What phone does your teenager about to be teenager have?

[trickydickie]

My daughter is about to turn 12 and goes to Secondary school in August. She wants a phone for her birthday. Obviously she wants my iphone (well not mine but an iphone).

In the past she has had a couple of cheap mobiles but inevitably they have been lost (only to be found months later). She hasn't ever really been that interested in her phones before.

We do feel that she will use one a bit more once she is at Secondary and will also be good for us to be able to contact her (if she answers it).

I'm not sure about getting her a decent phone, feel it could easily be lost, stolen etc. Though I don't want her to feel totally different to her peers.

What type of phone does your teenager have? Thanks.

Iphone 4S (second hand off the internet) she is 13

iPhone 4, it's a cast off from my upgrade. She had to part buy it off me. She's 12 and in year 7.

My boys are Sony fans so 13 year old has an Xperia SP (and previous phone was an Xperia Play) and 12 year old has an Xperia Miro - he'd like something more swanky but picked that one last year and he'll have it till a year in August and the contract runs out.

Thanks for replies. I found an old thread and a lot of people were saying their kids didn't have fancy phones. Mainly because the kids contacted friend via facetime and instagram etc on their ipods/ipads.

My daughter does contact her friends via above methods.

I want her to have the phone and she knows this. Her secondary is a 30 minute walk away. I want her to have it just incase something happens on her journeys.

I am not sure how much she will actally use her phone.

Someone on another thread said their child would only get an iphone if it was a birthday present. I don't spend that much on birthday presents for my children so still feel it's a very big birthday present and don't want her thinking we will spend that on future birthdays.

Dilema's.

Do you get 12 month contract phones or are they all 24 months? I might need to research this more.

Dd has a huawei something or other and is on giff gaff. It runs on the O2 network and we like it as you can make it so when it's run out its run out. She gets data and free texts for £7.50/month

Mine (aged 15 and 11) both have Samsung Galaxy s3 minis - but they are both birthday presents from last year so there is probably a more recent model now. They are good basic-ish android phones, just the right sort of size, with decent camera functions. One's on Tesco PAYG, one's on GiffGaff.

Has she not had a phone before? I made sure mine both started out with old/cheap phones so that they made all the early mistakes with ones that didn't matter. DS got through three phones in his first year, but DD managed to keep my old one for a whole year without mishap.

Ds will be getting my old iPhone 4s when he turns 11 in July as he'll be going to secondary in sept.
16 yr ds has iPhone 5c

DH and I don't have contract phones and I am not willing to get DD a contract phone either, though I am aware we are in the minority.

She has a Samsung phone on an automatic top up that we can cancel anytime.

My main reason for keeping her phone basic is that she has a phone so we can call her and she can call us. I don't want her draining the battery on her phone using apps and internet, rendering the phone useless.
I also don't like the idea of her having constant internet access. With her IPod when there is no wifi there is no internet.

My youngest is in Yr7, and she has nearer to an hour's walk to and from school.
She (like her siblings before her) has a £10 from Tescos type phone (well, I think dh got a virgin one as it was slightly better at the time). It's on PAYG.
None of my dc have become social pariah's. Neither she, nor her sister in Yr10 are bothered about phones at all.

ds (in Yr13) has bought himself a contract and some flashy phone with money he's earned in his part time job.

My eldest has a more expensive contract now, but to be fair that comes out his pocket money and he doesn't ask for anything. he goes to a school where expensive phones are the norm but those without aren't made fun of. Tesco are very good for their contracts, they have some nice enough phones for not a lot of money (£7.50 a month) with enough calls and texts and internet to keep them going and they are easy to limit so they can't accidentally go over.

Thanks again everyone.

Dh has found a nokia lunar (lumiar) something or other for £7.50 a month. I have insomnia at the moment so will spend the next hour looking at ebay and gumtree for second hand phones for her and look at tesco and giffgaf.

Tesco capped year long contracts often include a free phone, i pay £20 a month, which included a free samsung s3 mini and unlimited texts and data

Capped so she cant run up a huge bill or run out of minutes

At the time tesco was the only ones to offer this option

And cash back via quidco

Corikey, the demographics of MN rear selves again (iPhone 4s for 12yos, really?)

DD is 12, y7. Has a Cubot from Amazon, cost about £60 outright. Anything but touchscreen is deeply uncool in DD's opinion. And flip or slider phones are just yuck. Be very careful with micro-USB chargers, though. Basic true PAYG contract. DH insisted that whatever touchscreen she had was Android; she has heaps of free games with it & access to music.

DD has an LG one that looks like a blackberry but cost around £30. We pay £10/month on PAYG with Tesco, no nasty surprise bills. She gets a load of free internet data with that as well as a generous sms allowance (and I get the Clubcard points).

I don't allow Facebook on her bedroom laptop - she has to use her phone data allowance for it which means she is responsible for rationing the allowance to make it last the month. Effective.

Why not let a 12yo have an iPhone 4s? The people on here who have posted that their dc have them have all given them their old ones or have bought 2nd hand so they aren't necessarily expensive.

If we were upgrading our phone then I would possibly let her have my iphone 4. I still have over a years contract on it and Dh's is through is work. The likelihood is zero that we can pass ours down to her.

When my contract runs out I am keeping my phone and going with giffgaf for half the price. So dd still won't be getting an iphone 4.

I have been looking on gumtree at the nokia lumia. Think I can get a second hand one including sim etc for £60. (I was hoping more $40). Then if it is lost or never used I won't go nuts and I will know she doesn't need or want an iphone. If she manages to keep the nokia lumia and uses it then she could possibly buy herself an iphone with all birthday money next year (she also has birthday money from previous years).

Think I will go with giffgaf at £7.50 a month, unlimited texts. 200 minutes free calls and can't remember but a good bit of internet usage time. I presume if she loses the phone I can just cancel the giffgaf contract.

Dh has pointed out that she still has her ipod which is now 3 years old. Though it has went missing for months on end.

Only thing I would say about the phone choice is that according to the sales guy and my son, if the lumia is a windows phone which I think it might be, they aren't as good for games and apps as the android ones - that may not matter to your daughter if she has an ipod, but just thought i'd mention it.

Its the games and stuff that my boys like on their phone so it was an important point for them.

thanks soontobe. She does like the games, grabs my phone at every opportunity to play them.

Though Dh has just said she has an ipad she can play her games on. Thi nk the Android phones are more expensive. Will just get her this basic lumia and see how she goes.

She seen it online and is happy to be getting that one (at least for now).

Thanks everyone.

My DD has a HTC Wildfire S from Tesco on a 2 yr contract at £7.50 a month capped. It suits her great and I like the price!

She got it for her 11th birthday and is now 12.5 and starting to talk about what she'll get for her 13th - deal is if we stick to 2 yr contracts she'll get a new phone every other birthday.

She's been happy with it. It has 3G and she keeps in touch with friends via text and has just this week started on instagram. She mainly uses it to phone me to tell me she's home though.

I don't think they do that model any more but this is pretty much the same deal and a similar handset.

I have said next birthday she can choose from the up to £10/month range. She occasionally says she'd like an iphone, but there's no way I'm buying it so she'll have to save a lot of pocket money!

My 11 yo ds (yr 6) has a Samsung Galaxy Ace, which seems to be popular in his year as quite a few kids have it. You can have flowers printed on it and stuff. Quite cool IMO. DD is 15 and has iPhone 5s, which was a Christmas present on a contract. She says loads of yr 7s & 8s have iPhones now tho.