To ask how many people pay for their teens phone?

[SGlass]

DS (17) is after a phone contract. Obviously it would have to go in my name. He currently gets £10 a week pocket money so the phone contract would replace this. He also works on a Saturday. The contact would be £35 a month.

Is it unreasonable to fund his phone? Or should he be self funding it??

You should fund his phone, let him enjoy his £35 as soon life will be tough enough for him with bills coming out his ears, anyway, you may be glad one day that you did fund it if (and fingers crossed it never does) one day he may be in trouble and needs to ring you.

Sorry didn't word if right, what I meant is, let him enjoy his £35 if he had to find it to pay for the phone.

I have a standing order to 20 year old DS1 for the price of a contract in his name. I think it's a good way of them starting to build up a credit history.

I have a contract which has free calls, texts and 20gb of data which has two extra sims used by DS2 and DD. We split the data 8/8/4 - I get the 4. I change my phone every 12 months so DD has last year's - an iPhone 6 Plus so still reasonably current. DS2 has an android phone passed down by DH.

I can't imagine not providing them with the means of having access to a reasonable phone. Appreciate we didn't have them but they are so much a part of modern life I think it would be hard to function in the world as it is now without one.

I paid them all (£20 a month for 3 iPhones).

Until DS1 left school and got a full time job, he pays me back for the full bill each month.

DD wanted a better phone for £35 a month I said we would split it - she is at college and has 2 PT jobs.

DS2 is 14 and has a paper round and I still pay the full bill.

They didn't get pocket money.

Definitely use either pay as you go or a capped contract - if DS wants more minutes or whatever he can always get top-ups. I got caught like that - DS1 got a girlfriend, and ran up a bill of £160.

He now has a £7.99/month contract, and is perfectly happy with it, as he mainly uses it for watching youtube at home, and listening to music on the school run.

I would always go with capped. We used 3 because we could cap at £0. But they had had unlimited free to 3 minutes at the time,so dc had no excuse not to contact us and we never had any nasty surprises. However 3 stopped ir limited their free to 3 and had crap upgrades so we moved away from them.
Just be careful as companies like virgin wont cap at lss than £60 which is way too much to risk each month imo, so only worth going with them if you have high data allowances etc

£35 per month is a lot. I pay £10 per month for each of my children on. Vodafone. It's a PAYG deal but with a bundle that renews each month.

We pay for our DS20 and DS14 contracts.
Unlimited £12.50 a month but it's through the company contract so very cheap.
They have to help in our business in return.

We have all gone over to Giff Gaff.

For Ds we have bought the cheapest goody bag (weird name I know) that costs £5 and we have set up a direct debit to pay for this each month. For that he gets Get 125 minutes, 500 texts & 100MB of data.

He is younger that the Op's DS so only has a dumb phone at the moment (cost £20 which we bought) but ds has decided to save his allowance for a smart phone, which we will put the giff gaff sim in when he buys it.

At that point he may need to get a more expensive goody bag with more data but he will pay the difference from his allowance. For £7.50, at the moment he will get 250 minutes, unlimited texts & 500MB of data

The great thing is that because Dh and I are also on giff gaff, DS's call to us are free as if you spend a certain amount a month you get free calls to gif gaff numbers. This means we don't worry that he won't be able to get hold of us if his money runs out as he can still call our mobile numbers.

We also pay Ds a monthly allowance so if he goes over the £5 in a particular month he can pay for an extra goody bag from his allowance .

Tesco cap - within £2.50 they are great.

£15 a month with o2 capped
Android phone

Thinks v hard done by, wants iPhone like friends blahblahblahblahblah

I pay £10 per month which is capped at £20. DD's have never used data up to that limit they have a good bundle and use wifi at uni/school and at home to keep data usage down. I will pay for dd's phones and will until they both finish Uni. One DD works p/t and I now pay the pocket money into their savings account towards Uni.

Reading all this makes me think I might be a bit tight giving my 12 year old £2 a week pocket money!
She siphons her phone calls, texts and data from her Dad which is fine by me. Her Iphone 6 came from my brother in law when he upgraded so she was very pleased with that Christmas present :-)

We originally paid for £7.50 contracts and now contribute £10 each. Over time they've upgraded and paid the extra for this out of their own funds. Dd bought a phone up front using birthday money and has a cheap monthly cost so has more pocket money left per month. Ds funds his more expensive contract from pocket money.

So we pay a basic amount and they budget for anything more. There is always the opportunity to earn more pocket money by doing extra jobs though.

They have much better phones than us. We get all their hand me ups!

I currently pay £44.99 a month for my DD ( 18) contract, she was working pt but has just finished, and will be travelling for the summer ( self funded) and pays for all her leisure activities, clothes, etc, so only other cost is anything college and what will be uni related. But her Brother also 18, works ft now so pays his own phone ( same price), plus house keeping. I'm happy to pay her phone bill until she graduates.

Ds1 aged 20, I pay phone (combined contract with mine at 45 per month and we share 10gb data). He is working through Uni to pay his own way and the phone is my only regular contribution.

Dd1 aged 18 I pay 25 pound a month for a contract is extra money as and when I feel like spoiling her for clothes and treats. She's a hard worker and earns good money in her 2 part time jobs. (Alongside college)

Ds2 is 11 and has a payg. Older handset was a hand me down and I top up about 10 pound every 2 months. No data allowance. Just for after school texts to let me know where he is and to keep in contact with his dad without me having to!

My dd119 and dss27 both get £15 a month pocket money plus we pay £15 a month phone contract. Both are in full time education and work weekends.

Ds(15) and dd(12) both have cheap smart phones with a giffgaff SIM card. We pay £7.50 a month for the SIM cards which is plenty for them. Both me and Dh are due an upgrade this month so our old phones (iPhone 5's) will be passed down to the dc and we'll continue with the same amount for the giffgaff SIM cards.

If they wanted a better phone then they'll have to use birthday or Christmas money to buy the handset outright but they're happy to have our old ones for now.

Oh, and they don't get pocket money, we just give them cash as and when they ask for it for days out with friends. To be fair to them they don't ask for money very often, maybe once a month or so, and ds has a paper round so has a little bit of money for himself each week.

I bought my DD13 her phone as a present. I then pay £12 a month to giffgaff. She gets unlimited texts, lots of minutes and a good data allowance.

Also, don't give pocket money but just give money as and when needed, which isn't very often. After schools interest, and school trips cost a fortune though.

Good grief tooty. For £45 a month I'd want it to be able to make me a cup of tea on demand as well ! Why on earth would anyone spend that much a month on one phone ?

We fund the phone contract for 16 y/o in lieu of pocket money. Costs about £23/month.

I wouldn't pay for a contract, it is too difficult to end and get him to start paying it. Buy a phone as a birthday/christmas present (not a £500 phone!) and make DS pay for the PAYG sim card.