i-phone 6

usually best getting them off your mobile provider.. if you ring they will offer you a deal. wouldnt buy from ebay etc

How old is she?

I have a pay as you go bugle, so I don't have a provider of sorts as I make virtually all my calls on my home trumpet.
I don't want to call something like Carphone Warehouse and risk getting ransacked, though for all I know, they might be the best.

Mr.E - she's 15 and totally committed to impressing her chums with the best of everything.

Seems an absolutely ludicrous sum of money for someone so young.

Does she do housework/jobs that she could use to pay some of the fee?

I found out the other day my 9 yr old neice has a mobile.

NINE!

No mate...it's a bribe to study a bit harder at school

Whatever deal you go for, make sure its with a provider who caps the data usage. With a new iphone and a 4G connection, mobile data gets eaten up in no time.

Platini - that's a definite...my main concern!

EE have a cap. Tesco mobile as well.

I don't know much about this sort of thing...I would've assumed they all offered that facility - so some will lose business by not offering that?
PS - aren't the likes of EE & 3 supposed to be shíte or have they improved their reception?

No, they don't all have caps. Most don't AFAIK. I've been stung by this several times (my daughter).

I recently got my daughter an iphone 6 deal with EE and she hasn't had any problems so far with reception. I'm on O2 and have problems all the time, but it really depends on your location.

Platini

Platini

Whatever deal you go for, make sure its with a provider who caps the data usage. With a new iphone and a 4G connection, mobile data gets eaten up in no time.

That is true. I'd used 80% of my 4gb allowance within 8 days of getting an iphone. So I phoned EE and a very kind lady put me up to 20gb at no extra cost. Well worth asking for. You can get 20gb when making the purchase but I'm getting that for the cost of 4gb.

4gb in a week?!

Must be those HD besteality videos

Thanks for your advice guys but any suggestions about where to start finding a decent deal?

i have 3 i6s on a contract for my gf and 2 of the kids

they have unlimited calls and text and i think from memory 6gb data, so far none have got anywhere near their data limit and when i set it up i think it was £33 pm but is now around £35 pm with carphone warehouse 9per phone obv)

biggest issue with the ip6 is that the screens are very susceptible to breaking, my daughter has so far broken two and via apple it's £59 quid to repair

my kids are a bit older but still manage to break and lose stuff, but at 15 yrs old i might consider a lesser model like a 5 which you'll get on a similar contract for a tenner a month less than the i6, doubt you'll convince her though

you would be fine getting one from ebay,get the emei no before you buy and thats easy to check on line for lost stolen etc.
I too have been through pain with mobiles and daughters......spent so much remember one time bought the new motorola kazar thing for mine cost me about £300 at the time....dropped it cracked it after day 2 lost by end of the week!!!
as punishment i bought another phone for her,the worst one on the market just so she would look bad with her mates:)

.
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones/

plenty of other comparisons about but that's a fair place to start

Thanks Elise...I have heard her mention the 5S version so that might be of benefit - again, where do I start the ball rolling?

PS - how do I learn about data usage? It's meaningless to me when it's spoken in terms of 4/6/8/20 Gb and I'm trying to gauge how much time on youtube that would equate to over a month.

NO - that's precisely what I'm trying to avoid!

Elise - I'll start there after the racing

.
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/852786ea#/852786ea/18

try that booklet to see if it helps when choosing a data package

,
http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/internet/data-usage-how-to-stay-within-your-monthly-allowance-11363804517480

or the info there may help

Thanks again mate...I've bookmarked those pages for later on.

not a good idea to get one off eBay or worse, gumtree. The fact that the IMEI is not reported as stolen doesn't mean all that much. If a fraudster takes a contract he has no intention of paying for, it might not get cut off for a couple of months. At which point your phone may become worthless.

YouTube is the big guzzler, and unfortunately teenagers are never off it

Navel Gazer, I'd recommend you have a look at what GiffGaff have to offer.

Here are their phones, priced as either to buy now or monthly:

https://giffgaff.com/phones

They're all sold unlocked and come with no contract.
Fiddle about with what you want and select your options accordingly - and everything comes up as to what price stuff is.

You pay for whichever 'Goodybag' you want - For instance, for an Apple iphone 6 you can pay £21.71 for 24 months (with a £25 payment up front) - and have a 4G taffif of £18, which comprises 1000 minutes, unlimited texts and 5G of data usage, which would comprise a total monthly payment of £39.71.

Plus, all calls are free to other GiffGaff users, so you could persuade your daughter to get her mates on it too and she should have masses of stuff.
She can also 'earn' GiffGaff points just by using their forum and get extra credit on her 'phone.

You can also swap your tarrifs month by month.

It runs off the O2 network - and really is quite splendid.

*tarrif

I got an iphone 5s with EE after the iphone 6 came out, as it's far cheaper and does everything I could ever want, while being smaller and more convenient.

The iphone 5 lacks a few of the functions of the 5s and will be less future-proof.

Can get 4g reception even around Taunton now with EE, which suggests it's pretty widespread on that network.

it's a bribe to study a bit harder at school

Have kids moved on from the original pressure point?..the personal security myth.. "it's so you always know where I am ".

If she's studying any maths, perhaps she could offer a promised percentile improvement in her marks...

or have to hand it back

Held to ransom by a kid. Something to look forward to in the future.

Memo to self.

Buy shares in telecom companies.

memo to self should be;

don't have kids

had to pay for 2 lots of driving lessons in last 18 months, then 2 cars and 2 lots of insurance, the phones were a drop in the ocean

Should have taught them to ride a bike, elise.

Tommy - thanks mate...this shopping around malarkey (when you know nothing) is tiresome business and it's gonna take me a while to get it all sorted.

That's true elise, fortunately mine grew up before the current age of profligacy.

Many people seem convinced that this is a time of austerity in the UK. They are mistaken.