Kids and mobile phones

Coullio

Ok my 9 year old (10 later this year). Has been going on and on about a iPhone for while now. I no longer stay with then due to separation at the end of last year. I am looking to get a sim only deal, can someone recommend the best solution?? I defo want it capped and going by what I have read only Tesco Mobile do this. They I could go down the PAYG route but it would land up costing more. Looking to spend between £10 to £15 a month.

Any help is much appreciated.

ZhugeEX

Bit young for an iPhone....
Maybe a less expensive basic phone is better suited for a child.

Tesco and Three are the only networks that allow account capping.
Three do SIM Only deals for £6.90pm and Tesco do deals from £10pm

Pay as you go may be a better solution though due to the fact there is no tie in and you 100% control how much money is being spent.

Coullio

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Bit young for an iPhone....
Maybe a less expensive basic phone is better suited for a child.

Tesco and Three are the only networks that allow account capping.
Three do SIM Only deals for £6.90pm and Tesco do deals from £10pm

Pay as you go may be a better solution though due to the fact there is no tie in and you 100% control how much money is being spent.

The tesco deal seems the best option and I like the idea of capping. She has had a ipad for a year or so and looks after it. My reason for the phone is she can contact me direct rather than me contacting her mother/ex-wife. She is gadget crazy and would not accept any other phone.

sfry

Coullio wrote: »

She is gadget crazy and would not accept any other phone.

So who is in charge of the budget here?

Ms_Chocaholic

Have you had a look at GiffGaff, if you don't buy top up and just the goody bag, once the goody bag has been used up she will be unable to use data other than wifi.

There's a £12 goody bag which will give you unlimited texts and unlimtied data and 250 minutes talktime. I've just moved to Giffgaff (who use the O2 network) and no problems. If you need clarification of anything, give me a shout.

SeduLOUs

Pay and Go, Pay and Go, Pay and Go.

I believe part of the reason a lot scrapped capping is because the data is never 100% live and therefore not 100% accurate, so there were loads of complaints when people's bills came in at £65 despite having a £50 cap.

I haven't experienced Tesco, but worth asking the question is it's a guaranteed cap, or whether it just shuts down once they get info to suggest it has hit cap, meaning their could be additional spending in the meantime.

Realistically though, an iPhone is a top end smartphone, and without access to a lot of data it quickly becomes quite useless. You'd probably need a minimum of 1GB of data as I imagine he will use internet based stuff possibly more than texting and phoning, and it's a bit pointless having a capped phone that cuts off two weeks into any given month. I personally use email, a bit of browsing and some internet based games, but with location based services I currently use approx 2GB of data per month.

jakethepeguk

Me personally,
I would go for the 12.90 per month contract from free.
Its an unlimited data, so no worry about battering the data and 200 mins with 5k texts should be plenty, plus the capping...
2 gigs of data is easily nailed with streaming etc, something most kids do.

d123

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Pay and Go, Pay and Go, Pay and Go.

And if you don't like the suggestions from SeduLOUs, can I suggest 3 more.

PAYG, PAYG, PAYG.

Just search this forum for parents trying to get out of bills for hundreds or thousands of pounds when the child has messed up with the contract.

You can pay £12 to Giffgaff or Lyca Mobile, or £15 to Three and get contract style packages on PAYG now.

ZhugeEX

Coullio wrote: »

The tesco deal seems the best option and I like the idea of capping.

Ok, as it's for a child I really wouldn't recommend signing up for more than a 1 month contract that is capped. That way you can cancel the contract at any time.

However, as I mentioned before, do consider pay as you go options first as these are usually the best option for a child as you can control the spend 100% and also stop paying at any time without the need to give notice. Loads of networks (such as Three and Giff Gaff which have been mentioned above) allow you to buy bundles every month with a set amount of minutes/texts/data.

So pay as you go doesn't need a credit check nor is the bill paid on credit. You just top up and when it runs out you can control the next top up. Simple.

balletshoes

yep, even for an iphone the giffgaff £12 a month payg bundle is plenty for everything your child is likely to want from her shiny new phone.

Herongull

Go PAYG

Please don't give a young child an iPhone. The phone will almost certainly be stolen from him and he may be beaten up in the process. If you are lucky he will only be pickpocketed.

But if he is mugged this can lead to psychological trauma as well as physical.

Get him a budget android.