How much data does your 16 yo have on their phone contract?

[TwigTheWonderKid]

Getting DS a new phone for his 16th birthday and it's looking cheaper to take out a contract. Packages are varying widely in terms of data and as it's a 2 year contract I also want to make it a bit future-prooof.

I know he runs out of data on his current PAYG. How much does your 16yo old have/use?

Have a look at Voxi. It has unlimited social media and video (Netflix, prime, YouTube, TikTok etc) and 15gb for £15 a month sim only. They do contracts as well for buying phones too.
That should be plenty for a teen.

Thanks @JustPootlingAlong Their sim only look great value and I might look at changing my 12yo to them but when you add on the phone too they become very expensive.

My DS has unlimited data on gift gaff, it’s £20 a month or something like that.
It’s not actually unlimited, but it gives you so much and then when you run out it just doesn’t go as fast.

Ds and dd are both on voxi. Ds canes his data but rarely runs out on voxi. We have always bought phones outright and had SIM only. Ds's most recent phone is a reconditioned iphone XS

Your best bet is to buy a phone and use giffgaff, I pay £10 and never run out. They sell phones too, and have payment plans

Sorry just saw you want a contract, this a rolling contract, but you don’t get a phone or anything with it

Unlimited Data, Unlimited calls and Unlimited Tests with EE.

Unlimited Texts not tests!

2 GB, but he's very good at getting all the wi-fi so - having looked at the account (because I couldn't remember how much he had, just that it's a cheap Virgin contract, 7-something pounds per month), he hasn't actually used any this month yet unlike the rest of us.

100g giffgaff golden goody bag, £20 a month and no contract.

Oh I see you said contract, that won’t be cheaper but you will need the money upfront for the phone.

My daughter is on my contract and I can gift her 100GB a month which is loads. She's apparently gone through it all in three weeks even though she only spends about an hour out of the house a day and the rest of the time she's on Wi-Fi.

I'm baffled? No breakdown on the phone bill, so not sure how I can work out what's going on?

Unlimited with EE. 17yo (DSS)

@loveisagirlnameddaisy

My daughter is on my contract and I can gift her 100GB a month which is loads. She's apparently gone through it all in three weeks even though she only spends about an hour out of the house a day and the rest of the time she's on Wi-Fi.

I'm baffled? No breakdown on the phone bill, so not sure how I can work out what's going on?

Is she watching a lot of Netflix or YouTube with her friends whilst out of the house?

Maybe even TikTok would rack up the data too.

nc8765 She does use TikTok but it's no more than an hour a day after school. I can't believe that's used 100gb in three weeks?

Checked her phone in Settings last night and it says she's used 11.8G since May 24. So I'm baffled

Unlimited everything on virgin, £16 pm

@loveisagirlnameddaisy

My daughter is on my contract and I can gift her 100GB a month which is loads. She's apparently gone through it all in three weeks even though she only spends about an hour out of the house a day and the rest of the time she's on Wi-Fi.

I'm baffled? No breakdown on the phone bill, so not sure how I can work out what's going on?

It is worth checking the phone settings on this, as before we went unlimited, I found that my daughters phone would use data at home if the WiFi signal wasn't as strong. It automatically picked the strongest.

my dd15 has 5GB which is £6 a month on ID and I got her phone (iphone xr) used from music magpie which comes with a warranty. Did the sums and it saved over £200 over 2 years compared to a new phone on contract.

@loveisagirlnameddaisy

My daughter is on my contract and I can gift her 100GB a month which is loads. She's apparently gone through it all in three weeks even though she only spends about an hour out of the house a day and the rest of the time she's on Wi-Fi.

I'm baffled? No breakdown on the phone bill, so not sure how I can work out what's going on?

On an iPhone, you can go into Mobile Data in settings and see where it's going.

I dislike contracts due to past experiences. I have PAYG with EE which I pay £10 a month top up. It started with about 250 mins unlimited texts and a very small gbts allowance. However every 3 top ups I get offered a choice of extra minutes or data. I now have over 3 gbts of data (it’s only used when outside of the house of course) and over 800 mins of calls. It continues to go up. I still get calls offering me contracts which are not available online but so far I’m sticking with the freedom to change if I wish and no locking of phones. Perhaps you may consider something like that in order to encourage a sensible management of calls and responsibility for any extra payment needed.

one dc has unlimited everything for £16 a month but sim only, Virgin (he bought a very expensive techy phone)

2nd DC has 02 two year contract, 15GB of data, unlimited texts and calls, comes with a phone (not newest of best type)
£26 a month.

SoupDragon yes, as mentioned in my post above, I went into settings and it gave a really low reading (11.8gb) for the last two months.

Anyway, I spoke to mobile provider this morning, he said that iPhone mobile data usage is really inaccurate and mixes up mobile and wifi usage. Said that feature is worse than useless.

He thinks it's something to do with what you mentioned chickenyhead , that the phone is switching to mobile data when in the house if WiFi signal is weak. Going to explore that option as it makes sense.