How much allowance for teenagers?

strawb_shortcake

zagfles said:

I'm surprised so many people are paying for their kids' mobile contracts. Something I avoided like the plague, so many news stories of kids (and adults) running up bills of thousands by accident or after having their phone stolen etc. Bit better protection today but still happening, even with so-called "caps" there are exclusions which make them next to useless.

IMO there's no need for contracts with all the PAYG deals with unlimited calls and texts and oodles of data for £5-10 a month. Unless the "contract" is really a disguised loan for the phone.

Something worth checking is that their SIM is PIN protected, by default they aren't, no point having security on the phone if the SIM can just be taken out and put into another phone.

My eldest two children I pay for their phone contracts, I pay £7.50 a month and there is a £2.50 buffer, only my Daughter has managed to go into this. I think the data element can be a bit iffy in not sticking to the buffer - at least it could a few years back. We live quite rural and limited 3/4G so the opportunity to reach their data allowance is minimal.
There are circumstances where I can see PAYG would have benefits but for us the current set up works just fine, and as I pay £33.50 per month for 4 mobile phones I think I'd struggle to beat this cost with PAYG. 
If, my children want either a more expensive phone or higher minutes, texts, data etc then I'd be asking them to pay the difference or they could save and buy it themselves.

We don't give our children a set allowance, pre lockdown they were earning and managing their own money, balancing between saving and spending on additional treats and going out with friends. But we do give them money on an adhoc basis. They are all very good at saving and understanding how to manage their money and how they want/need to allocate it taking into account planned future spends of theirs. 

zagfles

annabanana82 said:

zagfles said:

I'm surprised so many people are paying for their kids' mobile contracts. Something I avoided like the plague, so many news stories of kids (and adults) running up bills of thousands by accident or after having their phone stolen etc. Bit better protection today but still happening, even with so-called "caps" there are exclusions which make them next to useless.

IMO there's no need for contracts with all the PAYG deals with unlimited calls and texts and oodles of data for £5-10 a month. Unless the "contract" is really a disguised loan for the phone.

Something worth checking is that their SIM is PIN protected, by default they aren't, no point having security on the phone if the SIM can just be taken out and put into another phone.

My eldest two children I pay for their phone contracts, I pay £7.50 a month and there is a £2.50 buffer, only my Daughter has managed to go into this. I think the data element can be a bit iffy in not sticking to the buffer - at least it could a few years back. We live quite rural and limited 3/4G so the opportunity to reach their data allowance is minimal.
There are circumstances where I can see PAYG would have benefits but for us the current set up works just fine, and as I pay £33.50 per month for 4 mobile phones I think I'd struggle to beat this cost with PAYG. 
If, my children want either a more expensive phone or higher minutes, texts, data etc then I'd be asking them to pay the difference or they could save and buy it themselves.

We don't give our children a set allowance, pre lockdown they were earning and managing their own money, balancing between saving and spending on additional treats and going out with friends. But we do give them money on an adhoc basis. They are all very good at saving and understanding how to manage their money and how they want/need to allocate it taking into account planned future spends of theirs. 

Ours use Smarty PAYG, think they're on the £7 a month bundle which gets 8GB plus unlimited calls and texts, easily enough as most of their usage is in the house, friends/relatives houses or uni where they have wifi.

But most importantly, no chance of unexpected bills in the hundreds or thousands, as regularly used to happen. I think things are better now after OFCOM introduced capping https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/mobile-bill-limits

but because of exclusions like premium rate and mobile purchases things like this still keep happening:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6263048/question-and-perhaps-a-warning-regarding-mobile-billing

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jul/29/barcelona-theft-tourists-stolen-mobile-bills

edwel1793

When I was a teenager, my parents gave me around £25 per month. And I have to agree that it was a long time ago.
According to my friends who are now parents themselves, they give their children around £60-£70 per month until they get to have a part-time job. It's really a big jump. Hahahahaha.

Spendless

I think some of these replies show you have to take your own teens plus their circs into account. I've never had an issue with either of mine and mobile phone contracts. That doesn't mean they're perfect in other areas though.

When my daughter blew her monthly allowance on clothes all at once for the 3rd consecutive month I was not best pleased. The previous two months we'd been in lockdown, so I'd been ok with the first month and thought that was enough for the second. On the 3rd the shops were open, I'd had to nip back to my car and she'd added up the items in her basket wrong before reaching the till. She was aware of my displeasure so this then led to her finding a part time job. However, it didn't last long because she had her hours cut because the cafe owner found out she was off to Uni in September and said she wanted someone longer term. Then we discovered daughter was being paid less than NMW for her age  (yes, we'd been amiss in not looking it up in the first place) which gave us concerns about how legally she was working and would she be covered if an accident occurred for example. So, she's back to job hunting.


Due to issues she had during her last year or two at school where she became very ill (MH) I sent her out of area to college. To cut costs we buy a train season ticket. It's unfortunate that just as she became eligible for free bus fares through my job, I lost it in the first lockdown. I cover all fares to and from college separately as I see this as a safety issue if she couldn't get home from 40 miles away  when she was sent that distance away for personal and health reasons rather than being able to give  a 'well you'll just have to walk then'  attitude if she attending somewhere more local. 

Retireinten

I'm surprised at some of the allowances quoted here to be honest. My two (16 and 13 years old) get £20 a month plus their phone contracts and grandma gives then a tenner of that😳.  We buy their clothes, but designer is reserved for xmas and birthday. 


Tried the whole chore tracking app thing a while back and they just weren't interested.  


Youngest (boy) has far less 'wants' than his older sister and in reality she does get more than he does as she comes shopping with me and gets things like hair dye and make up etc. 


Daughter turned 16 this month and also left school last week and started her summer job on Sunday. She's incredibly driven to earn and learn before she starts college in September and I suspect she will be working close to full time hours for the next three months to achieve both. But that is partly down to the fact I've made it clear I'm not funding her social life when she can't be bothered to fill the dishwasher at home.  Very proud of her though for getting stuck into her new job so soon after finishing school😁

fred246

I guess these threads range from the tiny amounts which often means that parents can't bear to hand over money management to their children and they remain in control. At the other end would be the "I work all hours to make sure my children have everything they could ever ask for" who give obscene amounts for designer clothes etc. For most people it's something in the middle. I have always made mine pay for their own phones. I was glad when they told me a standard way of getting a phone upgrade is to purposefully break your current one. I was a bit shocked by that.

maman

Retireinten said:

I'm surprised at some of the allowances quoted here to be honest. My two (16 and 13 years old) get £20 a month plus their phone contracts and grandma gives then a tenner of that😳.  We buy their clothes, but designer is reserved for xmas and birthday. 


Tried the whole chore tracking app thing a while back and they just weren't interested.  

I think if you read the detail, most people giving larger amounts don't then buy stuff for their children like you do. With the exception of gifts, they give their children the money they would otherwise be spending on them and let them manage their own finances. 

I'm always conscious that those parents who post asking for advice on 'keep' often say they're taking the money to teach their children the value of money. IMO when they start work is far too late for financial education to start. 

I'm not familiar with a chore tracking app. Is it about being paid to do chores? Personally I think everyone who lives in the house should pull their weight without being paid for it. 

kimwp

fred246 said:

I guess these threads range from the tiny amounts which often means that parents can't bear to hand over money management to their children and they remain in control. At the other end would be the "I work all hours to make sure my children have everything they could ever ask for" who give obscene amounts for designer clothes etc. For most people it's something in the middle. I have always made mine pay for their own phones. I was glad when they told me a standard way of getting a phone upgrade is to purposefully break your current one. I was a bit shocked by that.

Think you are making a lot of assumptions there!

zagfles

maman said:

Retireinten said:

I'm surprised at some of the allowances quoted here to be honest. My two (16 and 13 years old) get £20 a month plus their phone contracts and grandma gives then a tenner of that😳.  We buy their clothes, but designer is reserved for xmas and birthday. 


Tried the whole chore tracking app thing a while back and they just weren't interested.  

I think if you read the detail, most people giving larger amounts don't then buy stuff for their children like you do. With the exception of gifts, they give their children the money they would otherwise be spending on them and let them manage their own finances. 

I'm always conscious that those parents who post asking for advice on 'keep' often say they're taking the money to teach their children the value of money. IMO when they start work is far too late for financial education to start. 

I'm not familiar with a chore tracking app. Is it about being paid to do chores? Personally I think everyone who lives in the house should pull their weight without being paid for it. 

Indeed - we've let ours manage their money inc paying for "boring" stuff like uniforms, travel, clothes etc since they were 12 and they're now (at uni) really really good at it.

zagfles

fred246 said:

I guess these threads range from the tiny amounts which often means that parents can't bear to hand over money management to their children and they remain in control. At the other end would be the "I work all hours to make sure my children have everything they could ever ask for" who give obscene amounts for designer clothes etc. For most people it's something in the middle. I have always made mine pay for their own phones. I was glad when they told me a standard way of getting a phone upgrade is to purposefully break your current one. I was a bit shocked by that.

That's only if you have phone insurance (sometimes included in a contract) and commit insurance fraud. Similarly some people sell their old phone on ebay and then fraudulantly claim they lost it and claim on the insurance. But I think insurers haved wised up these days, so it'd be a risky thing to do, you might struggle to get any insurance with a conviction for insurance fraud.

If you're talking about "contracts" which are mainly a disguised loan for the phone, you have to carry on paying even if you lose the phone, unless insurance covers it, and once the contract period is up you should be able to get a much cheaper contract as there's no loan element. Either that or a brand new phone on a similar "loan".

Paying for stuff in this way is exactly what we tried to avoid teaching the kids! We taught them to save up for stuff, or perhaps put it on a wish list for xmas/birthday presents, rather then getting used to buying stuff on credit.