Contract Phone for Teenager on 02 - Recommendations Please!

Mumto5

I am completely confounded when I try to look into this. I really would appreciate some advice from those with more knowledge than me:o.

I want to spend up to £30 per month on contract. Teenager doesn't make many calls or send many texts. Internet/facebook would be good.

Has to be on 02 as all other family members are on that network.

Thank you

macman

How many minutes, how many texts? 'Not many' means different things to different people-especially to a teenager!

gjchester

Mumto5 wrote: »

I am completely confounded when I try to look into this. I really would appreciate some advice from those with more knowledge than me:o.

I want to spend up to £30 per month on contract. Teenager doesn't make many calls or send many texts. Internet/facebook would be good.

Has to be on 02 as all other family members are on that network.

Thank you

No matter how responsible we often see people moaning becuase the son/daughter has way overspend on a mobile. Consider a Tesco Mobile Capped Spend plan. Once you use all the minutes / texts that the contrat is for then thats it for the month unless they top up.

May help protect you from bill shock and get them used to the idea they need to budget and pay for things.

It's a SIM only plan I think, it's on Tesco's Web site.

http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/paymonthly.aspx?page=96

It's not o2 but these days mobiles tend to be x-network minutes rather than on network minutes so it's not that big a deal any more.

thorsoak

I would not take out a contract for a teenager ....too many otherwise-responsible teenagers that I know have left their parents with horrendous bills because they have downloaded/abused their phone contract - in most cases one time only .

Buy a phone, and then pay £30 per month on a PAYG contract - that way there is a limit as to how much can be spent!

SuzySu

Tesco do a very good deal until beginning of Oct.

Pay £10 per month (DD) and get 500 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. I think Tesco and O2 are linked but not sure.

Mumto5

Thank you all very much. I will have a look at tesco now. He doesn't spend much time on the phone as he communicates with his mates via the PS3 (again a complete mystery to me).

peterbaker

My teenagers are on 3 with SIM Only, £15 per month with a 1 month rolling contract.

They get 300 minutes of any network calls, free Skype calls which they can use if they use up the 300 minutes, 3000 texts and 1GB Internet. Skype, MSN and Facebook are completely free and don't count as part of the Internet allowance. The great thing is that my kids (and I) can easily track their usage and I or they (if you allow them to set a third party password) can prevent them spending anything beyond the £15, or set some other monthly credit limit just by making a simple call to billing department. Works wonders that does! My son for example gets a fresh 300 minutes in 5 days time but he has been on 0 minutes for a week already. He hasn't spent a penny over the £15, nor do I expect he will because he has off his own bat decided to set himself a hard limit of £15 this month to save himself making a mistake. His decision. He doesn't complain because he has Skype for all the usual calls he might need to make and he still has hundreds of texts left and his internet of course for his essential music via Spotify!

I can also switch on or off Internet data roaming when we are abroad via 3's website. This year I let them have it switched on. No major upsets and there was always 3's automatic roam data £50 credit limit as a backstop anyway.

For 3 mobile, they need modern 3G handsets of course, but most in the last two years are. If you need to buy a handset, consider buying one separately off contract. If you are a canny buyer you can give you and your kids a great deal of flexibility by NOT signing up for a 24 month contract.

I used to be with O2 when they were quite good. Since Telefonica took over they have been no good. I would see no reason to compound that error just because other family members haven't changed yet

Villz

Just buy a cheap phone at Tesco and do PAYG