Advice and opinions on 11y old and mobile phone

cmc_entertainment

Hi

Was wondering what ppls opinion is on getting a mobile for a 11yr old?

What usage typically have, have you got a cheap sim only and mobile or payg tarrif or contract in your name?

any sensible restrictions in place etc?

Looking to give a cheap phone until birthday and consider upgrading to pay monthly est less than £15 /m.

How about insurance? Network or protect your bubble for example?

mtia

joeluken

PAYG handset and PAYG tarrif. My kids have been using Three on PAYG and appear happy enough. It cost 1p per MB data, 2p per text and 3p per min voice. Each time I top up they get 150MB data free that lasts 30 days but doesn't use their credit. After the initial £10 topup there's a £5 topup option. Check which networks offers appropriate coverage in their primary use areas.

It's not usual for handsets used by kids to have a very "hard life" especially if taken to school so I wouldn't spend a lot or bother with insurance. Even if your child looks after the phone there always some other kid/s messing around. I'd avoid a contract of anything that plugs into your bank account for out of allowance charges hence PAYG. Also be weary if you do go "capped "phone/or sim contract and double check what "capped" means in reality.

cmc_entertainment

Thanks Joe

Currently have a Vodafone smart 6 First which cost less than £21.

Reading about cyber bullying, is this a concern of pl and smartphone or should I get nokia brick aka 3310, like I had?

joeluken

cmc_entertainment wrote: »

Thanks Joe

Currently have a Vodafone smart 6 First which cost less than £21.

Reading about cyber bullying, is this a concern of pl and smartphone or should I get nokia brick aka 3310, like I had?

We've had no issues with cyber bullying and the kids use HTC smartphones for music, messaging/social media apps, google etc. I guess it depends if you want to provide the phone for basic call/tex use or more. There is a default adult content block applied by the network we use and I'm pretty sure this is the case with most on PAYG.

cookie365

Think about a PAYG option that has monthly bundles - e.g. giffgaff has goodybags.

Good for giving to kids because if they go over the allowance, you don't run up a bill - they just can't use any more internet/whatever.

grumbler

cmc_entertainment wrote: »

Hi

Was wondering what ppls opinion is on getting a mobile for a 11yr old?

What usage typically have, have you got a cheap sim only and mobile or payg tarrif or contract in your name?

any sensible restrictions in place etc?

Looking to give a cheap phone until birthday and consider upgrading to pay monthly est less than £15 /m.

How about insurance? Network or protect your bubble for example?

mtia

For a child you need a caped contract or PAYG. Beware, a 'soft' credit limit isn't the same as a 'hard' cap.

A very decent phone can be bought for ~£100 that is hardly worth insuring especially after taking the excess and fast depreciation into account. Also, most stand-alone mobile insurances are likely not cover phones given to children.

macman

What he said. Don't even consider a monthly contract if it's not capped. Which basically means Tesco Mobile.

corf999

or bt mobile with the buffer zone minimized to £5.

However Three's 321 on PAYG is quite attractive too.

grumbler

Three offer capping for their contracts too:

• Can I cap a contract phone?

However, Three cannot guarantee that the spending cap will always work. For example, it may not work if you use your phone abroad or if important system maintenance is being carried out. There are also some numbers for which you will always be charged, regardless of whether you have used up your allowance. These include, and are not limited to, calls to Directory Enquiries, premium numbers, international numbers and free phone numbers that may not be free when called from a mobile.

joeluken

grumbler wrote: »

Three offer capping for their contracts too:

• Can I cap a contract phone?

I had major issues with accidental and scam (premium rate text) out of allowance spend when I was with Voda. I switched to Three about three years ago and activated the out of allowance spend cap. Since then I've only had one issue when Three allowed be to call a number that it shouldn't which cost me 90p. I contacted Three and was told this was due to system maintenance issue at the time of the call and I was refunded the charge.

On Three's current sim only plans when you exhaust your data allowance it stops so no nasty shocks on that front. Plus you can block any further calls and texts that are normally included in your allowance once it's used up and/or block all calls/texts that are not inlcluded in your allowance i.e. premium numbers etc. Each can be toggled 4 times in a billing period by logging into your Three account an changing the setting. When a change is made you get a text message confirming the change.

The downside is I seem to recall you can access these setting from the Three app over mobile data without needing to "login" so kids might gain access and as the text to the same phone a parent may not find out.

mchale

Cap works on these, never had a bill bigger than £7 on the £6 plan


http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/networks/life-mobile/sim_only_deals/?ref=google~Brand~Life&gclid=CjwKEAiAuea1BRCbn-2n7PbLgEMSJAABQvTTzLntHwriEfgwCz_EzObfVVTxbIitIHc1lAzEJMQUCRoC8qPw_wcB