To not want to gift an unwanted contract phone?

[Bandwagonesqe]

DH has a 16 yo who wants an iphone for his birthday next month. DH has hatched a plan that I should get one with my upgrade this week, unlock it and just give it to him with a payg sim. We are pretty skint, no way could we afford one outright or to take out another contract for him (I am against that anyway). Now, I'm not fussed about a new phone at all, my HTC is still an alright phone. What's bugging me is that if I don't upgrade to a new handset, my bill will be reduced by £12 a month for the next 2 year period. If I get the iphone it stays the same. So, in effect the iphone will be costing me over £250 in the long run, which of course I will be paying for. Not in my wildest dreams would I spend over £250 on a birthday for any of our own kids. DH says IABU. Am I?

LtEve's post also shows why you shouldn't do it. 16 is quite old enough to understand that life isn't a trolley dash, and that people - including parents - have to live within their means

He can get a job and pay for one himself.

Yeah, because there are hundreds of them about at the moment!

Love these threads, where everything has to become a life lesson for kids!!
They HAVE to learn!!

Sigh!

You might have a SIM card problem, when I upgraded last time, the iPhone 4 uses a different SIM to my existing iPhone. So they sent a new one and transferred the number and account to the new SIM and turned off the old one.

Just double check in this

Er - yes, they do...

Jobs in my region are also non existent for teens.

16 is a big birthday, your DH should have budgeted for it.

He is at fault for not doing so.

£250 isn't a lot for a special birthday.

I suppose it depends on what other things he normally buys for his son.

He should have started planning a lot sooner, though

"£250 isn't a lot for a special birthday."

Ha ha, depends which planet you live on!

YANBU And if you do this I would go into a phone shop first and ask how much it is to unlock,I got a quote to get mine done and it was £75 to just unlock it!

Completely irrelevant, I know- but when did "gift" become a verb?

YANBU. If you don't want or need a new phone you shouldn't have to have one for someone else's convenience. And honestly a second hand phone for a birthday present even if it is worth a lot of money. And I think £250 for a birthday is a huge amount of money if you haven't got a lot of money. And that's the point. I think they should find an alternative. And expecting a contribution to the monthly payment is pie in the sky going by my experience of teenagers.

If you are out of the contract period you may be able to change to a SIM only tariff at a much cheaper rate.

Oh and £12 a month for 2 years is £288 not £250.

So by the time you've changed to SIM only and saved more than £12 a month, you will probably be talking about £300+ total savings.

If you upgrade the phone for him, what are you going to do about a phone for you and paying for that? I don't really understand.

Agree with the posters saying that £3.00 per week is a lot. We've had to give up a lot of stuff as DH has had to take a massive paycut since last year. It was DS1's 18th birthday this month and no way could we have possibly afforded £250 for it.

I can now see how the government can change everything if there are people here on MN who are really on a different planet so far as spending and money are concerned. Some people really have no idea what it's like for many hardworking people in this country who are just about managing to survive.

yes young adults do have to learn, and a 16 year old is a young adult.

The older you get the less expensive present do get.

yes young adults do have to learn, and a 16 year old is a young adult.

The older you get the less expensive present do get.

I'm partly disgaree.

I get fed up of 'they have to be taught' like all the time!!

Not every single thing has to be a lesson! How bloody miserable of not being spoiled now and again --- can't be having that ....You'll never LEARN!

AS for the more expensive presents as they get older, well my way was when they were really young I got them cheaper presents that I knew were 'of the moment' or age relevant. When they got to 0 /12 it was the ps3's and the like. 16 was a big birthday, with DS leaving school, the stress of his GCSE's and waiting results and all the interviews for jobs that went on in the last few months so I was happy to spend on him. He probably won't get much for his 17th but I will spend again for his 18th and finally 21st. Then it will be regular presents such as an item of clothing or aftershave or whatever.

What happens if your HTC goes caput a week after buying the Iphone? Who pays for a new phone for you then?

Yanbu.

If you really want to get him a phone and feel that it's not too much to spend and you're happy with what your DP has proposed, then get him the phone.

However if you're going to get him the phone because you feel you should, because of the generous godparent's gift to your DD, then you'd better keep your fingers crossed that some other generous relative of either child doesn't buy them a car/give them a deposit towards a house/etc, it could become very expensive for you .

Actually - the SIM thing may make it all a non-starter. If you upgraded to an iPhone, your contract would transfer to an iPhone sim, and your current sim would deactivate. Which would mean you wouldn't have a phone at all...