Need cell phone help

[TheIncredibles!]

DS#1 is 13 and is a child with special need, he is cognitively impaired among many other minor things.

In our district come 7th grade you transition over to the High School so starting 7th grade is a big deal for kids here and many parents pick this time to get a cell phone for their kids. So we'd like to get him a cell phone. More as a "rite of passage" type of thing as opposed to need. There's so fewmilestones in life that he'll be able to do but this one we can make happen for him - kwim?

I want a CHEAP plan however I really need one with a full qwerty keyboard so he can text. There's no way he'd be able to deal with hitting 2 three times to get a C then once to get an A then hitting 6 twice to get an N - kwim?

Any ideas? I have Verizon for my phone but I am grandfathered on the unlimited data plan for my smart phone and it looks like I'd be charged for data if I tried to upgrade to a family plan so I am basically open to anything cheap that will have a decent phone etc.

THANKS!

 

[hildarumpole]

Tracfone offers QWERTY phones. Depending on how many minutes he might use in a month, you could get by with spending as little as $9.99/month. We got the Beyond Talk plan from Virgin Mobile for my son. It was $25/mo., but just went up to $35/mo. The cost of the phones are higher than Tracfone. It's still a good deal, because he gets unlimited texting and 300 talk minutes a month. The service has been reliable and customer service is helpful. We had Tracfone in the past, but my son started texting too much for it to be cost-effective any longer. The quality of the phone and coverage was fine. The CS was a bit challenging.

 

[KaylaMarie]

I had a pre paid phone for a while, it was stright talk from Walmart- there is a phone with dull key bored it was 45 a month unlimited text and mins it could be auto charged every month so no messing with cards

 

[LMC]

We have had a Kajeet phone for two years with no problems. My DS16 moved over to straight talk so the could have the unlimited web access (dd used the kajeet now passing it down to my 3rd child). Straight talk has a $30 plan also.

I just got DD(13) the Boost Samsung prevail phone and her unlimited plan is $50/mo but goes down $5 every 6mo's of on time payment so I can get it down to $35 in about a year and a half. She loves the phone, she can watch tv on it.

DS16 is the special needs child and he will be getting the boost set up soon since it seems to be a good phone and service.

 

[krisnme]

I have Verizon and had to change to the family plan also. it only ended up being 20.00 more per month, (10 for DS 10 additional data for me) it was better for my peace of mind to be able to buy the "chaperone" feature and be able to track DS at any time from my phone. I also locked out data, SMS, downloads and other features for him. He also got a qwerty phone free with the promo they were running. call verizon and ask them to break down the additional prices for you and you may find that it is not that much more each month.