Please tell me about how you pay for your Dc's phones?

[perhapstomorrow]

Dd (12) currently has a second hand iphone 6s that is on its last legs. She is desperate for a iphone X for Christmas. As we bought her current phone outright, she is on a very cheap contract of £10 a month. A second hand iphone X is approx £500 which is way more than we'd spend on her at Christmas. She has said that she would forgo any birthday presents (birthday in May) if we got her the phone but I'd feel awful her not having any presents to open on her Birthday especially as her sister shares the same birthday. My husband is adamant she would only get a card.

Perhaps the better option would be a more expensive contract but the monthly cost seems so high that I am struggling to justify it. A lot of her friends seem to have the latest phones so this has got.me thinking "how do the parents.pay for these phones?". Do all these kids have these expensive contracts? Thoughts welcome as I'm starting to stress about it.

Why would a 12 year old need an iPhone X? I don’t have one as an adult but could afford one, it’s just not that big a deal. It seems like you are dealing with a popularity issue with her. She wants what others have. She needs to understand the value of the stuff she wants

dd has a Huawei phone - we bought it new, no contract, just put GBP 10 on it every few months.
I don't buy into the GBP500+ phone insanity. I have a second hand hua wei - cost me 40 - it's just a phone, no phone is worth 500+ regardless of what the Apple marketing machine tells you.

Our 12 year old has my wife's old 6s and it's on giffgaff, so no contract. My eldest (17) had an SE through Sky for a tenner a month. He wanted to upgrade to the iPhone 8, which was going to be an extra £9 a month, so he pays the difference. At the moment as he's in college, we are happy to still pay the tenner.

No way we would go and get either of them an iPhone X, it's not needed.

My ds has a secondhand Samsung brought outright and is on a contract that costs £18 a month. Hes already been told that when phone breaks i will buy him a new one and his max spend is £150. I will also only pay for a sim only contract, if he wants a phone/sim contract then he pays the diffrence between the two.

I pay £25 per month on a contract for eldest, (17). This will become part of our parental contribution when she goes to uni. I don’t give her any other pocket money as she has a part-time job. Younger dd has my old handset and a sim only contract. No way would I have an expensive contract for a 12 year old.

I phones aren't the sort of thing my dc would want. You can't eg change battery or expand memory.

Reconditioned decent android phones aren't too expensive on giffgaff and you can pay in installments.

Well I pay £40 per month for DS's I-phone X. He has 12GB of data so never runs out and has a 70-90 minute journey each way- I'd want a nice phone with lots of data too ! This is his 3rd phone (5c, then 6S now the X). he has never lost or broken them, he works very hard has good predicted grade so in my view has "earnt" it. Also I work ft and £40 does not represent a significant proportion of my disposible income.

He is 15.5 BTW

An iphone X is bonkers for a 12 yr old. Both mine have phone/sim card deals on iphone 7s i think at £15 each per month with insurance through our packaged bank account.

We bought DD(15) a new phone for her birthday a Xiaomi redmi 7 -£120 - she is delighted with it, apparently very similar to Galaxy phones, space for an SD card and is duel sim

DS (13) is still using DHs old Galaxy 6

Both are PAYG and I top up every few months

I agree there is a huge range of possibilities between a second hand iPhone 6 and an iPhone X. Shop around and see if you can find a phone she likes at a more reasonable budget.

My 12 yo dd has an iPhone 6s. I am coming to end of my contract in my 8 so I am planning to keep that for another 12 months minimum on sim only and then I will pass to her.

7's are quite cheap contract now - as low as £23 Ian a month I think.

Absolutely no reason a 12 year old needs an I phone x. Good opportunity for some life lessons here. You don't get something flash like that until you're old enough and in a position to pay towards it. We always get older phones refurbed or they have our old phones in our house - their choice / depending on whether we are changing phones.

Important lesson in not just blindly following the latest trends.

And on top of that you pay so much more for apple anyway. They could get an equal quality phone for so much less by going for pixel or Samsung or any other android.

Going against the grain here. Dd (12) got an x for her birthday last March It cost £100 up front and £30 a month on a 24 month contract. I can afford to buy it for her and I knew she would love it so why wouldn't I? She understands that I work hard so we can have nice things. She's very careful with it. I'm not sure why she should have a second hand or cheaper phone just because she's 12.

But there’s no difference between an iPhone X and a dozen other much less expensive phones. You’re just paying for the name.

@WisestisShe but thats an outlay of £820?

@Africa2go yes? But I'd pay at least half that for a basic phone deal which she needs (walking to and from school by herself) so the rest of it is birthday present.

@perhapstomorrow Just seen a refurbed one on hot UK deals for £399 if you're tempted?

I just think its too much at 12 and gives the wrong message. I appreciate though we're all different.

Don't most people whose kids have iphones have hand downs?

My DS16 has an Honor (Huawei sub-brand) which he chose for its features within a specific budget. Tbh it compares favourably to my work iPhone 8.

DD18 has had a string of second hand iPhones - she currently has a now quite old iPhone 6 which she looks after because she can't afford a new one and she doesn't want an android phone.

I refuse to get locked into a contract so I buy outright and all our contracts are sim only.

One of the main reasons I wouldn't give DD 12 a iPhone x (we aren't iPhone people in this house anyway) is that it can easily make them the target of crime. I don't feel it's right to put them in that position at such a young age.

DD has a cheap android phone on contract a Nokia, costs £10 a month. I like the contract option as we can limit her spending and access to certain content with it.

Dd, 13 later this month, has an iPhone 5 and she only uses WiFi. They are not allowed to take phones to school, so this really helps us. They are also not allowed to get phones til the end of year 7, so dd11 doesn’t have one. When she does, she will her dd1’iphone 5, and dd1 will her my iphone6. I will upgrade!

Oh, most of dd1 friends use WiFi only. Flash packages don’t seem to be a thing (inner London).

Our DC's either have hand me downs or the option of a sum of money for Christmas to begin saving alongside monetary gifts from other family members.

I agree that an X is too much for a 12-year-old.
I'd upgrade to 7/7 plus.

I don't think any kids should have a phone that expensive at 12 though. The 6s/7s are completely fine but an X just seems far too valuable and unnecessary until they're at least 14 in my opinion.
But understand that there probably will be pressure with everyone else getting them - I remember being that person in school.

For the record, I've had a basic 7 for a year and a half and it works with no issues and isn't slow still.
However, I can imagine that'll change soon so bear that in mind too - she'll be needing another one by next Christmas.