Iphone for Daughter - Handset+SIM or 24 mth Contract?

Robwales

Daft question perhaps - but despite all my advice to the contrary, my Daughter is adamant she wants a new Iphone 11 for Xmas (and willing to put the vast majority of the funds towards it)

We have traditionally bought cheaper models (eg Honor lite) or 2nd hand phones and then a PAYG SIM eg Vfones Voxi (£10) for 12GB per mth.

I was going to do the same here...keep her £10/mth Voxi rolling +  buy Iphone 11 from JL for £599 (inc 2 yr warranty)...so over 2 years this would be £839.

However, i just realised that in this case (and more expensive models) it would be cheaper to buy a contract.  For example:
A 24mth contract with O2 via MobilePhonesdirect = £199 + 24 x £23 (30GB) = £751 over 2 years.

(I assume i would put this in my name as she is <18)

So - two questions:

Q1. Other than the minor hassle of PAC and moving the number over from Voxi (Vfone) to O2....any reason(s) im missing not to go down the Contract route on this occasion?

Q2. Any idea how we time this so the new account is active around Xmas day (and her old one switched off), rather than days before hand? Or could we simply take out the new O2 SIM we get with the Iphone 11, and put it in her current iphone 6 or whatever it is, until Xmas day?

Thanks a lot!

tacpot12

Q1 I'd want to check the cost of insuring the phone against loss/damage/theft on the contract and if bought outright. Providing this doesn't change the economics, then contract looks to be a reasonable route. Someone needs to set a reminder to cancel the contract at the correct point to prevent it becoming a worse deal. Cancelling the contract at the  24 month point is likely to lead to the need to port the number again, and get the phone unlocked in order to switch to a new deal/network. The phone from JL will come not locked to any network.

Q2 If her existing phone is unlocked, then putting the new O2 sim into it (when the number port has happened) will allow her to keep the iPhone 11 in pristine condition (and in its Christmas Wrapping) until Christmas day. 

wongataa

1. Do you trust your daughter to keep paying you the monthly payment for the contract for the duration?  If for some reason she fails to pay you, you will be have to pay it out of your own pocket.

[Deleted User]

Don’t let your daughter get into the life long trap of thinking credit is ok for non essential items. It’s not a good life lesson. 

elsien

Deleted_User said:

Don’t let your daughter get into the life long trap of thinking credit is ok for non essential items. It’s not a good life lesson. 

However sorting out the best deal, managing credit responsibly, and swapping to a better deal if there is one at the end of the credit period is a good life lesson to learn. 
OP, she might find with O2 it's just the one year warranty so may be worth scrutinising what the extra year with JL gives her (or more importantly, any exclusions) and balancing that against the cost/terms/conditions of any extra insurance she might want instead.