Tell me why I shouldn't get my son a BlackBerry on contract!

reehsetin

no point whatsoever getting a blackberry without the data, if data is £10pm then monthly cost is £25 and there are much better deals for £25pm,
if you want to stick to £15pm there are loads of different deals out there for that

[Deleted User]

Why not get him a BlackBerry Pearl from Orange on Pay As You Go? £99 upfront, topup £10 a month, get 300 free texts, 150MB internet. Then spend £5 of that topup on BlackBerry service to get the push email side of things, leaving him £5 to spend on calls.

If you need another reason not to get him a contract: BECAUSE YOURE HIS PARENT AND YOU SAY NOT. End of.

maxtweenie

I've summarised the replies so you can show him;

A blackberry without the data bolt on @ £10 a month is a waste of time. Whatever he says he will use it for internet, and it will end up costing more than £15 a month

24 months is a very long time in phone terms. In 6 months time, it will be out of date, and all his friends will be getting the latest Iphone / HTC /whatever.

'Unlimited' texts really means 3000, or 100 a day

100 inclusive minutes is around 3 minutes a day. Not much, and anything over will cost more.

Insurance is almost a necessity with teenagers. Phones get lost, stolen or broken with alarming ease at that age. That will add around £6 a month to your £15.

Hope that helps.

A neighbour told me only the other day that he'd taken out a £20 a month contract for his teenage daughter, 600 minutes, 500 texts. He got a call from O2 to say that three weeks into the month the bill was already £130! She'd used 1400 texts in 3 weeks and 15 hours of calls! She blamed it on splitting up with her boyfriend!

davetrousers

He wants a Blackberry to access Adult type sites (!!!!!!).

If you don't have an unlimited data usage deal you're going to get a huge bill!

[Deleted User]

Indeed, as maxtweenie summarises above, it won't end up costing you the headline price of £15 a month. After data and insurance packages, you'll be looking at £33ish.

Does a 15-year-old really need a BlackBerry?

If he comes back to you saying "Well, I'm not going to use the internet, and I won't go over the minutes, just texts...", then a £10 cheapie pay as you go would surely do the trick.

pimento

Thank you evryone. Something to think about and some ammunition to throw back.

I'll let you know what happens.

banger9365

BlackBerry is for emails and internet (mainly emails)
BlackBerry with out the BlackBerry internet servcies is a £15 pay as you go phone ,
the BB is conected to BIS 24/7 ,all the features work through BIS,
MMS ,internet,BBmessanger,google maps ect ect ,
with out BIS you can only make phones and send txt nothing else end off ,
t-mobile did a 8120 on payngo for about £100/£150 at pcworld and came with BIS and internet for 12 month and you just pay for calls and txt like a normall payngo

DarkConvict

Can't argue, he doesn't need a blackberry it is very much for business use of receiving emails on the go, and business related tasks.

Also 2 years is too long, what would be better for him is you buy a phone seperatly, then buy a sim only contract to go with it, that is either 30 days, or 12 months. This way you can give him more flexibility, as a kid he will want a new flashy phone very 12 months. And yes you do need insurance with a teenager.

As to the limits, we get messages on her again and again, my daughter/son has ran up a huge bill, too many texts/calls/internet usage.
Internet outside of packages can be about £2 per Mb, which on normal (non-mobie) websites is about 4-8 pages due to images.

If you really want a contract go with T-Mobile 'Solo Fixed' as the allowances cannot be exceeded.

loulou123

I have a blackberry and wouldnt have even considered the contract if it hadnt come with unlimited internet, as the costs would be huge.

I wasnt allowed a mobile on contract until i earnt enough to pay for it myself and to be honest i preferred it this way.

The blackberry is a good phone, but even at 30, i still dont use the majority of the functions on it, so im not too sure whether a teenager would really get too much use of them either. The blackberrys strength is definately in the email and internet side of things, apart from the QWERTY keypad (which other phones also have) texting is no different to any other phone. Also i find the blackberry a more "serious" phone, you cannot download new themes etc (and im guessing teenagers love things like this?)

Insurance wise, yes the insurance does usually cover calls AFTER the phone company has been notified, but it will not cover things such as one of his friends downloading lots of naughty clips etc, or if he goes way over his minutes, or calls/texts premium rate numbers. Also i think (please correct me if im wrong) that insurnace doesnt necessarily cover phones being stolen, unless you have a police crime number and sometimes it needs to be taken by force e.g not just taken out of your pocket or bag.

Personally id say stick to a PAYG phone, as that way there will be no nasty surprises.

sloth

If he really wants one

http://www.additionsdirect.co.uk/rf/add/p.do/pearl-8110?Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&SNtt=8110&groupId=589978191&Nu=this_product&SNtk=generic_search&Np=1&SN=104+85&Ntt=589978191&D=589978191&Ntk=group_search&Dx=mode%2bmatchall&thisprod=589978191&N=104+85&Nty=1&Mis_item_id=15&Mis_item_loc_id=1&product=589978191

is what i went for and i'm plsd with it. there is also a £30 off code floating around for new customers taking it down to £63 delivered. Has the complete blackberry service (push email, instant messenger and internet) for 12 months and the phone side is payg so no nasty surprises. also means he can change his phone in 12 months or even sooner

I think this is abrilliant deal personally and am plsd with mine