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 children are the sad victims of dinosaur parents. We buy a phone and use out until it dies so no old ones to pass down. We use giffgaff and never go over the cheapest £6 goody bag.

Ds1 has had an entry level alcatel for over a year. He's recently smashed it by accident so is getting a £70 Motorola on the understanding that it is his Christmas present. His choice he also just has a giffgaff sim, he tends to use the data but doesn't really use the texts or calls. Phone related street cred or lack of hasn't been an issue.

Dd1 13 has I phone 6 with £11 sim only deal dd2 16 has 1phone 7 with £10 sim only deal

I have a contract sim for my 12 year old because he was given his cousins old iphone 5s. Its £8 a month on Virgin and he gets 4GB a month with it and 2500 minutes. Which is about 2495 minute too much :). Its capped at £12 so he has an extra fiver for 'emergencies' .
He doesn't use it a whole lot. He isn't into social media yet.

second hand iphone 5s. £120. Plus a £20 per month 10gb contract

handset bought outright. DH spent around £120 I think for a not-fancy but does all she needs motorola smartphone. £5 per month with giffgaff gets her more data, texts and calls than she's ever used, and the bill is capped.

lots of her friends do have better models, but this is limited to those using parents' old handsets after the parent upgrades. DH and I buy outright and keep our phones 'til they're knackered so that's not an option for us.

@italianfiat hear hear!! Completely agree with you. As a family we have 6 iPhones on contract. I wouldn't say our children are spoiled as they do appreciate everything they have.
We all make our own choices 👍

19lottie82 what's wrong with a contract? Mine all had contracts from day one. You put a cap on it. It can't run over and anyone stealing the phone can't run it over either. What's your issue with contracts?

ssd I never get the middle class suggestion. It always seems to me that most people on MN are outraged at anyone earning over £50k...everyone seems to go to shit places for holidays and spend only a couple of grand on a family of 4 to go abroad. People also seem to think anyone with more than two farthings is a snob. Hardly middle class

italianfiat, no need to be so aggressive? Both me and my dd have a moto g (£150) and have £10 on PAYG every month. She is 16 and manages with 2gb and unlimited everything else.

italianfiat, no need to be so aggressive?

You got me. I agree, I had quite the rant earlier.

20doublesheesh, maybe I've been here too long...maybe the middle classes have left the building...

Doubt it right enough.

No contract all around here... we're on giff gaff and we love it. We all have Motorola phones that we bought outright, and I recently upgraded our sim deal to 40g of data for £20. We don't always use up all the data, but the price per GB works out as a good deal!

My 16 year old has a Samsung J6 which we gave him for his birthday last year. He was on the £7.50 goody bag with Giffgaff which has gone up to £8, but you get a lot more data with the £10 goody bag so as he was going away in the summer for two weekends and we weren't sure about wifi, I upgraded him.

I recently bought my mum the Samsung A20e. It's a decent phone and depending on package you can get it for under £100. I paid more as I wanted a Sim-free version for her.

DH and I are on 02 and spend about £25 a month for both phones. Really we should both go on Giffgaff too!

Placemarking for later!

I was actually about to post a similar question as both teenage DCs want a new phone for Christmas.

Unfortunately my DH and DCs are Apple fanatics so it's going to be costly!

@BigusBumus gosh that must work out a lot!

Do you pay this on top of paying for extra curricular activities too?

We shell out a lot for DS15 and DD12's extra curricular stuff (singing and guitar lessons for DD and rugby club and gym membership for DS).

My three, (17, almost 15 and almost 13) have cubot handsets that cost about £60. They're on monthly deals for £15 a month PAYG with O2, so if ever we haven't got the money they just don't get topped up that month.

OccidentalPurist yes it is a lot, but they love their phones and take good care of them. We are lucky to be in a position where we work hard at our own business and make a good living. We can afford to pay for their education, phones, clothes, cars, sports etc but they also see how hard we have to work to get these things for them and therefore appreciate that it doesn't just grow on trees. The 2 older ones work in our scaffolding yard at weekends / holidays etc and it is very tough labouring work - they get paid for it and know the value of everything. They are good kids really, sometimes they can act spoilt or demanding but we can bring them back down to earth quickly and easily.

iPhones, 7 & 8. I buy them outright and put them on Plusnet 30 day contract for about £8 a month.

As if last week I've changed to a Plusnet mobile SIM only contract for £8 per month. It's EE network so good coverage and is on a monthly contract. It includes:
Unlimited calls.
Unlimited texts.
6Gb data per month.

I bought my daughter a refurbished iPhone 7 for £200. Giffgaff paygo sim £10 pm that she tops up herself gets unlimited calls and text and 6gb.

Myself on the other hand, I’ve just signed up for an iPhone 11, 24 months contract, £65 upfront and £39 per month for unlimited everything. Once the 2 years is up I’ll probably switch back to pay as you go as I don’t think I’ll be wanting a new phone after 2 years.

I pay £10 per month now for my pay as you go with limited data so it works out to £29 pm more over 24 months so I’m paying just under £709 for the phone over 2 years.

a sim only contract which is £25 per
month

That’s very expensive for a SIM only.

I pay £10 a month with Three for unlimited texts and calls and 10gb data. They offered me the same but with unlimited data for £14 a month.