Can I limit DD's Pay Monthly allowance?

fiscalfreckles

My DD currently has a PAYG phone, and obviously, I can limit how much credit she can have each month.

Her usage now justifies a Pay Monthly tarrif, and she would actually get more txts & minutes for the same amount of money, plus a free phone, with eg. 3mobile.

However, I am concerned what would happen if she goes over her allowance. Having never had a PM contract, will she (or I!) be able to check how much allowance she has left each month? Do I just have to trust her to stop if she reaches the limit, or as I suspect, could she just run up a huge bill if she either doesn't realise or has no willpower?!

Sol00

If you contact C/S, you can request a low credit limit, this is normally low on a new contract anyway.

lawbunny

Most networks will not let you set your own credit limit.

Some networks, however, do offer a tariff whereby you would get a set amount of mins/texts for a fixed price per month, but when you have run out the phone gets cut off and reverts to a payg, so that you have to go topup to make any further calls, rather than just adding to your bill. I know T-Mobile offer a tariff like this (U-Fix), but have a shop around and see what other networks are offering.

jhp

See: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1961562

Also 3 gives the younger user so many opportunitys with its various offerings to run up big bills.

Sol00

I thought most networks had credit limits to protect themselves as well as the customer. I know O2 and T-Mobile do for certain, I think 3 do as well.

fiscalfreckles

I have enquired about credit limits, but apparently the network can set them, but not me. They would do it based on a credit check on me (as the bill payer) so I can't believe they would set it low enough to be any use in this case.

The T-mobile U fix one sounds the sort of thing I'm looking for, but their coverage is not great round here, my husband had to switch from them as it was so poor.

I'll see if any of the others do similar, but if anyone knows of one, please let me know!

reehsetin

the networks generally wont set a limit,
most networks let you log in to check the balance, maybe get her one and log in to check on it
or t-mobile for example text weekly updates to the phone with the balance

maybe start off with a sim only contract (just a 1month minimum contract) try it for a couple of months and if they can behave with then upgrade it to a proper contract or cancel it if they cant

Sol00

What network are you with? I just lowered my credit limit to £15 two weeks ago with O2.

fiscalfreckles

Sol00 wrote: »

What network are you with? I just lowered my credit limit to £15 two weeks ago with O2.

I'm not, I'm trying to decide which one to go with.

I found a good tariff with 3mobile, but they aren't keen to set a low credit limit, "for reasons of safety".

I don't really want to pay more than £15 a month, but with 3 I could get 600mins + 75 mins for that. I just don't want my daughter to be able to run up a huge bill over that.

Rikki

Sol00 wrote: »

What network are you with? I just lowered my credit limit to £15 two weeks ago with O2.

I was told recently I couldn't set a credit limit on my o2 phone contracts.

Rikki

fiscalfreckles wrote: »

I'm not, I'm trying to decide which one to go with.

I found a good tariff with 3mobile, but they aren't keen to set a low credit limit, "for reasons of safety".

I don't really want to pay more than £15 a month, but with 3 I could get 600mins + 75 mins for that. I just don't want my daughter to be able to run up a huge bill over that.

Try giving them a ring and asking what safe guards they have on the particular account your interested in.

Line rental cost......
Free minutes.......
Free texts......
Maximum monthly credit limit.......

Explain why you want it and see what they advise.




It may pay you to look at more than one provider.
Finding one that offers a minimum monthly spend.
Maybe accepting less texts or minutes for peace of mind and no unexpected large bill.