Do your dc have mobile phones and how much do they cost you per month?

[Afternooninthepark]

Dd is 10 and has asked for a phone for Christmas.
All of her friends have iPhones but I can not afford to get her one so it will be some other smart phone.
If your dc have mobiles, how much are you paying per month and is it better to go pay as you go (she uses my phone atm on things like WhatsApp/tik tok) or a contract?

I hear you DustbinTails ds2 will use every scrap of data he gets dicking about on YouTube or whatever. But then he’s 14 and I don’t think that’s unusual. Luckily as their contract has just finished I’ve taken out a cheaper SIM only one with 6x the data . But then I’m paying for that whereas your dd is choosing how to spend her money!

DS (11) has just got his first phone. It's an old Galaxy handset of mine with a GiffGaff SIM, so costs £5 a month. That's their cheapest package and so far it's doing him fine though he tends to run out of data at the end of the month (despite me telling him to only use it at home where he has Wifi!) so I may upgrade to the £7.50 bundle. I like GiffGaff so far as there's no commitment and it would be easy to change the bundle if I chose.

He'll probably get a new handset next year when he goes to secondary school as the old one runs incredibly slowly

Mine are 12 and 10. Both have iPhones - we pay around £50 per month in total I think.

There are a couple of reasons we do this. First, we all have iPhones and family account, so either my wife or I have to authorise every app download or purchase. We have parental controls that I like.

Also, we have a family AppleMusic account giving the kids unlimited access to music for their hifis.

They're worth every penny for us.

DS13 has only recently been given my old Samsung Galaxy S5. He was one of the first in his year to have a phone, so there are some areas at least where 10 year olds don't have phones.

It is on a £6 / month contract linked to my contract, so I can data share as I never use all mine.

We're an iPhone family so no way was I going to get her anything else. I got the SE from Envirofone, think it was about £130 and she has a PAYG sim. I can see exactly what she's doing from my phone and lock down anything and now I get screen time reports. A refurbed iPhone isn't a huge deal and no more expensive than some of the phones mentioned here and a hell of a lot better.

DS1 got a contract for his 11th birthday. Provider is tesco, total cost is £12/ month with a £2.50 buffer. 500 mins calls, 500 texts, 1gb data (I think). Phone was an LG k8 2017. He'll be 13 next spring and wants an iPhone contract.

Ds2 is 9, and has my old Samsung s5 with a PAYG SIM, simply because this year he has started walking to and from school alone. I have only put £20 credit on his phone since giving it to him.