Does your teen have an iPhone/smartphone?

[powellrj]

My DD is 17 and has an i-phone. She is on a shared plan with her DSIL, but pays her own bill.

 

[Pigeon]

My three have smartphones. But I waited until our contract with Sprint was up and went with Virgin Mobile. You have to buy the phone, but we pay $35 a month for each phone. With tax it is like $38.

We each have 300 talk minutes and UNLIMITED texting and data.

For four of us I pay about $120 a month. Not too bad considering it would have jumped to $200 a month with Sprint and we would still be under a contract.


I will never do a contract againsince there are so many more choices now.

This is what mine have. The phones they have are Androids that cost around $100 each.

 

[momto2inKC]

My teens (14 & 16) have iPhones, as well as my husband and I. They've both had iPhones for a few years.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My three have smartphones. But I waited until our contract with Sprint was up and went with Virgin Mobile. You have to buy the phone, but we pay $35 a month for each phone. With tax it is like $38.

We each have 300 talk minutes and UNLIMITED texting and data.

For four of us I pay about $120 a month. Not too bad considering it would have jumped to $200 a month with Sprint and we would still be under a contract.


I will never do a contract againsince there are so many more choices now.

Wow, that's a great price. As for data used, do you pay as you go? or is there a certain amount that the above price includes?

 

[ICF]

My kids can get a smart phone, when they can afford to pay for it on their own!!

 

[acebatonfan]

Coming from a teenager (18):

I do not have a smartphone, nor do I need/want one. All I need in a phone is a quick way to get in contact with my parents if something were to happen. Coming from an upper-middle class school district, it was annoying seeing people constantly on their iPhone5, and I feel really sorry for the parents who have to pay for such a high phone/data/roaming bill.

I and my little sister (16) both have Motorola V3i RAZRs roughly six years old, and they still work like new. My sister, though, believes that she needs an iPhone.

 

[mbf]

My 22 year old got an iPhone 3GS last summer for (it was 99 cents through ATT). My 18 year old got her first Android smartphone last Christmas. It turned out to be a huge dud of a phone (I bought it through Amazon for 99 dollars) so when ATT had the iPhone 4 for 99 cents this past May I got her that to replace the Android. Neither girl ever really asked for a Smartphone but oldest DD's GPS was obsolete (company went out of business) and youngest DD is going to college in a large city so I really wanted them to have map and GPS capabilities at their convenience.

That said, I have told oldest DD that when her portion of our family contract is up next summer she needs to find her own plan. DH would like an iPhone so he can take credit cards through Square (he hardly ever has customers ask to use CC's) so I told him once one of the kids is on their own plan he can get one (he hardly uses the dumb phone he has and frequently lets the battery die).

Funny story, the other night my neighbor was telling me that she had planned on getting her 11 year old DD an iPod touch for good grades but the girl had asked for an iPhone instead so she was getting her one of those. The neighbor said "The iPhone is only 99 cents". I said yes but do you understand that the data plan is an extra 20-30 per month and not to mention adding another line and you will have to add unlimited text (or family text). I said it is going to cost you a minimum of an extra 50-60 a month (both she and her DH have dumb phones) on top of what you already pay. And you are locked into that for 2 years whether she breaks the phone or loses it. She didn't say much. I honestly don't think she had understood that before. I didn't even go into it with her about what the cost is if the kid goes over her data limits.

 

[tar heel]

My poor children are so deprived! We pay $9.99 a month to add their basic phones to our plan. They are welcome to get a smart phone and pay for the data plan each month if they want. One does, and the other two still have basic phones. My middle son, who is out of college but doesn't make much money, just had his phone to break, and I dug out one of our old basic phones for him to use for the time being. My youngest is probably the only student at the University of North Carolina who has a basic phone. . .

It's easy to get cheap smart phones, but paying for the data plan month after month is another matter.

 

[drcmk]

I'm just curious if my kids are the only ones that don't have one.
Which phone does your teen have & does he/she like it?

Everyone in my family-- including 2teens--has an iPhone. We love them. I want to be able to reach my kids at any time and I want to be able to use GPS to know where they are whenever I need to know. Since it is my rule that the kids have to have iPhones, I pay the bills.

 

[rockawaybeachgirl]

DD10 just got the IPhone 4S for her birthday. She paid for the phone out of her own money, and her dad and I split the monthly bill. I actually created a family plan for her and my husband, who also has the 4s, so the incremental cost to me is about $35 a month.

I have a 4s, my job pays for it.

For what it's worth, we do not have a landline.

 

[4shinystars]

Of the 4 of us on our plan, only DD 22 that just graduated from college has a smartphone(Iphone) and she just got that last month. she pays for the data. None of us ever really felt the need for them, DD 17 does not want one, she has an ipod touch and says anything she really needs online she'll wait for a place with wifi or wait till she gets home. Actually the problem we find is lack of "dumb" phones. DD17 needs a new one and only request is a slide out keyboard since she texts a LOT. AT&T only has one.

 

[ceecee]

DD bought one at 16 (Samsung with VM). We got her an iPhone 4s for Christmas and she pays the difference in VM it went from $25 to $30. DH and I have Tracfones, not important to us at all! DD can not use it when she is out with us or dinner, etc. We are so tried of seeing people out to eat and everyone using phones!

 

[Desnik]

DD is 15 and has an iPhone 5, DS is 10 and has an iPhone 4S.
(DH has an iPhone 5 & I have an iPhone 4)

We all love them!

My kids use them for music, games, research (my 10yo is weather obsessed & has a bunch of weather apps!). They rarely use them to call anyone. DD will text, but not that often. She uses it for social media too (Tumblr, Twitter).

Personally I love that I can get in contact with them so easily & can locate them at any moment! Not that I've needed to, they are with me almost all of the time!

But when we go places, I feel better knowing they have a phone.

 

[Anne34]

My dd15, ds 18 and I all have iPhones. My dd19 has a droid and my husband just upgraded to the galaxy 4. He's not an iphone lover. My kids have all had smart phones since they were in 8th grade or so.

 

[dhardawa]

My daughter is 13 and has had an iPhone for a few years now.

 

[Colleen27]

My teen has a dumb phone, but one with a QWERTY keyboard and a built-in MP3 player. He hates typing on a touch screen so he's not interested in upgrading. My tween has an LG Motion (Android), same as I have.

We're with MetroPCS, so two smartphones and one dumb phone, all with unlimited everything, runs $105/mo. With the family plan rate it is a flat $35/mo per line for the plan with the lower 4G throttling limit, but since we use the wi-fi at home and while traveling more than we use mobile data that's good enough for our needs.

 

[tvguy]

As teens they wanted them, I said no.
As adults, with jobs and money, THEY say no.

DS has to go out on site for work once in a while, and takes a company Droid (on Verizon) and Iphone (on ATT) with him. He ends up using his personal call for calls on site, he says the audio quality is awful on both the Droid and Iphone.

 

[Southernmiss]

4 out of 6 of us have them. Got Samsung galaxy 3s for Christmas. Kids with them are 19 and 16. Gave our older 2 phones to ds14 and dd11. We have absolutely loved having the galaxies. Before Christmas the 4 of us only had dumb phones and the other 2 did not have phones.

 

[Kingdome8]

My 9 and 6 year both have iPad minis and my 9 year old has an old iPhone she uses as a touch.
I think I will get her a phone at 12 or 13.
Depends on when friends do too. When I get her a phone it will be an iPhone and just join our plan. I want it so when's she 16 and driving I know where she is. Lol

 

[WantToGoNow]

My kids are not teens yet but they do have phones. Dd9 has my dd29s old Droid Incredible so it is a smartphone but she is blocked from our data plan after she used 75% in one week watching YouTube videos. Ds12 and dh has basic phones - ds has a Pantech Hotshot and will upgrade to a smartphone when its time to renew his contract. Dd29 and I have smartphones - she an iPhone and me a HTC Rhyme.