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??

Wow, expensive contracts! Whats wrong with talk talk at £3.95 a month? More allowance than giff gaff i think. 12 month contract though.

I pay £17 per month for DD's phone but she has to earn it by doing more round the house as she'd do nothing if she could. It's capped too so the maximum she can over is £2. She gets pocket money from her grandparents every week.

£35 is a lot for a contract. I take it it's an iPhone 6s or something?

My DP paid for his DD phone until she was 25 (but it was never really appreciate by her)
You could do it for a while and review it in a period of time

I have absolutely nothing against funding DC's phone contracts.

But I can't for the life of me understand why you would even consider a £35/month contract. Mine have under £20/month ones (as do I) which has always been adequate.

My DS is nearly 15 and NOOOO WAY! His 3 closest friends have the top phones on contract (worth £600-700) their parents payalmost £50 P/M contract! When he's old enough to get at that, then he can have that!
Although he smashes the screen on anything electronic within a month so I may be biased! Haha!

I pay the phones now as they're too young to work, plus they get pocket money, but they do help around the house (I insist). They need an allowance otherwise they can't socialise, esp DD nearly 14. She wants to babysit once she's old enough to earn & then she can pay her way more.

And it's a cheap contract with a 2nd hand phone (iPhone 4s).

Yes, and over £30k of school fees. The phone pales into insignificance and they don't use the phones much these days as they use whatsapp and they aren't on a contract

35 is definitely a little much.
My daughter is 11, she earns 15 pounds a month pocket money by doing various chores. Out of this she pays to top up her phone which is 5, 5 goes into her bank to save and then 5 she keeps in her purse for anything she wishes to buy.

I think it's really important for children to learn to earn their money and budget their money ready for when they are an adult. :)

DS1 is 11 and I pay £15 pcm for his phone. He did have my brothers old handset and a payg sim but the phone died. So he had a basic no frills phone but got teased really badly at school about it. (He already doesn't have many friends and doesn't 'fit in' so I try and minimalise this). So I set him a price limit and let him pick a phone within that range.

Tbh it's much easier than trying to remember to top his phone up when needed, which was costing me £10 per month anyway. And I don't need to worry that he'll run out of credit and need to ring me in an emergency.

I pay £16 a month for ds he's 13 (it is bt staff discount tho so should be a bit more) and I bought the phone outright, he has dsylexia and Aspergers and uses public transport and i like him to be in contact at all times and I feel a decent phone he will use in front of his friends and a always useable contract is a small price to pay, I'd worry with payg that he will run out

I paid quite a bit for a decent phone for my son, he takes a lot of photos etc and I wanted him to have something nice.

OPs son probs wants that contract for the phone that's with it I'm presuming

if he's willing to forgo his pocket money then I don't see why not if that's the phone he wants, end of the day he's 17 and he probably wants a paticular phone to fit in. get it capped etc or tell him anything over he has to pay it, if you can fit it into your family budget and it's within your means.

We pay £15 per month payg EE for my 18 year old son who lives at home. He's on a plan that suits him. Enough data/text/talk time and on a phone he wanted.
Myself and OH pay £10 per month payg tesco and EE. Chose a package that works for us.
My 21 year old daughter doesn't live at home. She pays £37 per month contract with vodaphone......which is extortionate IMO. It's her money though......
If your son REALLY wants a particular phone and needs to sign up to that contract and £35 isn't a lot for you then I'd pay for it. If you think £35 is a bit pricey, get him to contribute a reasonable amount.

We paid our boys contracts until they were working after university

I pay for my daughter's IPhone contract Think it's about £35 a month She does some chores at home At 15 I think she is too young to work outside the house The way I see it they have all their lives to work Want her to be able to concentrate on school work and enjoy some down trine This is completely different to how it was when I was a teen but it is entirely different times