Costco is particularly attractive because of the lower price and straightforward returns.

Negotiate EE down to a very good SIM-only retention.

That's usually where the value is.

For example, if you could negotiate EE down to something like £15 to £20 a month

for a SIM-only plan with enough data,

then over two years you're spending roughly £360 to £480 on service

instead of hundreds of pounds hidden in handset plans.

That often comes out significantly cheaper than a handset contract.

Community comparisons are also finding that buying the Air outright

and pairing it with a SIM-only plan beats many contract deals overall.

One thing I would definitely do, though, is use the phone deal as leverage with EE.

When you speak to retentions, say something like,

open quote, I'm not interested in taking the handset from EE

because I can buy the iPhone Air from Costco for much less than your value.

What I'd like is your best SIM-only plan.