cell phones for kids - what plan?

[rchristiansen]

Do you add your kids cell phone to your plan or do you get them a pay as you go phone without a contract?

 

[NHdisneylover]

We have alwasy jsut added our kids onto our plans. We get minutes between our phones and theirs that way and it is cheap (I think less than $10--or Euro for us now) per month.

 

[Poohforyou]

We just added DD to our plan. With unlimited texting and calling it's only about an extra $10 a month. For the peace of mind it gives us for her to have the phone it's well worth the cost.

 

[deedeetoo]

That's what we do too. We added dd to our plan for $10/mo.

 

[lovephotography]

We added DD to our plan.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

We added our DD to our shared plan. I have it set up so that she's allotted a certain amount of call minutes per month and I get a text when she's approaching that. She's never even come close to her limit in calls. She has unlimited texting and rarely uses her minutes.

 

[jel0511]

We also added our kids to our plan. they both very rarely talk on the phone, it's more for texting. The pay as you go plans don't really have a cheap unlimited texting plan, whereas we pay $30 a month and we all enjoy unlimited texts.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids are on our plan, unlimited texting for the family, kids rarely use any minutes calling anyone.

 

[3boymthr]

It's costing me an extra $30/month to have DS on my plan, $10 for the phone and $20 for unlimited texting. We didn't have texting before and now DH and I also have unlimited texting. Not sure if I wuold have added the texting or not though as DH has a much younger sister (half his age) and she texts him all the time.

 

[wdwmom2]

My DD19, was on our plan. Now she has pay as you go Virgin Mobile through Target.

$25/month gets you unlimited text, e-mail, data, and web, with 300 minutes a month.

$40/month gets you the same as above, only with 1200 minutes a month.

She has had no problem with reception. If my DH was so enamoured with his Droid X, I would try to talk him into going this direction. Oh well, maybe when our contract is up!!!

 

[mrodgers]

Not looking forward to this because it will cost us about an extra $150 or whatever. Why? Because to put the kids on our plan, we would have to have a plan ourselves.

My oldest is already bothering us about a cell phone. She is 10 and listing to us all the kids who have cell phones. We certainly could use a cell phone since we work different shifts and hardly ever see each other, plus I don't like Wifey driving home at midnight without a phone, but just can't reason the cost of cell phones. So, daughter isn't getting a phone either because she has no way to pay the monthly fee herself.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Whatever plan you choose to go with just make sure unlimited texting is involved. I have seen too many people get a huge shock when their bill comes and the kid went over their texting limit. It just makes more sense to me to get unlimited right from the get go and save yourself the heart attack later.

 

[TwingleMum]

Whatever plan you choose to go with just make sure unlimited texting is involved. I have seen too many people get a huge shock when their bill comes and the kid went over their texting limit. It just makes more sense to me to get unlimited right from the get go and save yourself the heart attack later.

Totally agree. My friend's daughter texts added $500 in one month He learned the value of unlimited texting (so did she he made her pay half )

I am a little concerned if he loses the phone my credit info and account being compromised. Anyone else worry about this???

 

[golfgal]

Not looking forward to this because it will cost us about an extra $150 or whatever. Why? Because to put the kids on our plan, we would have to have a plan ourselves.

My oldest is already bothering us about a cell phone. She is 10 and listing to us all the kids who have cell phones. We certainly could use a cell phone since we work different shifts and hardly ever see each other, plus I don't like Wifey driving home at midnight without a phone, but just can't reason the cost of cell phones. So, daughter isn't getting a phone either because she has no way to pay the monthly fee herself.

Technically you would not have to get a plan for you and your wife. You could put a plan in your name, with one phone for your DD, and leave it at that. Since kids RARELY use minutes, buy the cheapest plan you can get, fewest minutes and add unlimited texting to that phone-for one phone with our plan it is only about $5/month. Another thing to consider is dropping your home phone and just going with cell phones-does that cost offset getting cell phones?? This, of course, if you want to get your DD a cell phone.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

Totally agree. My friend's daughter texts added $500 in one month He learned the value of unlimited texting (so did she he made her pay half )

I am a little concerned if he loses the phone my credit info and account being compromised. Anyone else worry about this???

Maybe I'm being dense...it happens....but I don't understand how your credit info could be compromised. If the phone is lost, it only takes a minute to disable it...then it's a brick. You would need a password to get any information from the company.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Kajeet(on the Sprint network) is $14.99 a month for 60 talk unlimited text(does not include picture texts). A good deal IMO.

 

[Fire14]

I found it cheaper for me to addd DN to our plan vs buying him a pay as you go phone. AS for loss been there too, from time I got call from his dad to time it was a brick was 1 minute. WE pretty much knew where phone was but just to cover everyone I shut it off.

 

[golfgal]

Dh "lost" his phone-aka leaving it in an unlocked car . It was a day before we knew it was gone. The kid that "borrowed" it from his car ran up $375 of downloads/ringtones, etc. Verizon wiped every charge off our bill and turned off the line. We haven't had any problems since-it's been almost 5 years since it happened. The kids have never lost their phones because we told them we would not replace them and they don't want to be without them .

 

[laurie31]

Not looking forward to this because it will cost us about an extra $150 or whatever. Why? Because to put the kids on our plan, we would have to have a plan ourselves.

My oldest is already bothering us about a cell phone. She is 10 and listing to us all the kids who have cell phones. We certainly could use a cell phone since we work different shifts and hardly ever see each other, plus I don't like Wifey driving home at midnight without a phone, but just can't reason the cost of cell phones. So, daughter isn't getting a phone either because she has no way to pay the monthly fee herself.

I get off at midnight. DH bought me a cell phone back in 1991, when we were just dating, because a neighbor (a physician where I worked ) was murdered. You wife needs a phone WAY more than your kids do!

But it shouldn't cost you $150! We pay about half that, for 700 minutes a month (the lowest package) and unlimited texting. Only paid $10/month to add each of the girls. They hardly ever talk, they text. And yes, the phones are for our benefit as much as theirs. Now that they are more independent, I like knowing they can get in touch with us.

(and when they start driving, you can adapt the phone to text you if they go over the speed limit!!)

 

[rchristiansen]

Yeah, our plan is AT&T and offers free phones - even free refurbished Iphones and $10/month plus $15 extra if you want the data plan (required for the iphone).

DD is only 8 1/2 right now, but I let her use mine today as she played with friends in the neighborhood. I used to tell her be home at a certain time, but didn't always know what friends house she was at. I asked her to call me and tell me who she was playing with. So today I got 2 or 3 other calls letting asking to do this or that. And one call just to say "hi" . I guess I shouldn't discourage all the "checking in" from my kid.

She'll be in 4th grade next year at the middle school, so I'm thinking it would be best for her to keep one in her bag at that point.

I am not quite yet ready to give her a smart phone with all access to the internet, but I think it's a good idea in the next few years for her to have a smart phone. Do your kids have smart or "dumb" phones?