To pay this amount for a mobile contract?

[thesqueezedlemon]

Ongoing debate with my DM who buys her own phone every couple of years and pays £9 a month for a basic contract.
Im on contract as I cant afford to buy a phone outright (if I was to save for a phone, the money would end up going on something else as is usual way) I pay £27 a month for a decent phone and contract. She said this is excessive. I think it is pretty standard.

My questions are
AIBU to pay this much?
AIBU to ask you how much you all pay for your mobile contract?

DH pays £11 per month, sim only , but we bought the phone outright (I think it was about £60)

I thought you were going to say £50+
I would say it depends on what you get for that.
How much data etc do you get?
What phone is it?
Could she loan you the money to buy a new phone outright next time? Then your rental cost etc would be cheaper

I pay £15 a month for unlimited calls texts and data, but it is a sim only contract. I used the phone I had before my current one for four years and bought my new one (well its second hand, I rarely buy anything new) when I got a tax rebate. What do you get in terms of calls/texts/data for £27?

I don't think it's that bad, if you can afford it, but if you are happy to have an older phone you can go sim only or payg when your contract expires and save quite a bit. Could put the saved money aside in a separate account to buy a new phone. Obviously this only helps if you don't want an iPhone.

You may be able to get a cheaper deal by purchasing a phone outright using credit then taking out a separate sim only plan.

To compare; I have an iPhone 7 and DH has a newish Samsung. I pay c£50 per month and he pays c.£40, so £27 seems reasonable.

I have the Samsung S7 and have unlimited calls and texts and 1gb data for that price.

Seems reasonable enough for the phone model, when the contract ends keep the phone and get a sim only deal, Giff Gaff do unlimited everything for £20 a month and you can stop at anytime, it's a rolling contract.

I pay £57 a month and have unlimited everything on an iPhone 7. I use it 10 hours plus a day for everything. Haven't opened my laptop in six months.

It is standard, or even at the lower end if a) you don't pay for your phone outright/provided through work b) advanced enough you use it as you would a computer/laptop. And at the end of your contract you have the option of a new phone or a cheap SIM only option. Yes, if you have to cut your financial cloth you could go significantly cheaper but also not all people know what a tech phone can do.

My father had a similar mindset as your DM and has a very basic phone - it made calls and kind of received textsas long as they had no emojis, links, pictures or were over certain number of characters lol - but when he went into hospital for an extended stay its limits became apparent. I took over his financial affairs on his behalf which was time consuming and problematic as hell because he had no access to his online accounts, lots of people were messaging him on FB and sent him pictures which he missed out on and he felt so cut off I was c&P him the cricket scores! So my sibling and I clubbed together and bought him an iPhone 5 outright SIM only - as we knew he wouldn't want to pay for a contract - and after some initial residence, he loves it.

Residence = resistance*

I bought a decent smartphone for 150 and pay £10 p/m to giffgaff. I use it for everything including work.

I hate being tied to a pricey tariff, but yours sounds reasonable.

I think it's a fairly standard price to pay for a phone contract, however if you're short of money, it's a luxury that could be cut. I have an oldish phone that cost me £60 2 years ago and a £10 a month package which gives me plenty of data, texts and minutes, and that's fine for all standard use (including facebook, email, surfing and banking). I'm not one to want the latest phone though, and would rather put the extra money away for a rainy day.