How in the living fuck can I buy a phone for my kid?

[SphincterSaysWhat]

I would like to buy an iPhone 14 (or whatever) for my child (Vodafone). I don't mind paying something up front and then a contract.

This is something usually left to DH but he's being a prick and so are Vodafone, apparently. So now it's my turn. Not only am I all other department, now I'm tech - which is a shame, as I'm a total luddite.

DH looked into affordablephones.co.uk and some other website but their reviews are terrible.

Can I not just call someone and pay for, and order, a fucking phone?

How is this so hard? What does everyone else do?

£600 a year for a phone for a teenager???

Buy second hand phone from Giffgaff, kids don't look after their phones. I'm a teacher. I've seen them deliberately break them to get a new one. No kid needs an iPhone 14. If you're on giffgaff, just get them a monthly goody bag.

Because, to quote the legend that is Billie Piper, "we want to".

He's my child, I didn't say he was 'a' child.

DH has spent (he tells me, anyway) hours and hours online with Vodaphone. If you don't refresh the page you start afresh...it's, apparently, so so painful. I recall it being painful for the last one we did.

I think we have to be Vodafone because of where we are (and the whole house is Vodafone and we're all Apple'd up).

Back Market sounds like a good place to begin - I'll start there.

I am 100% new to this - I'm like one of those old ladies whose husband put petrol in their car so when he died she didn't know what to do. In other news, I do every other single thing in the house - all the admin for the house, the children (of which there are so many) and cars and dog. I have a full-time job which I wish was just 9 - 5, Mon - Fri (self-employed) so am not an idiot, it's just this one job I've literally fully delegated to himself and today he's had a full on tantrum with it so now it's a job I've got to do.

I'm so shit with phones, when I went into a shop to get a new case as mine is fucked, the man asked me what I had and I had literally no idea. It's an iPhone, but I couldn't (at the time, anyway, I know now because he told me) tell you what number.

You would think it is an easy endeavour, but apparently not. Unless DH is over-egging the pudding which is entirely possible.

Thanks for the reccies all, this is completely new territory for me!

I might see if they'll gold-plate it for him, just to piss everyone off a little further...

We buy unlocked refurbished phones from amazon and have never had an issue. Then use a giffgaff sim and get a £10 a month goodybag which has more data/mins/texts than they'll ever need.

All my devices are from backmarket (not black back before anyone gets confused ) as they offer three types of refurbished, fair, good and excellent with fair meaning may have scratches visible good being may have invisible scratches and excellent meaning good as new and I’ve never had issues with them.

What exactly are you finding difficult? I'm presuming you and DH have phones and so have acquired them yourselves unless they both come as a work package.
Seriously, I can't see how hard it can be. You've decided what phone you want, you've decided what network you want so you order online or go into a shop 🤔

I get all mine pre-owned from CEX and have a sim-only contract. I wouldn't buy a brand new iphone for myself, let alone a child

If you're happy to pay outright I've found apple themselves cheaper that O3, vodaphone etc. then get the contract separately. But I gave DS DH's old iPhone 11 and got the cheapest contract I could find.

I just went into John Lewis and bought mine. Stuck a giffgaff sim in it. Was pretty easy.

Forgot to say you’ll either want unlocked or vodaphone it’ll say clearly which is which tho!

I think we have to be Vodafone because of where we are (and the whole house is Vodafone and we're all Apple'd up)

Not true. Have a read about piggybacking:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/piggybacking/

and pick from one of the SIM only providers that use the Vodafone network.

This may also be useful for finding the best value iPhone 14 from a reputable supplier:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-iphone/

The number of kids who lose / drop phones at DS' school, no way I'd be buying anything recent for them. Older model and an otter case in case they get drop kicked

I went to Vodafone high street shop and they sorted everything. Phone and contract. I didn't need to do anything really.

It's not hard. Go into an Apple Store and buy a phone. Go and get a sim. OR Go into a vodaphone shop and get a phone with a contract. If you want a cheaper phone there are loads of ways upthread to get one. I actually like the AppleCare option as they've been good about replacing screens etc and also like not being tied to a contract.

However, today DH went into O2 and half an hour later walked out with a new phone and a 36 month contract for DS because his phone was buggered and he's about to go away travelling. No upfront costs.

If you live somewhere remote you can of course do all this online.

I don't know anything at all about iPhones either, but I can see from the MSE link that there appears to be a few different varieties of 'an iPhone 14 or whatever' let alone 'iPhones' and I think if I was looking at spending a grand or more on one, I'd be sure about which model I wanted.

Or if your 'child that's not a child' is over 18, I'd let them sign up themselves and stay out of it.

I like the cut of your jib, OP. Your DH, not so much mind,

(Can't help with phones as I bought mine from Apple because I had credit with them from returning something else but solidarity over the sodding awful Vodafone website which is indeed shit.)

If you have Vodafone contracts already and then enquire about adding a sim card only deal to one of your handsets. I do that with my mum's phone and it's about £14 a month for unlimited texts and calls and 1GB of data, then she gets my hand-me-down handsets when I upgrade but then she's 74 not 14 and cares less about having the latest tech.

Gosh, we do refurbished but not understanding all the hate for buying a new one. If no one buys new, there would be no refurbished ones!
Just buy an unlocked one from anywhere and put a Vodafone sim in?

Can't you just order one from Amazon?
I have them delivering me a new phone today. Not an Apple one though.

Just buy a phone. Either new or not new. Then go online and find a SIM package, you can get a good one for about £6 a month.

@EmmaGrundyForPM

Err yeah. Probably my decision based on my own financial circumstances so don't get all concerned about it.

Don't get a iPhone 14 for an teenager! They don't need it, will probably damage or lose it and you'll be pressured to get the latest model every time.

You can add apple insurance for about £5 a month in case it is lost or broken

Do you have the "my vodafone" app on your mobile?
If not, download it and set up your account.
Then from the homepage scroll down to the "Shop" section and select "Sim only".
It will then ask if you wish to add a sim only deal to your account. Select yes.
Then it shows the plans that are available. If you change the contract length to 24 months then the monthly payments tend to be cheaper. It's offering me them at 15% less than the advertised rate.

And then you buy a second hand / refurbished handset that isn't locked to a particular network.

Our phones come from Giffgaff's refurbished section (so I feel better about the environment and also means we can pay outright rather than have a contract for a more expensive new phone). They are delivered with a PAYG Sim.