Family Deals for Mobile Contracts?

horizon7

I would like to switch over myself, my wife and my two daughters to one provider for hopefully cost and ease of management benefits - so basically there are 4 brand new contracts on offer to a network / re-seller. Having just contacted EE, O2, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile they don't appear to offer any discount for this, which surprises me.

Does anyone know any deals for families on mobile phone contracts? I am looking specifically for a reduction on the monthly cost rather than extra free calls between family members or other similar incentives - ie 4 iPhones cost £100 a month separately, but because you are all with us, you get them for £80 a month as a random example.

Realistically, I am looking for one premium phone - ie Galaxy S5, a mid range android phone and two cheap android phones for the kids.

Any pointers would be very gratefully received, as no joy so far. Seems strange to me as this kind of thing must be a great opportunity for the networks to sign up customers and there must be plenty of families with the same issue.

Herongull

Are your daughters children/teens or are they adults?

If the former, don't even think of giving a child a contract phone (which will have to be in one of the parent's names). It is like giving a child your credit card and pin.

Children can purchase loads of expensive stuff using the credit on a contract phone, sometimes inadvertently by clicking on a link.

If the phone is lost or stolen, thieves can (and do) run up bills of £thousands within a few hours by ringing premium numbers. Children are not likely to be able to report a stolen phone quickly enough to stop you getting a huge bill.

Do your wallet a huge favour and buy cheap phones for kiddies and put them on PAYG?

horizon7

Thanks for the advice - they are 11 and 13 and the eldest has had no problems so far with her contract phone. A very cheap contract has seemed like a good option in terms of price and convenience up to now. However, with the youngest about to go to secondary school, I would be adding a further contract, hence my original question. Still very surprised the networks don't address this option. I will consider PAYG though.

Herongull

We get so many posts on this forum from people who have given a child a contract and they suddenly receive a huge bill (because the child gets a boyfriend/girlfriend and is always on the phone, or the child goes on holiday abroad, or the child's phone is lost or stolen or the child starts buying game credits or ringtones

They often blame the mobile company for not noticing the sudden change in network usage, but the mobile company is currently under no obligation to monitor phone usage. This is the sole responsibility of the phone user. Networks can make huge profits from people going outside their allowance, so they have no incentive to prevent this.

There seems to be only one "child-friendly" contract provider and that is Tesco mobile which offer capped contracts, which prevents children from running up huge bills.

There are also plenty of cheap PAYG offers around and many offer good value bundles. No risk of bill shock with this because once the phone runs out of credit, it can't be used until it is topped up.

It also teaches children responsibility if they have fixed amount of credit to use. Children then improvise and use free instant messaging instead of texting to make their allowance go further.

System

Herongull wrote: »

We get so many posts on this forum from people who have given a child a contract and they suddenly receive a huge bill (because the child gets a boyfriend/girlfriend and is always on the phone, or the child goes on holiday abroad, or the child's phone is lost or stolen or the child starts buying game credits or ringtones

They often blame the mobile company for not noticing the sudden change in network usage, but the mobile company is currently under no obligation to monitor phone usage. This is the sole responsibility of the phone user. Networks can make huge profits from people going outside their allowance, so they have no incentive to prevent this.

There seems to be only one "child-friendly" contract provider and that is Tesco mobile which offer capped contracts, which prevents children from running up huge bills.

There are also plenty of cheap PAYG offers around and many offer good value bundles. No risk of bill shock with this because once the phone runs out of credit, it can't be used until it is topped up.

It also teaches children responsibility if they have fixed amount of credit to use. Children then improvise and use free instant messaging instead of texting to make their allowance go further.

But you get few posts about children who cope with contracts successfully because they are a non-story and not worth highlighting. You therefore see a severely skewed view of things.

I've posted here before about my daughter who has run a contract in my name for the last 5 years without a problem and is now at 19 getting a contract in here own name. The standard response to this was 'You were lucky'. I take the opposite view that if you have brought your children up correctly then this is the expected outcome. If they have run up huge bills then you have been unlucky.

OP if you are happy that you can trust your children with a contract phone then go for it. Without any figures, my opinion is that there are probably more successful under 18 contracts in parents name than contracts that 'go wrong'

horizon7

Thanks for your replies.

Getting a bit off topic. I am fully aware of the differences between contract and PAYG and the dangers and in agreement with the last poster have not had any problems with this myself, as I have taught my children what to avoid in terms of in app payments and going over any allowances, going abroad etc

However, I would steer any future replies back towards the original question which is - does anyone know of any deals available from networks for family contracts for up to four phones? I am not asking about family friendly-features or offers, but just straightforward money off the monthly cost for the 'bulk' purchase of 4 mobile phone contracts from one provider.

flea72

Virgin media dont do a family offer as such, but they do offer a discount on tariffs, if someone in the household has an account with them

So you can currently get iphone 4s for £19/m, rather than Joe Public price of £29/m (i know you can get it for about £19/m generally elsewhere, but virgin include insurance in the £19)

Or they do a rolling monthly sim (no tie in period) for £7/m that you can put into your own phone

gjchester

horizon7 wrote: »

However, I would steer any future replies back towards the original question which is - does anyone know of any deals available from networks for family contracts for up to four phones?

Four is not a bulk deal, so unless you are spending a lot each month (and realistically £100 isn't a lot to the networks) you may want to consider a small business plan, but they have other drawbacks, such as the fact a business to business contract has different terms to a consumer one.

Looking another way using Tesco's family perks may mean you can get a level of tariff lower than you currently have, using the perk to "top up" the minutes/text/data to the same level. Not really a discount per se...

Have you thought of buying them outright and using sim only?