Recommendations: Kid Cell Phone

[C_leen]

Hello,

We took out the home phone some time ago. DS occasionally home alone during parent evening walks, runs & quick errands. We are also considering letting DS come home on school bus twice a week in January, so he'd be required to call in once he beats us home.

So far I've been covering this time with DH's old phone on my Sprint plan (up in Dec).

The question is, should I jettison him to a prepaid cell phone or keep him on my plan? I'd like to upgrade to a smart phone, but I don't see a way to keep him on my Sprint plan as voice/text only. Through work I get a discount on Sprint, Verizon and ATT. I would like an iPhone but the ladies in my office who have them don't get phone service in our building. Meanwhile my old flip phone on Sprint actually works.

Everyone is so saavy on the Budget Boards, I appreciate your responses!

'leen

 

[Fire14]

I have my Dear nephew on our cell plan as it was cheaper for me to do this vs prepaid. He has a samsung cosmos and can talk and txt but has no internet access as I had it blocked at time I bought phone. WE have verizon but am sure any company can do this.

 

[crazelion]

I have thought about getting him starighttalk from Wal-mart. There everything is 45 dollars a month. They have smartphone for there phones that just came out. Nokia e71x is a excellent smartphone.

Better yet check ATT wireless online they came with a lot of prepaid phones online. The pantech link right is 34.99 brand new. They a lot choices in phones. If broke your ATT phone and still have sim card you go buy a cheap att prepaid phone and pop sim card in there.

I just 5 prepaid Nokia 2350 phones as backup for mom for 4.99 a piece.

I really should still off slickdeals LOL

 

[MSSANDRA]

How old is he and will he soon be wanting a cell phone for other uses other than home?? Verizon has a new home/cell phone that you can add for like 10 a month, stays in your home and can transfer a land line # to. WE have considered doing this but our home security system is tied into our land-line.

We started DS out at 11 with a pre-paid phone but switched to our plan as soon as saw he could handle a cell phone with no issues.

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Hello,

We took out the home phone some time ago. DS occasionally home alone during parent evening walks, runs & quick errands. We are also considering letting DS come home on school bus twice a week in January, so he'd be required to call in once he beats us home.

So far I've been covering this time with DH's old phone on my Sprint plan (up in Dec).

The question is, should I jettison him to a prepaid cell phone or keep him on my plan? I'd like to upgrade to a smart phone, but I don't see a way to keep him on my Sprint plan as voice/text only. Through work I get a discount on Sprint, Verizon and ATT. I would like an iPhone but the ladies in my office who have them don't get phone service in our building. Meanwhile my old flip phone on Sprint actually works.

Everyone is so saavy on the Budget Boards, I appreciate your responses!

'leen

Currently with Sprint if you get a smartphone he would need data and all that jazz...However it only costs $25 to add to a family plan(after two lines). So technically if you have two lines it would generally be cheaper to just add him because you would get phone subsidy over something like Virgin where you have to pay full price for phone.

I am in process of getting Nephew a phone and decided that my family is best with T-Mobile. Idk how service is there but to share voice and text its $5 for their non contract plans to add someone. Well atm its free but thats only for another week ish.

Sprint is decent but tbh if you only have two lines and want one of them without data then you are generally better going to another company.

Most ppl say chose coverage over phone but I don't overly use my phone so I chose phone first and fairly happy I did. Sprint does not have what I am looking for in a phone.

Although I would emplor you to look into Android before jumping on the Iphone. Iphone also does seem to have worse reception then other phones...So its possible that a different phone on Att wouldn't give you the issues that the iphone does.

Good luck

 

[bear_mom]

We have Verizon and do the family plan. Dh is the orignial plan holder so his phone is the bulk of the bill. My line is $10/month plus extra for the unlimited data plan (I have a smart phone) and dd has a phone that is an extra $10/month.

Works well for us.

Emily

 

[herdtoDisney]

Hello,

We took out the home phone some time ago. DS occasionally home alone during parent evening walks, runs & quick errands. We are also considering letting DS come home on school bus twice a week in January, so he'd be required to call in once he beats us home.

So far I've been covering this time with DH's old phone on my Sprint plan (up in Dec).

The question is, should I jettison him to a prepaid cell phone or keep him on my plan? I'd like to upgrade to a smart phone, but I don't see a way to keep him on my Sprint plan as voice/text only. Through work I get a discount on Sprint, Verizon and ATT. I would like an iPhone but the ladies in my office who have them don't get phone service in our building. Meanwhile my old flip phone on Sprint actually works.

Everyone is so saavy on the Budget Boards, I appreciate your responses!

'leen

We have a family plan from Verizon-we have 5 phones (dh, my, ds at college, ds in hs and ds in out-of-town magnet ms) and for us, with our work discout, we have found this to be cheapest for us. I have looked at prepaids but our family plan always ends up cheaper. It's the discount that makes it so good for us. We have 600 mintues to share, but with free member-to-member, free nights and weekends, and unlimited text, we never even approach the limit. I blocked data (after dh and two kids d/l games and tones ) and we don't have smartphones-I don't know how much that would add to a family plan.

We got whatever phones were offered free at the time-I think one phone was $29 and the rest were one cent.

 

[sam_gordon]

We got DD(then 11) a prepaid cell phone when she started staying home alone. We told her if she can keep the phone for a year, we'll put her on our plan (her friend lost her cell phone three times in the same time frame).

FF a year, we put her on our plan, and she's texting 10K+ times a month! Fortunately we're on unlimited texting.

 

[angierae]

On our Verizon plan you only have to pay data plans on Smart phones on your plan - my daughter and my MIL are both added to our family plan for $10 a month, and then we pay for my husband's data plan on his Droid, and my data plan on MY Droid.

We have unlimited texting, so that's not a worry, and between the 4 of us we only share 700 minutes, but we've never gone over on that, either because DD15 texts constantly and very very rarely talks on the phone.

It was way, way cheaper to add her to our family plan with a free phone and pay $10 a month. And now she can text her little heart out without having to worry.

 

[crl]

Is he only making calls from your home? If so, you could use Skype for less than $3 per month. This would also allow you to use Skype to make other phone calls throughout the month saving you minutes on your cell phone plan. For now, this works great for my DD since she is only ever needing a phone at our home while DH or I run to the neighbors to help.

 

[Kayka]

How old your son is, and how he will use the phone is a big part of the equation.

First: I know someone that uses Magic Jack, it plugs into her computer and for about $30 (per year) you get a phone number and unlimited nationwide calling using a standard landline phone.


Cell phones: we started our DD with AT&T prepaid. They have several no-contract plans available. What worked for us was pay as you go and we purchased unlimited text for $19.99 per month, calls were 25¢ per minute. She was a texter not a talker so the only calls were usually me to her, maybe 4 or 5 minutes per month. Worked out well for a number of years.