Kids and mobile phones

d123

Coullio wrote: »

Me and my ex have spoken to her. The good think about Virgin its month to month contract and can be stopped at anytime. My only issue with Tesco is the 12 months?? If we have to take the phone away I will still have to pay for it. I discussed the 08 numbers and mms messages and she will only use Whats App when doing so. She is fully aware the phone will be taken away if she racks up a big bill.

Please don't be so naive, with all the good intentions and promises things can go wrong, one poster here discovered that they had a bill for over £1000 when the young child lost the handset and being scared to tell the parents covered up for a few days. International calls can run over £100 an hour, premium calls even more.

If you don't have a spare £1000 to plug any bill, use your common sense and go fully capped (which is only Tesco) or PAYG bundle (Giffgaff, Lycamobile, Three).

There is no plus to giving a child a contract, just many minuses...

Herongull

9 year old child + flashy Iphone (=thief magnet) + uncapped contract...

Risks to child: physical and pyschogical damage from mugging + emotional damage from free access to web !!!!!!

Risk to parent: many £thousands due thieves phoning premium numbers. Huge bills are run up within hours
Also children can use phone credit to purchase ringtones, games, tokens for use in games etc etc Giving a child a contract phone is very similar to handing over your credit card & pin.

Oh dear! I see a perfect storm brewing. Poor kiddie

pepdavies

I don't understand why people ask for advice on here, then ignore it. The op was definitely getting a capped contract or payg. Now going with Virgin. What a waste of everybody's time.

easy

Holy moly, an iPhone & unlimited data at 9 years old.

This isn't a good move OP, really it isn't

My lad is 14. He has just earned a Moto G (truly spiffing phone for £100 ) by getting 8 grade As in his exams, and has a capped Tesco contract (500 mins, 5000 texts, 750mb) to use it with. He does NOT take his phone to bed with him (nor has a computer or TV in his room) cos facebook - or worse - at 2:00 a.m. is no good to anyone, not least an unsupervised child.

your comment "any other phone wouldn't be acceptable" suggest one (or both) of 2 things
1. your daughter is a spoiled brat, beware she will become impossible over the next 5 years
2. daddy feels guilty about seperating from mum, and thinks this will make up for it.

Get a grip.

Coullio wrote: »

Me and my ex have spoken to her....
I discussed the 08 numbers and mms messages and she will only use Whats App when doing so. She is fully aware the phone will be taken away if she racks up a big bill.

Oh for goodness sake, the child is NINE. You can talk to her until you are blue in the face. There is still the possibility of a major problem here.

balletshoes

Coullio wrote: »

Me and my ex have spoken to her. The good think about Virgin its month to month contract and can be stopped at anytime. My only issue with Tesco is the 12 months?? If we have to take the phone away I will still have to pay for it. I discussed the 08 numbers and mms messages and she will only use Whats App when doing so. She is fully aware the phone will be taken away if she racks up a big bill.

Giffgaff £12 per month is payg, you can auto-renew every month for convenience, but as its not a contract at all, you can also stop paying for it any time you like, you're not tied in.

OP unless you are 100% sure your child will never have the phone out of her home, ever ever ever, then you really are asking for trouble giving her an iphone and a contract. Through absolutely no fault of her own, you could end up with a bill for thousands of pounds of call charges racked up in a matter or hours if that phone is stolen or lost. An iphone is much more of a risk and liability compared to an ipad.

ZhugeEX

Tesco do one month contracts as well OP.

Please take the advice given here by either going for a pay as you go solution or going for a capped 1 month contract solution.

Do not go for virgin who are uncalled. Anything could happen either accidently or on purpose that could cause a huge huge bill.

dealer_wins

There is a reason contracts are for over 18s, and the OP is intent on finding out the reason why this is the hard way!

Hopefully it will be via bill shock rather than content shock!!

silverwhistle

Another vote for Giff Gaff goody bags here, and for saying that an iphone wouldn't be a good idea.

I get away with a £7.50 a month package, as an adult who doesn't stream video and uses wi-fi out and about if possible, but slightly more expensive packages should keep a kid happy. They'll even recommend a cheaper package based on previous months usage.

I keep a few quid balance for overseas texts/calls but ultimately my losses would be limited to that balance, which is probably less than a premium rate phone call or in app purchase.

Rev

What's the bet there'll be yet another 'missive unexpected bill help!' Post in a few months when the child download from one of those 'free' adds.

And who's bank account will the iPhone be linked to? For those in app purchases and general use of iTunes? iTunes needs a card added as payment, what's to stop your daughter racking up a bill with in app purchases or expensive app purchases?

Rev

SeduLOUs wrote: »

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.

Tesco are grand. My cousin has a £10 per month sim only. He regularly uses his 2gig of data. The phone just won't access the internet. His bill has never been a penny over £10.