cheap phone just for kids texting

[kiki02]

miss T-Mobile $15

 

[woodkins]

Don't know if you need service or are okay with just using wi-fi, but many of my daughter's friends have free apps on their itouch that allow them to send and receive texts to regular cell phones.

 

[Hannathy]

We have an AT&T Go phone for my DS. Texts are 1000 for $9.99 or 200 for $4.99 that is good for a 30 day period but will roll over if you par for more before the 30 days. So for him I alternate 200 one month then 1000 the next and so far he has not run out, but if he starts using more even at $9.99 a month it is the cheapest we found and there is no contract.

calls are 10 cents a minute but he uses very very few minutes.

I put $25 on the phone which is good for 90 days and that usually covers almost 3 months of texts and calls. But it definitely covers 2 months of texts and calls

 

[kiki02]

We have an AT&T Go phone for my DS. Texts are 1000 for $9.99 or 200 for $4.99 that is good for a 30 day period but will roll over if you par for more before the 30 days. So for him I alternate 200 one month then 1000 the next and so far he has not run out, but if he starts using more even at $9.99 a month it is the cheapest we found and there is no contract.

calls are 10 cents a minute but he uses very very few minutes.

I put $25 on the phone which is good for 90 days and that usually covers almost 3 months of texts and calls. But it definitely covers 2 months of texts and calls

sounds good ^^^ is the att go phone one where I buy the phone? maybe i can get a good price off ebay?

 

[McKelly]

My DD is getting an unlimited texting phone for Xmas, I think I am going with Kajeet, which is $20.00 a month for unlimited texting. I was also looking at Tracfone which is .3 minute per text, but I worry about her going through that too quickly.

 

[kiki02]

My DD is getting an unlimited texting phone for Xmas, I think I am going with Kajeet, which is $20.00 a month for unlimited texting. I was also looking at Tracfone which is .3 minute per text, but I worry about her going through that too quickly.

i bought the tracfone. bit of a nightmare as the button for web is large and right next to all the enter keys, so dc spent a good $20 in about a day.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Don't know if you need service or are okay with just using wi-fi, but many of my daughter's friends have free apps on their itouch that allow them to send and receive texts to regular cell phones.

This requires a wi-fi connection; not nearly as versatile as a cell phone for texting.

 

[McKelly]

i bought the tracfone. bit of a nightmare as the button for web is large and right next to all the enter keys, so dc spent a good $20 in about a day.

Good to know - THANKS!

 

[Hannathy]

We got the first one at Walmart (AT&T Go Phone) They have them on the web site also. The first one was very cheap (under $20) and he has had it for a couple years, I used it for a while to, and he is getting older and texting more so we are thinking of getting one with a keyboard and I was looking and they have them on the site for about $50-75. I have to go to Walmart and see what they have on the shelf this week before we decide.

 

[mrodgers]

I'll second the AT&T GoPhone since that is what both my wife and I are using and we are getting one for our daughter at the end of the month for her birthday.

My wife texts about twice what I do. I put $5 on mine and $10 about every 3rd month and alternate each month with her phone.

We don't talk on them, so just do the $0.10/minute for talk. We use them to talk about 3 times a year.

I figured out last time I uploaded money that you can buy the texts outright instead of uploading money and buying them with the account. You would lose the ability to talk though unless you uploaded money.

Our phones are Android phones we use on WIFI. You have to have the monthly $25 talk plan to get data with a smartphone. It's not worth paying $300 for 3 phone calls per year just to have data (additional charge for data,) so we don't do data.

The cost of our 2 phones for the year is only slightly more than we would pay per month on contract.

 

[mrudman]

Depending on how much you think you child would text, it might be beneficial to look into PlatinumTel also.

Their texts cost 2 cents per minute, and you're only required to add time to it every 3 months versus every month that most other plans require.

For example, for $10 per month, he/she would get 500 texts (can use talk time too, but I'm assuming you're looking at strictly texting). These amounts would carry over for a full year before expiring, and if your child didn't use all the time yet, you can just hold off adding any additional (since you have 90 days of service time). Then any time you add additional amounts, you get the additional 90 days of service time from the time you add it.

So if your child's only sending approx. 170 texts per month, you're only paying $3.33 per month total (buying a $10 card every 90 days).

If you think he/she would be texting a lot more than that, there is also a $100 card available, where it would be the one-time purchase, and in this case the minutes/texts never expire, and you get a full year of service time. So in that case, you'd be paying $8.33 per month, but getting 417 texts per month, and would not have to add any additional amounts for the full year.

 

[zoemurr]

We have an AT&T Go phone for my DS. Texts are 1000 for $9.99 or 200 for $4.99 that is good for a 30 day period but will roll over if you par for more before the 30 days. So for him I alternate 200 one month then 1000 the next and so far he has not run out, but if he starts using more even at $9.99 a month it is the cheapest we found and there is no contract.

calls are 10 cents a minute but he uses very very few minutes.

I put $25 on the phone which is good for 90 days and that usually covers almost 3 months of texts and calls. But it definitely covers 2 months of texts and calls

OK.. so if you still have available $ how often do you need to reload the phone? DD has a tracfone but this is much cheaper per text. I like tracfone though as I can just reload it once a year. (In theory.. she burns through her minutes before that.)

Thanks!

 

[disneyfan2kids]

I'll second the AT&T GoPhone since that is what both my wife and I are using and we are getting one for our daughter at the end of the month for her birthday.

My wife texts about twice what I do. I put $5 on mine and $10 about every 3rd month and alternate each month with her phone.

We don't talk on them, so just do the $0.10/minute for talk. We use them to talk about 3 times a year.

I figured out last time I uploaded money that you can buy the texts outright instead of uploading money and buying them with the account. You would lose the ability to talk though unless you uploaded money.

Our phones are Android phones we use on WIFI. You have to have the monthly $25 talk plan to get data with a smartphone. It's not worth paying $300 for 3 phone calls per year just to have data (additional charge for data,) so we don't do data.

The cost of our 2 phones for the year is only slightly more than we would pay per month on contract.

This sounds like a good plan for DS (10). He would probably text more than talk. Only calls would probably be here and there asking for rides home/etc. So - If I started with the $100 for a years worth of 1000 mins. Would I then have to pay the 4.99/month for unlimited texts (monthly) separately? Or can I pay the 4.99 from the originally purchased $100 prepaid card by applying it to the 4.99/monthly unlimited text? If I can apply it... My guess is that the original $100 would probably get me almost a year of calling/texting. ($60 for a years worth of 250 per month texts...leaving $40 leftover for what would probably be a years worth of calling (400 minutes for a year.) Does this sound right?

 

[Hannathy]

OK how to explain this

If you put $100 on the account it is good fro 1 year. with that you can make 1,000 minutes of calls if you pick the 10 cent a minute plan. (other plans but this is cheapest)

From this amount you can purchase a messaging plan 200 for $4.99 or 1,000 for $9.99 these last for 30 days. If you purchase more before the 30 days are over the amount left rolls over -and again this can be from the 100 on the account.

You can keep doing this until the 100 is gone.

Different amounts of money stay usable for different lengths of time but they all roll over if you add more before they are up.

like $10 only stays active for 30 days
$25 stays active for 90 days and other amounts like the 100 stay for 1 year.

 

[mrodgers]

OK.. so if you still have available $ how often do you need to reload the phone? DD has a tracfone but this is much cheaper per text. I like tracfone though as I can just reload it once a year. (In theory.. she burns through her minutes before that.)

Thanks!

You upload money (or buy a card in Walmart, Target, AT&T Store, etc.) every X days. Amounts are...

$15 - 30 days
$25 - 90 days
$50 - 90 days
$60 - 90 days
$100 - 365 days (Equivalent to loading Tracfone for a year)

Note, buying a card at any store or uploading online aside from the AT&T Store, taxes are added to the amount. Purchase in the AT&T store, the taxes are calculated within the amount so you don't have that full amount on the account.

These amounts roll over as long as you upload before the time is up.

From the amount uploaded to the account, you purchase packages....

$50 unlimited everything including Data
$25 - 250 minutes, unlimited text
$2 - pay on the day of use, unlimited call and text for that day
$0.10 plan - $0.10 per minute and $0.20 per text

Texting
$4.99 - 200 texts, 30 days
$9.99 - 1000 texts, 30 days
$19.99 - unlimited texts, 30 days

Data - Requires $25 calling plan
$5 - 50mb, 30 days
$15 - 200mb, 30 days
$25 - 1gb, 30 days

Everything rolls over as long as you keep it renewed month to month (buying packages.)

As I said, I have Android phones, but don't do the data because we don't talk on them either. An example of my cost....

I upload $25 (90 days) and purchase 1000 texts for ~$10. I use the $0.10/minute for calling since we don't call much.
We use about 700 texts. After uploading and purchasing....
Buy 1000 texts, $10
Left on Account - $15
Use 700 texts
300 texts left

Month 2
Add 1000 texts, $10
Now have 1300 texts
Left on account, $5
use 700 texts
600 texts left

Month 3
Add 200 texts, $5
Now have 800 texts
Left on account, $0
use 700 texts
100 texts left

Month 4 starts it over again uploading $25 and buying 1000 texts.
Total cost for 12 months - $100

2 phones costs me $200/year as opposed to $200/month for "real" phones.

We have specific AT&T GoPhone phones we purchased (The AT&T Avail) but you can use any smartphone and get a SIM card from AT&T to use as a GoPhone (Ebay phones, smartphones from a contract plan you are canceling, etc.)

 

[DawnM]

My son has the ATT GoPhone plan. He has it on an iphone 4 that I purchased from a friend for $160 (she upgraded to a 5.) He is thrilled. He doesn't use the phone part much, but he loves having an iphone. The only deal is, you can't link the iphone to the GoPhone account.....you have to put in 0s for the IMIE number to activate the SIM.

He only gets internet in wifi, but he doesn't care about that part.

Dawn

We have an AT&T Go phone for my DS. Texts are 1000 for $9.99 or 200 for $4.99 that is good for a 30 day period but will roll over if you par for more before the 30 days. So for him I alternate 200 one month then 1000 the next and so far he has not run out, but if he starts using more even at $9.99 a month it is the cheapest we found and there is no contract.

calls are 10 cents a minute but he uses very very few minutes.

I put $25 on the phone which is good for 90 days and that usually covers almost 3 months of texts and calls. But it definitely covers 2 months of texts and calls

 

[zoemurr]

The only deal is, you can't link the iphone to the GoPhone account.....you have to put in 0s for the IMIE number to activate the SIM.


Dawn

Can you explain that part? I have an old off-contract iphone here that no one is currently using.

 

[zoemurr]

So in dummy terms for us that are slow: With tracfone we are paying $100 for 900 minutes (double phone) so 2700 texts. With your deal, for $100 we would get about 7,000 texts? I can put $100 on it in January and then not worry about it until next January?

You upload money (or buy a card in Walmart, Target, AT&T Store, etc.) every X days. Amounts are...

$15 - 30 days
$25 - 90 days
$50 - 90 days
$60 - 90 days
$100 - 365 days (Equivalent to loading Tracfone for a year)

Note, buying a card at any store or uploading online aside from the AT&T Store, taxes are added to the amount. Purchase in the AT&T store, the taxes are calculated within the amount so you don't have that full amount on the account.

These amounts roll over as long as you upload before the time is up.

From the amount uploaded to the account, you purchase packages....

$50 unlimited everything including Data
$25 - 250 minutes, unlimited text
$2 - pay on the day of use, unlimited call and text for that day
$0.10 plan - $0.10 per minute and $0.20 per text

Texting
$4.99 - 200 texts, 30 days
$9.99 - 1000 texts, 30 days
$19.99 - unlimited texts, 30 days

Data - Requires $25 calling plan
$5 - 50mb, 30 days
$15 - 200mb, 30 days
$25 - 1gb, 30 days

Everything rolls over as long as you keep it renewed month to month (buying packages.)

As I said, I have Android phones, but don't do the data because we don't talk on them either. An example of my cost....

I upload $25 (90 days) and purchase 1000 texts for ~$10. I use the $0.10/minute for calling since we don't call much.
We use about 700 texts. After uploading and purchasing....
Buy 1000 texts, $10
Left on Account - $15
Use 700 texts
300 texts left

Month 2
Add 1000 texts, $10
Now have 1300 texts
Left on account, $5
use 700 texts
600 texts left

Month 3
Add 200 texts, $5
Now have 800 texts
Left on account, $0
use 700 texts
100 texts left

Month 4 starts it over again uploading $25 and buying 1000 texts.
Total cost for 12 months - $100

2 phones costs me $200/year as opposed to $200/month for "real" phones.

We have specific AT&T GoPhone phones we purchased (The AT&T Avail) but you can use any smartphone and get a SIM card from AT&T to use as a GoPhone (Ebay phones, smartphones from a contract plan you are canceling, etc.)

 

[kiki02]

So in dummy terms for us that are slow: With tracfone we are paying $100 for 900 minutes (double phone) so 2700 texts. With your deal, for $100 we would get about 7,000 texts? I can put $100 on it in January and then not worry about it until next January?

i'm not getting another tracfone.

 

[ceecee]

i bought the tracfone. bit of a nightmare as the button for web is large and right next to all the enter keys, so dc spent a good $20 in about a day.

DH has that phone, I got the new LG touch screen for my Tracfone and love it.