Mobile Phone Negotiations Help Please

Old_Stanners

Sorry but I feel that this may be a long post. I'll try to keep it short but I am looking for some advice, please.

Mrs Stanners and I are due to renew our mobile contracts (currently with 3) and middle son, about to go to Big School, wants a phone for his birthday which seems reasonable.

Eldest is on 3 with us but out of sync contract wise due to a lost (probably stolen) phone.

We are obviously out for the best deal. Mrs S and I are low users, <100 mins and texts per month and less than 100MB per month. Eldest uses next to no calls and texts but runs out of his 250MB each month. But with 3 this is no problem as we are all capped.

The issue now is, what should we go for?

We like the capping with 3 but they are not budging on contract price. I could get 3 Samsung Galaxy Fames with them for £12 a month each to cover self, wife and middle son, all capped and with 2000 3 to 3 mins, unlimited texts and sufficient data and other mins to cover us all. Seems cheap enough and a bit of a no-brainer until I start to look around.

My home phone is with Talk Talk and they will do same phone as above with free mins between us and more mins and data (350 and 700MB + 5000 texts) for £7.50. OK, they will only give us 2 handsets but I could get a SIM for £3.50 to put in my ancient but BRILLIANT Nokia and the three of us could be done for less than £20 pcm.

Why am I not leaping at the chance?

Talk Talk do not cap. And if you go over their contract on even 1 item (e.g. data) your whole account is suspended. We are on a tight budget and I can't afford to let middle son rack up data charges. They say that they will send texts at 80% and 100% usage but will my 11 year old ignore them? I can set a credit limit but so what? If he reaches it then they say he won't be able to make calls.

I could get a Galaxy Fame with Tesco plus a Tab 3 for £11.99 per month. 500 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB data but it is with Orange and uncapped. Same issues.

As I see it, my options are:

a. Stick with 3. 3 phones for £36 per month, plus eldest at £10. All capped, no surprises, no account suspensions and we can always talk to each other with the 2000 mins.
b. Go with Talk Talk at £20 for 3 of us plus £10 for the eldest and take the risk of going over. This will mean trusting my 11 year old - HEAVEN FORFEND
c. Cap middle child on 3 and self and wife go with either Tesco or talk talk or a combination thereof. Ok, we cap him but we don't get the free call benefits between us which we would have if we all went with 3 or Talk Talk (Tesco also have a family combination deal but its not as good.

I suppose my questions are:

1. Will my 11 year old kill the 500MB data each month? Would 700MB be much better?
2. Do forumites know anyone else who caps cos I can't find them.

Ta.


OS

GRM

My son uses around 300MB/month on an iPhone 4. He's on the £7.50 goodybag from GiffGaff. If he canes the usage then the credit runs out and the phone stops working. Simples.

Old_Stanners

That's what is putting me off the credit limit style capping. When eldest uses up his data, he can still make calls and send texts on his current plan with 3. That just seems like sense to me.

I don't like the idea of either of the wee scamps being out of contact just because they've hammered the old Facebook account.

Bowling_4_Gold

The Galaxy Fame runs Android 4.1, so you should be able to set a data limit up on the phone itself:

http://heresthethingblog.com/2012/09/06/set-data-limit-android-phone/

I use a Windows Phone, which has a very similar setup. It is good in the way that you can set the counter to reset after x days to y amount- meaning that as soon as the month is up (and your allowance refreshes), you can resume the use of mobile data.

robbies_gal

i wouldnt gt any child a contract but i do belive tesco caps limits

what did we all do when we were younger

keith1950

You could get the Motorola Moto G from Tesco for £12.50p/month with 500 mins, 5000 texts and 500mb data.

Tesco allow you to cap their tariffs with a safety buffer.

They run on the O2 network so usually have good network coverage.

If you have more than one mobile you can get 'family perks' that allow you to select extra minutes, data or tesco-tesco minutes at no extra cost.

The Moto G is a very good smartphone for the price, my two previous mobiles were HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S3 and while it isn't the same build quality they do everything that most people need . I actually prefer the Moto G to my previous mobiles.

With ref. to your point about only two contracts I currently have 5 contracts at £12.50/month or below on Tescomobile.

If you are not bothered about how good the phone is they have the Galaxy Fame at £10/month and others at £7.50/month.

tyllwyd

My DD has a smartphone on a capped Tesco tariff - she only uses a very few minutes and texts, but does sometimes run out of data (but the other parts of the contract still continue to work). She has 500mB included, plus another 500mB as an automatic add on - and if she runs out of that and I'm feeling generous, it is possible to buy an additional one off bundle on the website.