Cell phone for 11 y/o question

[allie&mattsmom]

Okay. Think this has been discussed here before so I tried to search but it always comes back with an error message lately . Anyway, we are thinking about getting a cell phone for our dd11 to use only for emergencies and to check in when she gets places, etc. I was just at Target looking at Trac phones. I know absolutely nothing about them. The guy was trying to explain that your minutes expire after two months, so in other words, use them or lose them. Is this correct? We wouldn't need many minutes but I'd hate to lose them if she didn't use them. I guess if it looked like we were going to lose minutes, I could switch to her cell phone until the minutes are used. Our other option would be to go through my DH's firm. We have two verizon phones, unlimited minutes, through his firm. We could add one more phone but it would cost us $40 a month. Since she would not be using it much, I'm leaning toward the trac phone. Any one have any thoughts or can you share your experiences with the cell phone you may have for your child? I always swore I'd never give in and get dd a cell phone but there have been so many times lately when I wish she had one.

 

[Barb D]

We have a Verizon family plan, and it's only $10 a month for each addtional line. I wonder why it would be $40 for you? All of our minutes between each other are free. My older kids (13 and 15) have had their own phones since they were 10 and 12.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

We have a Verizon family plan, and it's only $10 a month for each addtional line. I wonder why it would be $40 for you? All of our minutes between each other are free. My older kids (13 and 15) have had their own phones since they were 10 and 12.

I know. My friend said the exact same thing to me. It's because his law firm has all of their lawyers and spouses on a plan. So to add a phone to their plan, it would be $40 a month. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me but oh well. That family plan sounds great.

 

[Aimee K]

We use Virgin Mobile for dd12. You have to put at least $20 in airtime every three months, but you don't lose minutes you don't use.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

We use Virgin Mobile for dd12. You have to put at least $20 in airtime every three months, but you don't lose minutes you don't use.

Ya know I was just reading over a Virgin Mobile pamplet I picked up and it sounds pretty good. The phone was only $19.99 too so that's a plus.

 

[N.Bailey]

First off, if you want the TracFone, make sure it works in your area. Talk to others and see how reception is, if it does.

Okay, if you find out it will work (it really didn't in our town, but when went to a larger area, the reception was great) you have a couple of options. You can buy minute like you were told that would expire in a short period of time. You can however once a year buy one of those double minutes cards. What this card does is, it will first off, double any minutes you buy during a 12 month period. It will also activate your phone for an entire year. You will not have to buy additional minutes within that 12 month period, unless you need more of course (and they would then double).

Once the 12 month period is about up, you can then buy more minutes that will expire like you were told, OR, you could buy another double minutes card and be all set for the next 12 months, unless of course you need more minutes.

IF you buy more minutes at the end of the first year, all the minutes you have will rollover and only expire 2 months from that time. If you buy another double card, all the minutes will rollover for an additional 12 months. This process will then repeat itself till you decide you don't wish to buy anymore. IF however you do not activate another card BEFORE your 12 month period expires (or 2 month period if you're only buying plain old minute cards) you will lose all the minutes.

I hope that makes sense. LOL

If it works in your area, I do think this is a good alternative to a high priced plan when it's only to be used for emergencies.

 

[Imzadi]

NO, you do NOT lose the minutes after to months. The minutes rollover and never expire as long as you keep active service (and for an extra 60 days even after you accidently deactivate.)

You must however keep buying airtime for your phone, like any other cellphone service. Unless you buy one of the package deals listed below, you need to buy an airtime card ever 2 months, loaded with the appropriate minutes you want. Airtime is different from minutes. You will need both minutes AND airtime to talk on the phone.

Tracfones are great for teens. It teaches them how to budget their money & the minutes they use in a month. The battery & charger come with the phones. They have a package deal for 60 minutes with a reconditioned phone included for $19.99. (They give you 20 minutes free during activation online.)

The best way to utilize this deal is getting a referral to activate the phone for a bonus free 120 minutes. Depending on how much you are going to use the phone, the trick is how & when to ADD the airtime minutes on in a way to get 4-6 full months of airtime before needing to buy another minutes card! Plus there are often promo bonus codes for another free 40 minutes or more, so you will be getting a total of 240 minutes + 4-6 months activation, all for the $19.99.

I can send a referral and detailed directions to get you set up. Just send me a Private Message.

There are ALWAYS bonus minutes codes for free minutes to add on along with each Minutes Card - some are DOUBLE minute codes, so that cuts the price of a card down by half.

Each card adds on 2 months of service. It is those extra months as well as the minutes where you want to be saving. Say, you want to add on about 300 minutes. It is actually better to buy two 120 minute cards, add each on SEPARATELY with a bonus minutes code (for each card.) You'd end up getting 240 minutes + the free bonus minutes amount, say an extra 200 minutes + FOUR months of service.

Plus, when you are adding on the minutes online, there is a Tracfone advertizement box to the right of the screen, offering another 60 minutes for $10 and 30 minutes for $5. You can add the 90 minutes on for half price of a regular minutes card.

Plus, if dd gets to send any referrals, she gets 120 minutes + 2 months service FREE. If she gets a few referrals, she may not have to BUY any card for a while.

On the Tracfone website, there is a place to enter your zip code to see if they have coverage in your area. Tracfone.com

Tracfone doesn't have their own cell service, per se. What they do is RENT cell service from existing carriers in your area. Instead of getting a Verizon cellphone, & only having serviced dedicated to Verizon, when I've traveled, the Tracfone SWITCHED to whatever carrier was available to me, in that area: Sprint, PacBell, BellSouth.

Tracfone does give you 30 days to RETURN your phone if you find out, it doesn't have enough service/coverage for you or not the plan you want for dd. I think this is what the "reconditioned" phones are. When you return a used phone, Tracfone has to wipe the old telephone number from it's memory before selling it again.

Also, there are packages for 1 year service, but be aware that if dd uses all her minutes up in the first couple of months, she will still need to add on more minutes to talk & use the phone. The 1 year service basically reserves the phone number for the wihole year. But you will need both minutes AND airtime to talk on the phone. It would be better to teach her to budget out her minutes by adding new minutes on every 2 months (with a bonus free minutes code.)

 

[Aimee K]

Ya know I was just reading over a Virgin Mobile pamplet I picked up and it sounds pretty good. The phone was only $19.99 too so that's a plus.

That was a plus for us too! It's working out pretty well. Of course, whe she first got it, she went through the first $20 in a day or two. She had to take money from her B-day stash to re load it, and since then, she's been good about using it for what it was intended.

 

[N.Bailey]

I know. My friend said the exact same thing to me. It's because his law firm has all of their lawyers and spouses on a plan. So to add a phone to their plan, it would be $40 a month. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me but oh well. That family plan sounds great.

My guess would be because this isn't a family share plan. You're getting unlimited calling. The family plan only gives you unlimited calling within the network, in the evenings, and weekends, not unlimited anytime, anywhere.

One thing nice about a Verizon plan if you have text messaging is, you could text your daughter while she's at school. I'm sure she'll have her phone off during the day, but once school is over, she could check her text messages. It's nice if it's trivial things that you would never call the school for.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

That was a plus for us too! It's working out pretty well. Of course, whe she first got it, she went through the first $20 in a day or two. She had to take money from her B-day stash to re load it, and since then, she's been good about using it for what it was intended.

Lol, I have a feeling my dd will try to use it more than she's supposed to also. I would be exactly like you and make her pay out of her own $$ too. Hopefully lesson learned, right?

 

[sameyeyam]

I have a plan (originally on AT&T, now Cingular) called the "Standby Plan". They don't advertise it, but you pay $11.95 per month and 25 cents per minute. I think most of the companies have these plans, they just don't advertise them, you have to call them directly and ask for them. Don't go through a retailer, they probably won't know about them.

If you are only going to use it for emergencies or whatnot, it's pretty economical. If you talk on the phone a lot, it's not a good deal. My average bills runs about $13/month. I use it only to call home & say I'm going to be late, I have a flat tire, etc...

 

[N.Bailey]

Check this auction out. You can buy these cards in the store.

http://cgi.ebay.com/200-MINUTE-BONU...ryZ43308QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If you buy one of these a year and buy a new one just prior to the expiration date of the old one, your minutes will always roll over, and you will not need to purchase anymore minutes at all to keep the plan. If you need more minutes, yes, you can then buy more, but if you don't use them, this is all you'll ever have to buy each year. IF you buy more minutes during the year, all the minutes you buy will automatically double. Buy a 60 minute card, get 120 minutes.

IMO, this is probably the easiest way to go and probably the cheapest IF you trust your daughter not to waste the minutes.

EDIT: BTW, I am only linking to this auction for you to see what the card looks like. Don't read what he has to say because I don't believe he's even selling the card itself. Notice with the card though, you'll get 600 minutes (300 would double) and you'll get so many free when you activate it online. So, you start out with roughly 700 or so minutes (a few for activation and a few that will come with the purchase of the phone itself).

 

[Imzadi]

Forgot to mention, the cheapest way to add on airtime once your original package deal is up, since you won't be needing too many minutes is to buy a 60 minute card, adding on 60 days of service for $19.99, then click the Tracfone advertizement box to the right of the screen, offering another 60 days for $10 and 30 days for $5. You can add the 90 days on for half price of a regular minutes card. That's an additional 5 months of service for $35.

Otherwise, with the cheapest airtime/minutes card of 60 minutes, service is only $10/month.

OR: what many people do when the 4-6 months are up, is simply buy a new $19.99 package deal, refer themselves for the 240 bonus minutes. Activate the new phone, have all the old minutes from the old phone transferred over to the new phone. You'd get another 6 months of service for $19.99, plus all those minutes from both phones combined.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

I can send a referral and detailed directions to get you set up. Just send me a Private Message.

Wow! My head is spinning from all their is to know about cell phones. Holy cow! I appreciate all the information you all have shared with me.

Thanks Imzadi! I'll defintiely PM you if we decide to go that route. I have to talk to the Boss when he gets home. He still isn't sure he wants her to have one at all but I really feel it's a good idea.

 

[allie&mattsmom]

Check this auction out. You can buy these cards in the store.

http://cgi.ebay.com/200-MINUTE-BONU...ryZ43308QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If you buy one of these a year and buy a new one just prior to the expiration date of the old one, your minutes will always roll over, and you will not need to purchase anymore minutes at all to keep the plan. If you need more minutes, yes, you can then buy more, but if you don't use them, this is all you'll ever have to buy each year. IF you buy more minutes during the year, all the minutes you buy will automatically double. Buy a 60 minute card, get 120 minutes.

IMO, this is probably the easiest way to go and probably the cheapest IF you trust your daughter not to waste the minutes.

Wow! Thanks N.Bailey! That really does sound like a good way to go.

 

[Imzadi]

IMO, this is probably the easiest way to go and probably the cheapest IF you trust your daughter not to waste the minutes.

I'd wait a few months to be sure she will be disciplined to budget her minutes correctly before adding on a 1 year plan. You can always switch to that plan at any time. The service just gets extended 1 year, from the END of the current expiration date you have.

For teens, 600 minutes seems like a boatload of minutes to use up, but divided by 12, it's only 50 minutes a month.

 

[GeorgeG]

Okay, I know I'll get flamed for this so flame away and get it over with. I also know I'm coming off like a stuck-in-the-past old geezer latley, and I guess that's true at least some of the time, but here goes my take on the cell phone for an 11 year old girl:

On the surface, there seems to be some logic in wanting a young daighter to be able to stay in touch, you know, for "emergencies." Then I couldn't help thinking why such a young girl would be anyplace unsupervised by a responsible adult.

Just an honest opinion...

 

[N.Bailey]

Wow! Thanks N.Bailey! That really does sound like a good way to go.

It may not be the cheapest way to go as I read thru Imzadi's posts, but IMO, it's less stressful. LOL

I edited my above post to state I only linked to that auction so you could see the pic of the card. Don't read it, he'll confuse you, too. LOL

I think these cards are roughly $120, or so.

 

[N.Bailey]

Okay, I know I'll get flamed for this so flame away and get it over with. I also know I'm coming off like a stuck-in-the-past old geezer latley, and I guess that's true at least some of the time, but here goes my take on the cell phone for an 11 year old girl:

On the surface, there seems to be some logic in wanting a young daighter to be able to stay in touch, you know, for "emergencies." Then I couldn't help thinking why such a young girl would be anyplace unsupervised by a responsible adult.

Just an honest opinion...

I'm not going to flame you, but there are times when children are at practices (sports) and it's either running over, or they're sending the kids home early. There are times when practices are canceled and an announcement is played over the intercom in the school. Or, they may want to stay over for whatever, homework help, or any number of other reasons. They may want to go home with a friend.

In my kids' school, they are not allowed on the phones and there are no pay phones anymore.

My kids never got a phone because they wanted one. Don't misunderstand, they did indeed want one, but that's not why they got them. They got them for MY piece of mind only and I can't really put a price tag on that.

 

[Imzadi]

I edited my above post to state I only linked to that auction so you could see the pic of the card.

If you do happen to want to buy a card off eBay, please DO post the link here first. There are unfortunately a few scams being run. If anyone ever asks you for your Tracfone serial number before they can send you the code for minutes, what they are doing is using your serial number to get the free bonus minutes YOU would be giving away had you given a referral and selling it to someone else, SELLING you your own minutes you would have otherwise gotten for free.

This has been happening with the "120 minute cards."

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy Tracfone minutes off eBay, they do have some of the cheapest cards - when the Seller & auction is legitimate.