Advice please - teen's 1st phone

[cajunmommy]

Conceding that it's time to get my 14yo his first cell phone, and the options are overwhelming. I'd really appreciate some help.

Influencing factors:
No family plans currently in place for us - DH & I have iPhones through work - so we'd be starting from scratch. No hand-me-down phones available!
DS currently has an iTouch.

Leaning towards an iPhone 4s for DS because of the above, but honestly not sure that would be the best option.

Any suggestions?

 

[ktrask]

My sister was talking about her teenage daughter's phone plan at Thanksgiving. $45 a month thru Wal-Mart. I believe it has unlimited everything and no contract.

 

[wiigirl]

I would get a used phone.....and a plan you can cap to make sure you don't have any unexpected bills.

 

[Kies99]

Check coverage for Virgin Mobile in your area. You can get the iPhone there and even though you pay up front, over the span of 2 years you will pay SIGNIFICANTLY less ($30 a month will get 300 anytime minutes but unlimted texting and data). You can get much cheaper Android smart phones as well.

You are not locked into the contract and can cancel any time.

 

[JB2K]

Check coverage for Virgin Mobile in your area. You can get the iPhone there and even though you pay up front, over the span of 2 years you will pay SIGNIFICANTLY less ($30 a month will get 300 anytime minutes but unlimted texting and data). You can get much cheaper Android smart phones as well.

You are not locked into the contract and can cancel any time.

Agreed!

 

[HM]

Check out Kajeet phones. They are designed for kids with lots of parental oversight on how they can be used. My kids first phone were thought them.

One of my favorite things was being able to disable the phone at night so they couldn't be texting or talking when they were supposed to be asleep.

 

[robinb]

You can also look into Page Plus Cellular. We do a PAYG plan with them for my teen DD. I load her up with minutes (which she doesn't really use) and then pay $10 per month for 2000 texts.

 

[mrodgers]

AT&T GoPhone for $5-10/month is good enough for us, it is surely good enough for our kids. That's all I'll pay for a phone. Our kids don't need to be on the internet everywhere and anywhere.

 

[StephMK]

We bought the Pantech Crossover from Amazon for DD12. It is $80 and comes with $25 air credit and there are monthly text plans available. It has a keyboard for texting and can use wifi because we won't pay for data.

Our older DD has a different go-phone too and loves hers. It has wifi so she can get online all over her college campus w/o paying for data.

I expect her to use more text than minutes so we'll do the .10 a min plan and pay for text pkgs. $5 for 200, $10 for 1000 texts or $20 a month for unlimited texting.

 

[cajunmommy]

Read good things about Virgin's pricing/ no contract, but checked coverage, and it seems to be spotty in this region when compared against AT&T or Verizon (for example). But, are the savings worth it? We could do a 3-6mo trial since there's no contract....I'll need to dig some more.

I know he'll use it primarily for texting, small amount of phone time. I'm presuming his need for data will change when he enters high school next year.

Any experiences with the Straight Talk plans from Walmart?

 

[HM]

Its good to be wary of the VM coverage. My son gets terrible coverage at his college though it's supposed to be fine there. We won't switch though as the pricing for monthly use is too good.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Any experiences with the Straight Talk plans from Walmart?

Me! I've been with ST since early Oct. ~ no complaints so far, I'm using an older iPhone *need to order a new SIM - my DBF is gifting me his iPhone 4S!!

Also consider Net10 *same parent company ~ Tracfone and more widely available *store wise, not just a Walmart thing.