What phone

[Lavenderfly]

What phone shall I get for my 11 year old? She starts secondary school soon. I'm not sure if she even needs one - what phones have you bought for your D.C. when they start secondary school?

What's your budget?

We just bought a Nokia 6 (£199) for DS's birthday (he's going into year 9 this year). Before that he had my old Galaxy S3 with a £10 pay as you go bundle.

We got dd a Samsung s4 mini. Bought it from cex second hand refurbed so it was like new but didn't cost a fortune. It's lasted well for 2 years so now we're going to upgrade so a nicer phone.

Got my daughter an I phone 5 SE. I was advised by several people, (other parents/techie gadget people) that this was a great first phone. I just took out a contract for her (with my provider) so no upfront cost of buying her a phone. It's about £25 per month (inc insurance) but having just had a look on price comparison websites you could get same (data usage, free texts/calls etc) for about £18.99 per month with O2 . If you can't afford upfront costs of buying a phone this is prob best way to do it.

Didn't buy DD a phone she got my old one. This will be tha way until she gets a part time job and then she can decide if she wants to spend her hard earned money on a new 'phone - or not.

I'd had it three years so it was far from new but wasn't so decrepit it was an embarrassment. It cost me £5pm with a Virgin sim data and unlimited texts and 100 mins of calls a month. We upgraded to a larger data package at a whopping £9pm

My dd had a Samsung J3 on three on the basic contract with insurance. Mainly because we didn't have a spare phone. She'd had one of those and it had died (not her fault) and a pay as you go sim for last 5 months of year 6. Proved she was sensible.
I would pay extra for insurance. Her school assumes they have smart phones for homework app (or access to). D

Dd and most of her friends have secondhand iPhones, generally acquired when a parent gets an upgrade so they're never the newest model but perfectly respectable! We have a sim-only contract for the princely sum of £7.50 a month which includes all the minutes, texts and data she needs.

She first got a phone halfway through Y6 when she started coming home by herself. That was a cheap Samsung PAYG phone then when she'd started at secondary we switched her over to my old iPhone 4 when I got upgraded as she'd shown she was responsible with it.

We got a Moto C for £99. Then a Sim from I.D Mobile for £5 a month which has plenty of data (1.5GB) which is the main requirement. He's very happy with it.

I think hand me downs is the way to go. iPhones are very easy to set up with parental restrictions. The kids have a password for the phone but you have the passcode for the restrictions. I also find my phone easy to use and very useful.
At 11 you don't want to make it easy for them to access unsuitable things on the internet even if it's unintentional.

If not a hand me down then I'd go for cheap as it's less likely to be stolen and less drama if it's lost.

DD is about to go into yr 7, she had a i phone 5SE for xmas last yr. All her friends have phones now and it's actually great as she is starting to be a bit more independent and out with her friends over the summer. I would say most of her group have I phones or Samsungs and in the main hand me downs

Mine has a non smart phone, it's a flip top one that she chose herself. Although now I'm worried she might get teased for not having a smart phone.

Did get ours then until 13 they had no need and then a cheap Samsung smartphone free and 8 a month

Now a bit older both have Saturday jobs and bought themselves iPhones. I still pay the contract only about 8-9 a month each. Currently they are 15/16

Didn't.