First phone for tween?

[havaneselover]

you can get iphone 4 pretty cheap. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iphone/iphone-4-iphone-4s/pcmcat305200050003.c?id=pcmcat305200050003

Swappa is another option.

I have a 4. But I would not buy one now. It's 4 year old technology, can't run ios 8, and doesn't use lte. It would likely cost less to buy a newer model because you will be able to use it longer.

 

[happycorgi]

My dd has a flip phone (cheap) to show me she was responsible with a phone, about three months later she was so embarrassed with her phone she started doing extra chores around the house and doing neighbors yards to help buy a iphone.

 

[danygirl]

Just be aware that once they have a smartphone they can use apps you have not heard of to talk to the world.

 

[Kies99]

Both my wife and my 11yo daughter have the LG Tribute through Virgin Mobile. Really good, cheap smartphone.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/virgin-...lack/8776169.p?id=1219365670012&skuId=8776169

Only $60 for the phone and for $35 a month you get unlimited Talk, Text and Data (though it slows at 250Mb).

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We're on a data sharing plan with my parents & it was actually cheaper to go with a smart phone than a flip phone for DD. We went with IPhone 4s which was $100 at the time (2 years ago). DD still loves it.

And the flip phones that are available now are pretty much junk. Flip phone technology peaked about 6 years ago & the ones on the market today aren't even as good as those from that timeframe.

Agree.

I would get her an iPhone 4S. They are nice phones and still relatively inexpensive (compared to the iPhone 5 or 6 models). I think you can get one at the Apple Store for $99, and may even be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. (But I wouldn't buy one from anywhere but a reputable dealer unless you are very sure of what you are buying.)

 

[Dancemomof3]

My 12 year old has the Samsung Galaxy Ace through Straight Talk. She used her birthday money to buy the phone and we told her we'd match her birthday money and use any leftover bday money to buy data for as long as we could. After that she'd have to pay for half of it every month (she has the $45 unlimited talk, text and data plan). She has 1 phone card left on her birthday deal and I know her grandma and aunt have each bought her a card for Christmas. She loves the phone and has had no complaints about the brand or anything. I have heard the straight talk phones don't work the best everywhere but here, she gets better reception than I do.

 

[mrodgers]

you can get iphone 4 pretty cheap.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iphone/iphone-4-iphone-4s/pcmcat305200050003.c?id=pcmcat305200050003

Dang, how do I shop Best Buy website for pre-owned non-Apple phones? I'm either paying >$100 for a cheap Chinese GoPhone or Craigslist which I can never find a decent price. If I could find older Samsung Galaxies pre-owned for $150 to use with my GoPhone accounts I'd be real happy.

I can't figure out how that link got to pre-owned and all I come up with is contract phones.

My kids of course want iPhones, but until they are paying the entire thing themselves, I won't shell out $700 for a phone nor shell out $200+/month for phone service when I only use and currently pay $40/month for 4 smart phones without data and per call charge that we never use.

I'd also like a decent phone for my wife and I than my 4 year old no memory $100 GoPhone but I don't like Apple. Would like something like a Galaxy S3/4 but they still want $200-250 on Craigslist and I don't trust people either.

 

[DebMcDonald]

My DD's first phone two years ago at age 11 was a slide phone, something cheap in case she lost it and it's survived two years, but the phone is a piece of **** and just randomly turns on and dials people, etc. So this time around our 11 year old and her now 13 year old sister are getting the Iphone 5S. Everyone else has them, they are always playing with my phone, it replaces the ipod and it's not really costing us anymore on our plan with Verizon because we upgraded to the Edge plan. Now that being said, if you lose that phone or if it gets stolen it will be replaced with something used sitting in the box that is not going to be so fun.

 

[havaneselover]

Dang, how do I shop Best Buy website for pre-owned non-Apple phones? I'm either paying >$100 for a cheap Chinese GoPhone or Craigslist which I can never find a decent price. If I could find older Samsung Galaxies pre-owned for $150 to use with my GoPhone accounts I'd be real happy.

I can't figure out how that link got to pre-owned and all I come up with is contract phones.

My kids of course want iPhones, but until they are paying the entire thing themselves, I won't shell out $700 for a phone nor shell out $200+/month for phone service when I only use and currently pay $40/month for 4 smart phones without data and per call charge that we never use.

I'd also like a decent phone for my wife and I than my 4 year old no memory $100 GoPhone but I don't like Apple. Would like something like a Galaxy S3/4 but they still want $200-250 on Craigslist and I don't trust people either.

Check swappa and look for a seller with a lot of reviews.

I wouldn't do craigslist. My ex-bf bought an iphone 4s off of craigslist and it was a very shady transaction. The phone was able to be activated, but the guy selling it was shaking and sweating during the transaction.

 

[wenrob]

My two youngest just turned nine and they are on me for phones because all their friends have them. Right now there is just no need but they will most likely get them the summer before middle school starts when they will be more involved in activities and not have such predictable schedules. They will inherit our older iPhones when Mom & Dad upgrade like their older sister did. That will essentially add $15 apiece for them to the bill with our current plan. If they want the latest and greatest they'll have to spend their own money like their sister did.

In my experience with my oldest (now 18) smart phones do get utilized heavily in the classroom from middle school on up. It also eliminates the need for multiple devices. If your child can handle the responsibility of taking care of their phone and pay attention to things like data then a smartphone is the way to go IMO.

 

[mrodgers]

Have to note also this story from my oldest about phones....

She got a plain old regular Tracfone when she was 11. It was her first and my wife and I also had regular old Tracfones (an upgrade for us as opposed to a single phone that we shared taking when we went to work opposite shifts.) She whined that she wanted an iPhone as "All my friends have iPhones!" A status thing really.

She paid for her Tracfone herself and we paid for the $25/3 months service under the pretense that she has it for to and from school or other times she is not with us to communicate with us. She never turned it on because of the "all my friends have iPhones" and the embarrassment of the "expensive phone status." I quit paying for the Tracfone service and she no longer had a phone.

The next year is when my wife and I switched to GoPhone with cheap Android phones, text, per minute call, and no data. Now 12 years old and with the phones being Android smart phones and $100 phones vs. $15 regular phones, we tried it again with her. Again, the rules are it's purpose is for communication with us first and she can use it how she wants otherwise and if texts run out, they run out. Now she loved her little smart phone and all was well. She texts mom every day going to and from school and was using about 150 texts/month. I asked her if she texts her friends. "No, none of them have phones."

Wait! Last year you couldn't pull your phone out of your pocket because you were embarrassed because all your friends had iPhones and this year none of your friends even have phones?

So, take what the kids say with a grain of salt when they say "all the other kids this and all the other kids that." We all were kids too at one time and we all played the game too. Now at 14 in Jr. High School (no middle school, 7-12 is in the High School all together) she purchased a better "cheap" Android phone and it looks no different than an expensive Samsung Galaxy and is now texting her friends all the time. Our phones are $10 for 1000 texts a month and both her and mom know that it is all they are getting. Daughter went from about 150 per month to 900ish per month. More than the 1000 and she is out.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Check swappa and look for a seller with a lot of reviews.

I wouldn't do craigslist. My ex-bf bought an iphone 4s off of craigslist and it was a very shady transaction. The phone was able to be activated, but the guy selling it was shaking and sweating during the transaction.

One of the nice things about buying directly from Apple or a reputable dealer is that they are always willing to help you out at the Apple store (IME) but if you get one off Craigslist, you're on your own. You never know if a phone has had water damage from a drop in the toilet (unless you know how to check, which most people probably don't) or other problems which may not surface for a while. My DD's 4S's phone lost ability to record sound with video, for instance. Looking at the phone, it looks great, but that would be something that would turn up after the fact, and a buyer would be SOL. I think there can be a lot of quirks with these phones, but they're often worked out with Apple support. The last thing I'd want to hear if I walked into the store would be, "Sorry, we can't help you". And I have had a tech tell me that exact thing, so obviously, I haven't tried it, but I have been in lots of times for help and they're always been great.

 

[havaneselover]

One of the nice things about buying directly from Apple or a reputable dealer is that they are always willing to help you out at the Apple store (IME) but if you get one off Craigslist, you're on your own. You never know if a phone has had water damage from a drop in the toilet (unless you know how to check, which most people probably don't) or other problems which may not surface for a while. My DD's 4S's phone lost ability to record sound with video, for instance. Looking at the phone, it looks great, but that would be something that would turn up after the fact, and a buyer would be SOL. I think there can be a lot of quirks with these phones, but they're often worked out with Apple support. The last thing I'd want to hear if I walked into the store would be, "Sorry, we can't help you". And I have had a tech tell me that exact thing, so obviously, I haven't tried it, but I have been in lots of times for help and they're always been great.

I agree. But you pay a premium for that. That's why I recommended buying from a seller with a lot of reviews. It's not for everyone.

 

[verleniahall]

If you have verizion, I know they have like 4 or 5 phones thar are 1 penny whith a new 2 yr contract

BUT I would nOT be giving an 11 yr old a smartphone. a flippon ethat she can make a phone call would be just fine in our house.

 

[bjscheel]

DD13 has the LG Optimus Dynamic smart phone from Tracfone. We have used Tracfone for a long time but the thing I don't like about their smart phones is the way the minutes are set up. On a dumb phone, you have a certain amount of minutes and talking a minute takes away one minute, sending or receiving a text takes away .3 minutes. But on the smart phones, you have 3 buckets, say 2500 minutes talk, 2500 texts, and 2500 MB data. DD13 really only texts, so she is burning through them since it takes a whole unit now instead of .3. Something to consider if you go through Tracfone.

DD13 hasn't tried the data on her smart phone, because she is "scared". I told her she won't be charged extra- on Tracfone if you're out, you're just out! So she still hasn't used the smartphone capabilities, but at least it looks cool enough...

 

[smitch425]

DD12 got an iphone this year (she was 11 at the time) for middle school communication. She was going to use my mom's old 4s, but when I went to add it to our account, they were giving a 5c away for free with a 2 year contract, so we just went with that. We already had 2 iphones, and ipad and 2 ipad minis in our home, so it was just easier to get her an iphone so we could share apps/music. She only takes it to school on the days she needs it, but we are rarely home in the evenings, so she uses it a lot to play games, listen to music and text.

 

[eolian]

I bought my then 10 year old DD a pay as you go dumb phone and she showed me she was responsible with it and 6 months later DH & I were up for plan renewal/phone upgrades. We looked into giving her one of our old android smartphones and just adding a line to our plan (Verizon) but they had a free Lucid 3 with contract so she got herself a shiny new phone instead. Now 11, she has been wanting an iphone. I refuse to buy one for her. She started saving her money but realized that the phone she wanted was not cheap and not really all that necessary when she has a perfectly fine smartphone. In her school they are issued ipads and so the phones are not used during school. She has gotten better about using her data. She gets 2 GB and when they are gone (I get a text and email telling me) I turn the data off on the phone and she can rely on wifi only for the rest of the month. As for losing or breaking her phone, we have hung on to our old phones and she can have one of the them if that happens, but it has been 6 months and so far so good.

 

[Pigeon]

We currently use both Virgin Mobile and SmartTalk for our teens. Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, which isn't great around here, but I'm grandfathered into a $25/month unlimited talk, text, data plan and it's good enough. Straight Talk is a little more expensive, but still $45/month for unlimited plans. Some of their phones use sprint, but we got one that uses Verizon and the coverage is much better than Sprint. You have to be careful.

Both companies have pretty good Android phones for under $100. They are much nicer than the dreadfully embarrassing flip phones, but don't break the bank. You can also buy iPhones from them. I personally hate Apple and Apple products. The cheaper Android phones do 80% of what an iPhone will do.

We started our kids with Tracfones and they are OK for what they do. But if your kids text much, they burn through minutes pretty fast. It made more sense for us to go for the unlimited prepaid plans.

 

[solfan68]

DS12 has yet to ask for a phone, thank goodness. That said, I have a work phone and wife has a TracBerry wannabe. So when the day comes, I imagine he'd probably be getting a TracDroid. Trac has been a good solution for us, based on our usage. But if you live on your phone, there are probably better ways to go.

 

[mefordis]

Yep, my 11 yr old told me all her friends have an iPhone then I started going through a list of names and most of them - nope - no iPhone. I told her when she is 12 she can get her iPhone.

Have to note also this story from my oldest about phones....

She got a plain old regular Tracfone when she was 11. It was her first and my wife and I also had regular old Tracfones (an upgrade for us as opposed to a single phone that we shared taking when we went to work opposite shifts.) She whined that she wanted an iPhone as "All my friends have iPhones!" A status thing really.

She paid for her Tracfone herself and we paid for the $25/3 months service under the pretense that she has it for to and from school or other times she is not with us to communicate with us. She never turned it on because of the "all my friends have iPhones" and the embarrassment of the "expensive phone status." I quit paying for the Tracfone service and she no longer had a phone.

The next year is when my wife and I switched to GoPhone with cheap Android phones, text, per minute call, and no data. Now 12 years old and with the phones being Android smart phones and $100 phones vs. $15 regular phones, we tried it again with her. Again, the rules are it's purpose is for communication with us first and she can use it how she wants otherwise and if texts run out, they run out. Now she loved her little smart phone and all was well. She texts mom every day going to and from school and was using about 150 texts/month. I asked her if she texts her friends. "No, none of them have phones."

Wait! Last year you couldn't pull your phone out of your pocket because you were embarrassed because all your friends had iPhones and this year none of your friends even have phones?

So, take what the kids say with a grain of salt when they say "all the other kids this and all the other kids that." We all were kids too at one time and we all played the game too. Now at 14 in Jr. High School (no middle school, 7-12 is in the High School all together) she purchased a better "cheap" Android phone and it looks no different than an expensive Samsung Galaxy and is now texting her friends all the time. Our phones are $10 for 1000 texts a month and both her and mom know that it is all they are getting. Daughter went from about 150 per month to 900ish per month. More than the 1000 and she is out.