Good phone deal for teenager

nim_2

My daughter currently has a Virgin PAYG (when she started with it most other people she knew were on Virgin so the 3p text rate looked good). She is now up to somewhere around 100-120 texts a month almost all non-Virgin, a few minutes and a few MMS.

We've previously tended towards PAYG because of the strictly limited liability on them - she spends too much, it stops working!

However it looks like there are much better deals available on a contract (ie the O2 SIM only 12 month deal with cashback) - which would have to be taken out by one of us. She is sensible and so I would be prepared to consider doing that.

However what are other people doing about teenagers with mobiles - what are you recommended approaches and/or deals?

d0cketts

Get an O2 sim card and top it up with £10 you get 300 free texts and the £10 credit which should be good for her if she mainly texts

superjaggybunnet

Don't get her a contract whatever you do!

Teenagers have no idea and just keep using it not realising that it will not cut off when the payg runs out.

Expect some big bills!

beautifulgorgeous_2

Go with tmobile ufix, nearly latest phone set amount per month then top up for the rest. Bit like buying the phone they want on HP and getting free minutes!

Jadore-Moi-X

I'm 14 years old and I have a 20 pound a month contract. I pay for it my self and get ten pound pocket money a week. I have a red wine LG KG800 chocolate phone.

anonymousie

beautifulgorgeous wrote: »

Go with tmobile ufix, nearly latest phone set amount per month then top up for the rest. Bit like buying the phone they want on HP and getting free minutes!

U fix is a good idea but a very poor deal overall.

My DD is on virgin bundles at the mo- prepay at a better rate, though if she texts and doesn't talk ( and you trust her with a contract!) th 3 contract at 75 mins nd 600 txts looks a good deal. I would get this for my DD but her last phone got stolen, and I wouldn't want ther to have aphone that needed extra insurance paying etc (no only s this put the monthly cost up- beware on u fix- but also the loopholes for not paying out in insurance that we keep hearing about seem to mean that basically your are suffed what ever!- her prev phone was stolen for a room thast was apparently lockd up but was "unattended" so I bet not covered!)

desperate_mum_3

my daughter has an orange PAYG have to top up £10 a month (every month) and she gets 300 free texts ... the more money you put on the more free texts you get .... also it has a magic number where she can nominate a mobile number and can talk for up to an hour to that number for 15p ...can change number but only one change a month ....great for the way kids chop and change friends !!!

nim_2

Having hunted around, although there are some really good contract deals around, the PAYG that looks most attractive is the T-Mobile "Text Appeal" - thats 3p per text to any network, calls a bit more expensive, but she has so few of them that its not an issue.

Just trying to find out if there are any stings in the tail (ie top ups only lasting a month of something).

angelfire

When I first got a contract phone, back in 1999, there were no 'deals' at all, I simply rang my provider (vodafone at the time), and asked them to make my calls and texts inactive once my bill had reached a certain amount.

It worked really well, and could be used as an option for parents with teens that would like to take advantage of good contract deals.... it surprises me that so many people are unaware they can do this...

magic57

!!!!!! wrote: »

When I first got a contract phone, back in 1999, there were no 'deals' at all, I simply rang my provider (vodafone at the time), and asked them to make my calls and texts inactive once my bill had reached a certain amount.

It worked really well, and could be used as an option for parents with teens that would like to take advantage of good contract deals.... it surprises me that so many people are unaware they can do this...

I tried to do this with O2 as my teenager was running up HUGE bills. They didn't want to know and said there was nothing they could do. There is no number to ring to check your remaining calls and texts and their website is at least 24 hours behind so I'd avoid them if I were you! When the contract ends we will leave and go back to PAYG. Good luck!

reehsetin

superjaggybunnet wrote: »

Don't get her a contract whatever you do!

Teenagers have no idea and just keep using it not realising that it will not cut off when the payg runs out.

Expect some big bills!

:mad: dont tar all teenagers with the same brush,
me and my brother have both had our own contracts phone since we were about 12, and havent run up huge bills, we arent all idiots, you dont know how old her child is,

all you should have to do is tell them to keep checking their available balance, depends if your trust them enough to do this