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

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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 not look at getting a refurbished one? Then keep sim only contract?

DS12 is driving me mad with this. Got a 2nd hand but decent S7 for his birthday in March after wanting to swap to iPhone but realising he'd have to start again with games he's already playing. S7 is one of those phones where it's hard to find, kindvof overtaken by other models. Of course, now he wants an iPhone. An X preferably he knows it isn't going to happen. OH and I both Android, DS12's dad and SM both Apple so I know little about iPhones. He doesn't want iphone 7 etc and it's not much of an upgrade from what he has now, which is kind of true. Any of the newer iphone models are still expensive to buy second hand. I don't think he needs something so expensive and elaborate at his age, especially taking it to school not an expensive contract.But he's 12 nearly 13 and yes, I can understand the peer pressure at that age.

Mine have payg hand me down android phones. I wouldn't pay much more that £150 for a new phone for myself let alone a child. DD has to have an iPad for school so that is already an expensive device that she is carrying around that does most of what a phone can do anyway. Really no need for an iPhone as well. At the risk of sounding old fashioned, nobody 'needs' a smartphone anyway!

I think it's worth considering just how much these phones actually get used by a teenager - when you work that out it seems really quite cheap IMO.
DS is 15.5 and is currently on a £12 a month bolt on contract to mine, using an old iPhone 7 which is also on its last legs. We are looking to upgrade his and would be looking to spend around £30 a month, potentially a little more. He will be contributing a small amount towards it.
Similar to hopefulhalf he works hard and is a good kid so it seems a fair reward.
Also worth bearing in mind that the iPhone X has been discontinued. How that would affect the second hand value or any future updates isn't particularly clear, but it's worth bearing in mind. FWIW I have the X and it's the best phone I've ever had

I can afford to buy it for her and I knew she would love it so why wouldn't I?

I guess it's just different thought processes with these things. We could afford for ours to have them, but to be honest they don't need them, what they have is fine for what they use them for.

My 13 year old had an S10 for his last upgrade which is the equivalent I suppose. I pay £40 odd per month per child for their contracts. The first contract was Christmas and Birthday combined aged 11 for my lot and they were counting down the days. Now they upgrade every 2 years with the agreement that if they chose a phone with an additional cost to upgrade, that is Birthday/Christmas gift. They are good kids, I have the money so I am ok with that. I do pay insurance against theft and damage though ( we are Shropshire so not a hotbed of criminal activity but even so)

Thanks for all your replies. I would only ever buy a refurbished phone as even 2nd hand the iPhone x is around £500!! It's so difficult as it does seem like her group of friends do have all the latest phones. My dd doesn't have any other tech. I really don't want to get tied into an expensive contract. I think she'll just have to lower her expectations.

Weird suggestion but the Three staff are often quite well informed and enthusiastic and can recommend different models that meet someone's requirements.

I was toying with a contract and they were super helpful and not trying very hard to shift iPhones at all.

Or even try the same thing on here - if your dd thinks about what she actually does and wants to do with a phone it might help.

If I got a new phone I would want it to run whatsapp, wizards unite, Pokémon go and fortnite.
I would quite like a good camera and big memory.
Don't really care how it looks and I don't make a lot of voice calls.

I drop it sometimes so I like gorilla glass.

If I tell someone that, they can recommend 2 or 3 phones and be fairly sure I will get on really well with them.

I don't want complex video or sound editing.
I don't need a huge screen. Etc.

Her world will not end because she doesn’t have the latest iPhone. I have an iPhone 7. I really can’t see much difference between the 7 and my husbands iPhone X especially with the case on.

Dd 15 has a Samsung phone on a 2 year contract at £25 per month for unlimited calls and 10GB of data. She's due a new phone shortly - depending on what she chooses it will be free, or if not she will have to pay. I am discouraging getting a v. expensive phone. Too much risk of damage/theft.

Maybe get her to contribute some of the cost through a pocket money reduction?

Eg say she gets £10 a month pocket money, say she can have their iPhoneX if that drops to £5?

might change her "need" to a "want" and might actually discover she doesn't want it that badly...!

DD got an iPhone 8 for her 12th birthday last Summer, contract with Virgin.

Her hand-me-down 6 was on its absolute last legs and DD asked for a new one instead of inheriting DH’s 7 whenever he would upgrade.

As she doesn’t have any other tech apart from a5 year old tablet we agreed to it.

Everyone is different but we found the Virgin contract good value for money and it teaches DD to stick to a model for the 2 years the contract runs.

my dads are 13 and 11 and both have an iPhone 6s, bought refurbished.. They'll get probably refurbished iPhone 8s for their birthdays next year.
Never had expensive contracts.

Can I ask please where people find is the best place to buy second hand? And if eBay, any particular sellers you'd recommend as not being Cowboys?!! Thanks

Cex has a 2 year guarantee.
That's where I often go.
Best to know what kind you want before you go in though. And compare prices to giffgaff reconditioned phones