Cell phone for kids...which one?

[MaryKLady]

I want to get a very inexpensive phone/plan for emergencies for my DD. What do you have for your kids, plan or pre-paid? And which carrier? Does anyone have the LG Migo?

 

[natnelliesmom]

I don't think young children should have cell phones. It's just giving them an opportunity to get into trouble.
Until high school age- they shouldn't be anywhere without a responsible adult anyway.
-Sarah

 

[genius118899]

I don't think young children should have cell phones. It's just giving them an opportunity to get into trouble.
Until high school age- they shouldn't be anywhere without a responsible adult anyway.
-Sarah

The OP wasn't asking for judgment; she was asking for cell phone suggestions.

To the OP: If you already have a cell phone plan, call your provider. At Verizon, we added a line for $10 a month for my 12 year old brother. He has football practice at the same place at his older brother, but his practice let out 45 minutes earlier. To save driving, we make one trip to pick them up- because the high school practice is still going on, there are plenty of other people in the area, but he's not being specifically watched. That's about the only reason he has a cell phone, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with it.

 

[shelly3girls]

We do not have any experiences with the Amigo but we are considering a Go Phone. The phones are very inexpensive and you are only charged for usage. We will continue to keep our older DD on our plan for $10/month but we found our younger DD almost never uses the phone. She only takes it to dance where she stays for 2 hours at a time. I like her to have it in case of an emergency. Just b/c she is being supervised by responsible adults does not mean she will not need to contact me for something. Our DD's have carried them for almost 2 years now with no problems.

 

[MaryKLady]

I don't think young children should have cell phones. It's just giving them an opportunity to get into trouble.
Until high school age- they shouldn't be anywhere without a responsible adult anyway.
-Sarah

Are you serious? I'm not getting it so she can gab on the phone all afternoon.

I will start working soon but will be home in time to get her off the bus. If on the off chance I am not there right when she gets off, she has instructions to go home with a friend's Mom or to our neighbor's house. But in the very rare instance neither is available, I want her to have a way to get in touch with me or my DH and vice versa.

I found Firefly. The phone and plan is not expensive. And the phone only has two buttons, Mom and Dad. There is a phone book where you can store only 20 #'s. The best is you can block all but the stored #'s for incomming calls. This is what I might do. Does anyone have experience with Firefly?

 

[PEANUT1]

not judging.....I just think that using a cell phone just in case you can't get her off the bus is a little strange.

If it was me, I'd probably get one of those prepaid ones.

 

[eaj1228]

We do not have any experiences with the Amigo but we are considering a Go Phone. The phones are very inexpensive and you are only charged for usage. We will continue to keep our older DD on our plan for $10/month but we found our younger DD almost never uses the phone. She only takes it to dance where she stays for 2 hours at a time. I like her to have it in case of an emergency. Just b/c she is being supervised by responsible adults does not mean she will not need to contact me for something. Our DD's have carried them for almost 2 years now with no problems.

We got a prepaid phone at the t-mobile kioski at Sam's Club for like $30 for my honorary niece. She is 8 years old and she is going to WDW with my family. We like the peace of mind of knowing she can get a hold of us right away in the extremely unlikely event of us getting separated.

 

[MaryKLady]

not judging.....I just think that using a cell phone just in case you can't get her off the bus is a little strange.

If it was me, I'd probably get one of those prepaid ones.

The Firefly is a prepaid phone. It's just a "kid-friendly" phone. It's nice for what I want...no numbers just a few buttons, easy to use and cheap.

 

[PEANUT1]

The Firefly is a prepaid phone. It's just a "kid-friendly" phone. It's nice for what I want...no numbers just a few buttons, easy to use and cheap.

did I say that one wasn't prepaid?...I am confused about your post. I've never even heard of, let alone comment on this phone.

 

[MaryKLady]

We got a prepaid phone at the t-mobile kioski at Sam's Club for like $30 for my honorary niece. She is 8 years old and she is going to WDW with my family. We like the peace of mind of knowing she can get a hold of us right away in the extremely unlikely event of us getting separated.

Thanks eaj1228, I was starting to think I was crazy. Good point, I figured we could use it that way also.

 

[MaryKLady]

did I say that one wasn't prepaid?...I am confused about your post. I've never even heard of, let alone comment on this phone.

I'm sorry. I was just stating it is a prepaid phone.

 

[PEANUT1]

no worries. I was just wondering.

 

[luvmy3]

My dd10 had the firefly phone for two years. We did pre-pay through Cingular. She had it for emergencies only and never once used it.
This past summer her and my ds were going to a one week summer camp and I wanted her to have a phone on her. The firefly had stopped working so I got her a tracfone, it was $10 the cheapest model they have. I buy $20 cards every 3 months. She is only allowed to use it in an emergency or if she really needs to get ahold of me. The first time she ever used it was this past Saturday when she was at a girl scout function and needed to call me about a ride home.


Not all kids are irresponsible with their phones, my dd knows the rules and follows them

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

I have to laugh, what did we ever do without our cellphones? My 9yr old says I am mean because I won't get her one. I think it is a great idea to get one for emergencies, however. Just not until my princess is older. I am 53 years old, and I survived without a cellphone (how I ever survived I will never know.... I drank out of the waterhose, my parents were chain-smokers, I picked berries off the bushes on the way to school and ate them, I was outside in the Florida sun without sunscreen, I never rode in a carseat or booster seat while riding in the car, etc,etc,etc), and I was never ever allowed to use the phone in the school office unless it was an emergency call to my mother (who did not drive, and who couldn't come to pick me up if she needed to), it just was not considered a necessity to be in touch 24 hours a day with our parents. In the summer we kids left our house early to play with the neighbor kids and did not come home until the street light came on. Things are different now, for sure, but I am reminded of the older days when we had no computers or video games, much less cell phones. We just did not have to worry so much I guess!!

 

[cheerforchelsea]

I have the AT&T Family Talk Plan - with it you can add an additional phone for 9.99 and they have a new feature that you can add that allows the parent to put all kind of restrictions on the phone usage - voice and data. At least that way you know your child will not run out of minutes when they are trying to get in touch with you.

 

[mjkacmom]

I don't think young children should have cell phones. It's just giving them an opportunity to get into trouble.
Until high school age- they shouldn't be anywhere without a responsible adult anyway.
-Sarah

Although I think it's a little strange to get a cellphone for a 5 year old (sorry OP), the idea that you need to be in HS before you can be out without adult supervision is nuts! Can we retard the normal development of adolescence even more?! My kids walk to school, my 10 and 12 year old bike around with friends, walk to the pool (across town), go play up at the school on weekends with their friends... I'm sorry, but kids need some independence.

 

[tmarquez]

DD has a Firefly. We removed the SIM card and put an AT&T one in and added it to our family plan. It's $10 a month and we share minutes. DD doesn't NEED a cell phone, but it has come in very handy on a few occasions and gives me piece of mind.

 

[#1eeyoregirl]

We use T-Mobile, but when i got my oldest DD her phone 2 years agos (the rule was no phone until 7th grade) i did not add her to my plan instead I got her a prepaid phone. We got the cheapest phone availabe for about six months to see how she would do (she had an issue of not keeping an eye on her stuff for a while....we are on ipod #2) then after she proved that she could take care of it we kicked it up to a Razor. We still have her on prepaid to monitor her use for about another year (she just started high school ) and then we will see about adding her to our plan if she remains responsible with her minutes.

 

[luvmy3]

OP I thought of you today when I saw in Toys R Us that they had the green firefly phone packaged with some accessories on clearance for $25. I don't know if it had a minute card included.

 

[mmaikisch]

I bought my dd the pink glo phone by firefly. The only thing that I don't like about it is that they charge $0.35 per day access fee whether you use the phone ot not. When you use the prepaid cards to refill minutes, they take the daily access fee off of your balance. I just refilled her phone about 1 1/2 months ago, she hasn't used it in that time, and I got an e-mail that her account was about to expire b/c she had a $0.00 balance. I'm not sure how the monthly plan works, but I think it is the same way. I love the phone itself b/c she can only call and receive calls that I program into the phone, and she cannot add contact #'s herself b/c of the parental code that needs to be entered before any changes can be made, and it is very kid friendly. I think other phones can do that too, I'm just not sure which ones they are. Overall, I like the phone, but not the plans. I'm looking into another phone for my dd that has a better plan since I can probably spend about the same amount for a monthly plan without all the extra charges and she'll always have minutes just in case of an emergency (you never know nowadays). I'd rather be safe than sorry =)