apple Account attached. If it asks for someone else's, it is a return.
• Unlocked. Look for "SIM-free" or "unlocked" on the listing if you might ever switch network.
• The programme. On Amazon and eBay, check that the listing really is Amazon Renewed or eBay Refurbished, because that is what brings the guarantee. An ordinary listing that says "refurbished" does not.

What do refurbished iPhones cost today?

When we checked on 15/09/2026, a refurbished iPhone 15 with 128 GB started at £359.65 on eBay, where the cheapest new listing was £475.99, and a refurbished iPhone 16e with 256 GB started at £495.99 on Amazon. These are the live prices, with the cheapest offer per condition on top:

If a seller has no row, we could not confirm a matching listing for that exact model and storage at the last check. And a price far below every other seller deserves a close look at the listing before it deserves your money.

What to do

• Choose the model first: how long it will get updates, and whether you want Apple Intelligence.
• Buy from a seller that puts at least a year of cover on the listing: Back Market, musicMagpie, Amazon Renewed or eBay Refurbished.
• Compare the same model, storage and grade across sellers, and against the new price.
• Check the battery, the parts history and Activation Lock on day one.
• If you are not in a hurry, set a price drop alert on the product page and let the price come to you.