How much do you pay for Teenagers phone?

[refraction]

I am a teacher with a dd who is about to turn 14. She attends the school I teach at. For her birthday or Christmas she would like a phone contract for her birthday.

Most pupils do have an iPhone or the new Samsung. I am actually quite shocked at the phones they have.

What do your teens have? At the moment mine has my old iphone on a ten pounds sim only deal. I think this is enough. However the battery is poor but I could replace that for £90. Not increasing the contract.

My DSDs have iPhones but they usually get a couple of models behind so they can still keep their street cred but it doesn’t cost an absolute fortune.

PS a contract for a 14 yo is never a good idea. Can you not buy her a refurbished handset of an iPhone SE or 8, then get a sim only deal?

My son is 13 and I have just got him the huwaei y6 2019 on contract I pay about £20 a month he has unlimited texts,calls and 6G of internet he loves it
Looks a bit like a Samsung
He wanted an iPhone but I didn’t want to pay the amounts

Why is it not a good idea?
Dd14 has had an iPhone XR since Christmas on a contract. She's very careful with it and I've had no issues.

Both mine used to have contracts approx £15. However last birthday for her 15th dd asked for a new contract for an iPhone7. She has unlimited Calls and texts and 1gb for £25.50 a month. £25 was my budget, if she needs more data then she pays for it herself.

A good fiends of mines dd has an iPhone 8 with unlimited calls, texts and dara for £45 there is no way I’d pay that for a teenagers phone. I wouldn’t even pay that for my own phone,

Why is a contract for a 14yr old not a good idea? Mine has an iPhone 7 which she got for Xmas last year. We pay a monthly fee of £35 but she gave us a sum of money towards it so we only pay £25 each month. When we've had pay as you go phones in the past it's worked out more expensive for some reason.

Oh also I’ve put a block of zero so he can’t go over

Ex dp and I both pay for ds’s contract between us, he takes mine off his maintenance. His current contract is due to finish on November and costs £58 per month. That was for the high spec iPhone that had just come out with bells and whistles etc and ds now has the choice to upgrade to the iPhone 11 or keep this one and get the extra money.

We also had insurance on it but that was cheap. My total was £30 per month.

You can buy a new phone for £90. Huawei Y6 or a Xiaomi.

My youngest has a Samsung J5, my old phone. The microphone has just gone in it so I'm replacing it at the end of the week with the Huawei because it would cost the same to replace the mic as it would for the new phone.

Forgot to add he is 16 and in year 12.

Why is a contract not a good idea?
My 14 year old has a contract phone. It costs about a tenner a month. He always gets one of our old samsung phones when we upgrade. I wouldn't get him a brand new £££ phone.

I think someone mentioned contract not being a good idea beciase of the risk of running up a huge bill

My DD (12) has an XR and a SIM contract £13 per month for unlimited minutes/ text and 12GB data - we bought phone from Apple outright for Xmas

Mine are 16 & 17 and have SIM only through Vodafone. £10 a month for unlimited texts, 250 minutes calling and 3gb data. I transfer them the money and they top up through the app. The handsets were under £150 each new. They're both very happy with that but neither are driven to have the latest shiny thing, they just want something that will do the job.

£48 each

My dds all have reconditioned iPhones bought from Ebay or Amazon. Contract with Tesco £7.50 per month, 2 GBs data. I wouldn't pay more than a tenner a month for a teen.

PS a contract for a 14 yo is never a good idea

Disagree totally there. Contract phones are great for teenagers, especially if you cap them so that they can't go over their limits. That's what I have done for years and have generally paid about £12 per month for it. Phones are usually upgraded every two years too, and whilst not the latest iPhone (not a fan of Apple, prefer Android) are still pretty good. I have the same contract myself.

Contracts for teenagers have definitely kept mine within budget. They cut off if they breach their cap.

Grab a cheap phone from CEX and throw in a cheap £10 a month contract from the likes of iD who put data over call time.

Also iD allow you to set a limit, mine is £5 so bill can never be over 15

I think someone mentioned contract not being a good idea beciase of the risk of running up a huge bill

Some phone companies allow you to cap spending so that you can't go over your standard monthly payment.

DH pays something extortionate like £45 a month for DSS (15) but he literally will not adhere to warnings about data usage and then racks up huge bills so it's easier to just get a top spec package where he can't go over. I would advise thinking carefully about what she will realistically use and then adding more so you dont get hit with additional costs.

Imustbemad00 You can just cap their bill! Ds's is capped to £5. He already has free calls, texts, internet and if he goes over his allowances, it's cut off after he spends a fiver. He very rarely even uses the £5.

For a first phone I’d get a reconditioned or a less fancy brand one so that she can use it and get used to it. DS has an iPhone and we got special offer, trade in on old phone, family offer etc. It’s about £30 a month.

DD has a nice second hand Samsung phone passed on from a relative and a SIM only deal that I pay £5 a month for, more calls and texts than she uses and 2 Gb data.
No way would I get into a contract for myself let alone dd.

I think someone mentioned contract not being a good idea beciase of the risk of running up a huge bill

If you contact the provider you can cap some contracts. I have my teenagers' contracts set so that they can go at most £1 over the limits. Beyond that and it will cut off until the bundle refreshes again for the next month. It has happened occasionally, but it is a good lesson for them to learn and means I stay virtually on budget. No problems at all, as I just ignore any whinges.