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Original poster

To not give Yr9 an iphone

64 replies

Hillbilly71 · 17/01/2015 14:29

My dd is pleading for an iPhone. She says all her friends have them and I have found out that she is right. They have the coloured backs (5c?) but I have looked and the cheapest ones have a smaller memory and are still way more expensive than her nokia lumia. We pay £13/month didn't pay for phone up front. Still have a year to go but I could possibly take it over. I can't find a deal anywhere like that for an iPhone 5. Has the world gone mad? Are parents spending £30 per month per child on phones?!

OP posts:
BackforGood · 17/01/2015 17:10

I have an 18 yr old, a 16 yr old and a 13 yr old and none of them have iphones.
None of them have been socially ostracised for not having one.
I'm pretty sure they probably know people who do, but know a lot more who don't have them. Can't ask as they are all out at the moment.
You can also get decent smart phone contracts for a lot less than £13pm.
I pay £8.50 for example for my Samsung - phone comes as part of the contract.

Cobain · 17/01/2015 17:40

Mine wanted iPhones like their mates, I got them samsung galaxy note 2, they adore them and are now hinting at the latest version (not going to happen). Their mates are always asking for a go at their phones as the phablet just makes it easier. Most of their friends iPhones are their parents old phones bit none of them admit it.

SoonToBeSix · 17/01/2015 17:42

You can get a PAYG iphone 5c for £338 with a giff gaff sim.

HowCanIMissYouIfYouWontGoAway · 17/01/2015 17:44

my eldest has a 4s with o2 and I pay £18 a month for it, which I don't think is bad. He's always on it, mainly games and internet (with o2s parental controls on of course, I'm not that stupid Grin )

My youngest is pestering for one but I told him he has to wait until he's15 like his brother did! So that's this year. My phone is due an upgrade this year, so I'll let him have mine with a payg sim and I'll keep this one.

SocialMediaAddict · 17/01/2015 17:48

DD has an old iPhone 4 of my dads. £7.50 a month.

fedupbutfine · 17/01/2015 18:07

As a secondary school teacher I can assure you that by no means 'everyone' has an IPhone or indeed, a smart phone. I am continually astounded, however, by how many young people have expensive phones (of any variety) with no cover or other protection at all.

poisonedbypen · 17/01/2015 18:23

DD (17) has a refurbed iphone 4 on giffgaff. DSs have Motorola (G?) which are about £100 and are brilliant. It's what I will get when my battery eating 5 dies.

lljkk · 17/01/2015 20:25

DD's iphone has a broken screen; I see a lot of broken screens among her friends' phones.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 17/01/2015 22:05

DD18 regards iPhone users as sad cultists, an attitude her friends mostly share. They're all about S5s running Lollipop.

Cocolepew · 17/01/2015 22:08

DD is? 13 and has been wanting an iphone for years, nt all her friends have obe, I dont know why she so desparate for one. She got a second hand one for Christmas. We paid £100 for it and she uses a Tesco PAYG sim.
I wouldn't have paid any more for one.

19lottie82 · 17/01/2015 22:09

Don't take out a contract for a 4 or 4s, mid contract they will be obsolete and possibly almost unusable.

I wouldn't take out a new contract for her as she is in the middle of one, and contracts need to be stuck to, that's life.

You can buy a new iPhone 5c for about £200 on ebay. Could she do odd jobs for family members, and / or ebay some of her old stuff to raise money to buy the handset outright and put her contract sim into it?

Bowchickawowow · 17/01/2015 22:13

I will probably give my dS1, aged 8 my iPhone 4 when DH can upgrade his phone and get a new one - he broke his own and has been using my old phone til he can upgrade - I have a 5 on contract. dS1 wants an iPad for his birthday, I would rather give him the 4year old phone on a super cheap contract that he can use the wifi on at home.

MrsGrumps · 17/01/2015 22:14

I have a 5c I bought outright. My DD , 14 has a secondhand 5s she saved up and bought and DS has a secondhand 4s I bought for £50. All our monthly SIM only plans are £7.50 per month. Just find a secondhand unlocked one for her.

MrsGrumps · 17/01/2015 22:17

And I forgot to add the reason my DC children are allowed iPhones is the find my iPhone app which is on their phones. I know both their iCloud details so I can always find out exactly where they are. Big brother can be so useful sometimes !!

ChocLover2015 · 18/01/2015 09:02

why is an iphone better than a smartphone? why would you send a child with something which is worth hundreds of pounds to school, a place where people will nick an umbrella or a pair of PE shorts?

Armpitt · 18/01/2015 09:05

she is right they mostly do.

All mine do - mostly oldones

ScathingContempt · 18/01/2015 10:16

Everyone else does not have an iPhone, don't fall for that emotional blackmail!

Tell her she has to wait her current contract out at least. That's what a contract is about. You're better off teaching her to wait for things than getting instant gratification. I personally wouldn't get her an iPhone at all. My 3 have decent android phones given for Christmas presents and cost a lot less than iPhone. But if you do get her one she should at least have to see her current contract out. And like a pp says, if she 'loses' or 'breaks' it beforehand, she gets a cheapy to see the contract out.

I'd also expect her to contribute in some way to the increased monthly expense, from pocket money or finding a source of income elsewhere.

Fabulassie · 18/01/2015 10:25

I happen to think that an Android will do as much as an iPhone for much less money. But! I remember being a teenager and if all the other kids have iPhones then having an Android may mean feeling the way I did when my mom insisted that jeans from Sears were as good as Calvin Klein/Vanderbilt/etc.

I mean, a Samsung Galaxy Note is even better than an iPhone 6 Plus (and costs £600 instead of £800) but if all her friends have 5 c's she may still be miserable. Same thing for buying her a iPhone 4. Or anything other than the shiny phone in the exact colour she thinks she "has" to have.

Teens are weird that way!

One compromise is to tell her that you'll help her buy an iPhone in a year when her contract is up. You can agree to match her savings to a certain extent. It could be a 100% match or even less (like £50 for every £100 she saves.) She should be able to save up enough in a year if she has any access to pocket money... and during that year she will have plenty of time to evaluate how much this phone really means to her. If she fails to save £150 or £200 of her own money then she will have demonstrated that she doesn't want the phone all that much.

ChocLover2015 · 18/01/2015 16:26

' I forgot to add the reason my DC children are allowed iPhones is the find my iPhone app which is on their phones'

Androids have find my phone too!

AngelDreams · 18/01/2015 21:48

Fabulassies suggestion is really good, that way she will learn some really helpful life lessons

pointythings · 18/01/2015 22:37

My DD1 (Yr9) definitely does not have an iPhone. Nor does her sister, nor does anyone in this house. Yes, we probably will go smartphone fairly imminently - but they will be Android phones with capped contracts.

For now they have Kindle Fires to play games on and useful Nokia bricklets with endless battery life for school. I'm not about to raise sheep.

DarkHeart · 18/01/2015 22:45

My ds is year 8 and has an iPhone 5

Fabulassie · 19/01/2015 16:08

My kids don't need to call anybody. My oldest starts high school next year. I may give him a hand me down Android if he wants a phone then. He's happy with his laptop in the meantime.

YellowTulips · 19/01/2015 16:27

Both children (yr 7 and yr10 have iphones).

Older has my old 5s and younger a 4s, but he will be getting my old (or rather newish) 6 in a few weeks as I will be getting a new 6.

They tend to get them when DH or I get a new phone and we re-cycle them downwards.

TBH most (80%), though not all of their friends have smart phones, with the iphone being the most popular with the kids if not the most prevalent.

Do they actually need such expensive phones - well of course not. However, they are well used for music as well as contact and they get a lot of pleasure from them. I wouldn't buy them new for them, but am happy to hand them down.

Upshot is the Android phones do everything an iphone will do for less money - but they are not as "cool" (in our neck of the woods anyway).

So it really becomes a matter of budget in the end.

janinlondon · 19/01/2015 16:35

Where are people getting these prices from??? DD has an iphone 5C that costs us £19 a month with unlimited texts and calls and 1GB of data. So she can text and send photos to her gran or aunt or cousins in Australia completely free and facetime me if she needs to whenever she wants. Her old PAYG blackberry cost more....?!