son has saved up for blackberry, what one to purchase please

mirrorimage0

hi all

my 12 yr old son has been saving up and doing chores etc to get himself a blackberry he has almost managed it and i said i would start looking for him, but to be honest i have no clue about them what so ever.

could anyone make a suggestion on what woul be a good one/deal ideally pay as you go.

and yes i do know he doesnt actually need a bb but most of his friends have one and as he has saved his own money to get one its up to him on what he purchases, lets just wait an see how long it takes him to lose it

thanks for the advice people

mirrorimage0

how much do you pay monthly for that though because if he ended up with a contract phone he would have to pya himself monthly which i think he would struggle with but the pay as you go he can top up when he wants

Stuart_W

The cheapest blackberry is the 8520 - it is available free on monthly contracts from £10 per month - but some of these don't include any data so will cost more than £10 each month.

On PAYG, it's about £120-ish.

T-mobile are offering 6 months of free Blackberry email/internet with a new blackberry phone.

With PAYG, worth looking at what the data costs for running a blackberry will be.
Orange offer monthly access to the Blackberry Internet Service for £5 per month from top-up balance as an extra. (scroll down to bottom of page for the BIS extra)
T-mobile offer a Blackberry Booster also giving 1 month access for £5 or, alternatively giving 6 months unlimited access for £20. If he's likely to be topping up £10 each month, this can also provide unlimited texts each month (or 100 free minutes if he's more talk than text).

I would definitely recommend the PAYG route - if you work your way round top up rewards, bundles, bonuses etc you can get a reasonable deal for him, and he can take full charge of costs. Used right, PAYG doesn't have to be expensive. Roughly, what sort of text/minute usage, in addition to unlimited access to Blackberry Internet, might he be wanting?

mirrorimage0

at the minute he only tops up around every 3 months so doesnt use it that often unless hehas his free texting when he tops up then constantly for a month lol

he will be going to senior school in sep so i want him to be able to contact me on hs journey to and from school and when he is out so i know he is ok and will obviously be using his phone a lot more anyway when he gets new friends

MorrisonsEmployee

T Mobile are currently offering the Blackberry Curve 8520 and the Blackberry Curve 9300 for £15.32 per month contract - He could use the money he has saved to pay his moble bill monthly, Both the phones include the £5 charge for use of BBM which is the reason all the kids seem to want a Blackberry in the first place!

Also if you go via Quidco you can get £80 cashback when taking out a new contract with T-Mobile, They take about 3 months to pay [I have recieved £350 for T-Mobile contracts from Quidco over the past year], The £80 could be used towards the cost of the monthly phone bill meaning esentially he would be getting 5 months free. The Quidco deals and cashback offers are listed here - http://www.quidco.com/user/185741/84486/t-mobile

There are lots of good deals out there for both pay monthly and sim only but if you do decide to take out a contract make sure it includes the £5 monthly BBM charge otherwise his phonebill will be alot higher than £15 per month!

mrochester

It'd seriously question whether giving a monthly contract to a 12 year old is a good idea. The 8520 for just over £100 on PAYG is probably your best bet.

mrochester

d.ross wrote: »

Why's that? You have far more control with an account than you do with PAYG.

Why pay £100 for a phone, plus top ups (which will most likely increase as he gets older), when you can get contracts from around £15 per month?

And when the 12 year old runs up a bill of a few hundred £££, how is it then cheaper?

Stuart_W

d.ross wrote: »

Why's that? You have far more control with an account than you do with PAYG.

Why pay £100 for a phone, plus top ups (which will most likely increase as he gets older), when you can get contracts from around £15 per month?

Free blackberry on £15.00/month contract for 24 months with Blackberry Mail, 100 mins and 500 texts.
= minimum commitment £360.00.

PAYG - upfront cost around £120
£10 top-up every month can get, for example (I've picked Orange here)
Get 400 free texts as a top up reward
Buy a £5 extra from top up balance for unlimited BBM access
Buy a £5 extra from top up balance for 100 minute extra.

Unlimited texts, BBM access and 100 minutes for £10 top up.
Total cost with PAYG = £360 over 24 months - so the same!
No 24 month contract - each month choose what you want to buy.

Big advantage - especially for a 12 year old - is that if you want to use it more, you buy the top up first. PAYG is definitely the way to go in my opinion. There will always by differing views on here, but don't feel PAYG is always the rip-off it is sometimes made out to be on these boards. Contracts can certainly be rip-offs too. Just ask anyone on here who has faced the shock over £100 monthly bill.

2gorgeousgirls

Stuart_W wrote: »

Big advantage - especially for a 12 year old - is that if you want to use it more, you buy the top up first. PAYG is definitely the way to go in my opinion. There will always by differing views on here, but don't feel PAYG is always the rip-off it is sometimes made out to be on these boards. Contracts can certainly be rip-offs too. Just ask anyone on here who has faced the shock over £100 monthly bill.

Agree with this.

My 11 year old wants a BB for Christmas. Haven't decided yet whether she's getting it but if she does, it will definitely be a PAYG as I don't want to be faced with a bill for a couple of hundred because she has downloaded lots of music and used the internet.

With PAYG, when the top-up's gone, its gone.

Stuart_W

d.ross wrote: »

Don't forget calls cost more on PAYG anyway. .

Not necessarily. In my quoted example with the £10 top up, 100 minutes are purchased as a £5 extra - and any usage over this costs 5p per minute from the credit balance. Would you like to point me towards any contract that allows calls for 5p per minute once the inclusive allowance is used up?

The Orange deal that offers a free Blackberry with a £15/month contract comes with 100 minutes but excess usage is 25p per minute.

Cheaper calls with contracts? Not necessarily.

PAYG - change and choose as you like, change month to month
24 month contract - you're stuck with what you choose.

The point is topping up £10 a month will always cost £10 a month.

A £15/month contract can easily cost £20 or more each month as those non-inclusive extras creep in.

Not all (infact very few AFAIK) monthly contract providers allow monthly limits be set.

banger9365

i do not agree with giving a 17yr old ,never mind a 12 year old a contracted phone,infact i would not give mine draughter one and she 25 ,
pay n go is the only way to go with a minor,if he can save the money for the phone he can save it for call/txt and data,on topup,you will know thats thier not going to be a big bill come round the corner which you or him cannot pay.
and for puting limits on the contracted just search this forum about it ,they do not work,


that my two penith