Tesco SIM only - any way to stop child going over limit?

apple111

The best solution it would seem is to go to mobiles.co.uk or onestopphoneshop.co.uk and take out a contract with O2 and the most basic phone (try a nokia 2330 or a samsung 3050), BUT on their unlimited tariff.

For 18 months, you will effectively be paying £60 per month - huge I admit, but if you are disciplined about the 16 months free cashback, they WILL payout. And then your overall cost will be £6.67 per month. And frankly, if you use quidco and reduce it further, it will effectively be even less.

I have taken out plenty of contracts with both of these vendors, and the key issue is, if you post the bills to claim cashback, provided you send recorded delivery and retain the proof, even if they claim not to have received it, you give them the posting reference and they payout.

mobiles.co.uk even accept email bills. So provided that YOU are organised about it, you can really eliminate here talk costs from your wallet, albeit with a bit of cashflow hassle. And then quite frankly she can talk and text until she loses her voice or her fingers drop off.

In return for you sorting it this way, the agreement has to be that she does not get a shiny new top of the range phone - either she keeps her existing one and you use the O2 sim, or she gets a basic new one. End of.

And ignore all these "she is her own person rubbish". I appreciate thats not much of a consolation when you get a mobile bill for her of a grand...........

But I have to ask, 0800 Reverse???? Is she taking the proverbial or what? Thats well out of order on you.

apple111

maxtweenie wrote: »

Isn't £35 a month far too much to be paying for a teenager's inability to control her tongue? Wouldn't it be better to teach her some responsibility or take the phone off her? We never had phones. If we wanted to talk to our friends we went round and knocked on their doors or arranged to meet at the park. Kids have it easy enough without soft parents making it worse by giving in to them all the time.

This hardly addresses the Ops problem deos it really? You probably never had computers, or Ipods either. Why not go all out and suggest that the Ops lovks her daughter in her room and nevr lets her out to meet or talk to anyone and therefore problem solved?

pipsi_2

Why are you encouraging your daughter to use 0800 REVERSE from a mobile. Why doesn't she just call your mobile and hang up before you answer therefore leaving a missed call so you can ring her back. The point of 0800 REVERSE is that kids can call home from a payphone if they don't have any cash, it's costing her to make the call from her phone because she's dialling an 08 number from a mobile.

$am1965

http://www.familymobile.co.uk/services/family-budget

Run by Ikea, you need a mobile sim with them, and it costs £10 to buy but you can limit the monthly top up to as low as £5 ! text/call costs not too bad either

ekkygirl

I sympathise, My daughter did the same a couple of times and landed herself with a bill of £113.00 for one month (new boyfriend) she paid the difference herself over 3 months and has never done it again.
Maybe half her pocket money until it is paid, That would be a bigger lesson than capping the usage I think.
Does her phone have a minute minder? can she phone and find out how many minutes she has used? 02 simplicity gets 300 minutes and unlimited text for £10.00 per month 600 minutes and unlimited text for "15.00 and 900 for £20.00 gotta love 02!.
We know what a complete waste of money the phone bill is, she needs to find this out buy using some of her own cash to pay it.
I pay my 17 year olds phone bill so I can contact her, I am happy to do this £15 per month with orange. She doesn't go over it very often and pays me the difference. I think this is because she had half packet money for 4 months and not because she listens to me lol

Good luck in finding somthing that workd for you!

magpiecottage

How about getting her and all her friends Giffgaff SIMs.

The SIMs are free and provided there is a top up of at least £10 a quarter then Giffgaff to Giffgaff calls are free. Other than that, it is PAYG so you will effectively impose a limit and better still, if the friends activate SIMS you gave them you will get credit on your account.

Other calls are 8p per minute to any network and texts are 4p.

maxtweenie

apple111 wrote: »

This hardly addresses the Ops problem deos it really? You probably never had computers, or Ipods either. Why not go all out and suggest that the Ops lovks her daughter in her room and nevr lets her out to meet or talk to anyone and therefore problem solved?

I think the point is rather that the OP is looking for ways to allow the child to carry on doing what she's always done, which seems to be constantly ringing or texting her mates.