Which cell phone for my 10-year old DD?

[robinb]

We are headed to WDW at the end of December and it's time to buy my 10-year old DD a cell phone. We used to use walkie-talkies to keep in touch but I think that cell phones will work better now and that means I only have to carry one piece of equipment (my iPhone) and not two. Plus, my DD swims 4 times a week and I want her to have a phone to contact me if she needs to. I will be adding her to my contract, but buying the phone from Craigslist or eBay as I don't want to extend out my AT&T contract. I'm not that happy with AT&T but I LOVE my iPhone. I will be happy if the iPhone is available with a different carrier and I don't want to be locked in for another year after my expiration of 11/2010.

Here are my choices:

Samsung SGH-a737: a 3G "slider" phone in lime green. She thinks it's a cool color and she likes the slider mechanism. I'm worried that it will break. They are about $50 delivered in very good used condition.

Samsung SGH-a237: a 2G (Edge) flip phone. My DD calls it an "egg phone". They are a bit less expensive than the a737 on eBay.

Motorola V3 Razr: a 2G (Edge) flip phone. My DD also likes this one and I can get two phones (a pink one and a black one) with all accessories on Craigslist for $50. I'm leaning toward this one so I can set aside the black one for her in case she loses the pink one.

My DD will be only calling and not texting (yet) as we don't have a texting plan. I may add texting in the future and I figure that learning T9 texting builds character, LOL. I plan on getting her a texting phone when she is older.

 

[eduk8r26]

If you have ATT, look on their website for refurbished phones. I got my LG Shine refurbed for $30. I've never had a problem with it.

 

[robinb]

If you have ATT, look on their website for refurbished phones. I got my LG Shine refurbed for $30. I've never had a problem with it.

I would, but I don't want to extend my contract another year. It's currently up in 11/2010 and if I get a phone from AT&T it will be up in 11/2011. I'm not all that happy with AT&T. There have been times (like at Badger football games here in Madison and Cubs baseball games in Chicago) that I could not even get a phone call out until the crowds thinned. That's unacceptable, but I LOVE my iPhone so I put up with it. By next year, other carriers may be able to offer the iPhone and I am probably gone unless AT&T can improve their service. If I get a free phone from AT&T I'm stuck with them for at least another year.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I'm no help since I only have a Nokia phone but as far as your dd goes I'd suggest you buy her a prepaid phone. THat's what we did with dd & it has been fabulous. There are tons to choose from - we bought the Tracphone from Walmart - the phone we bought was in the $35 range (I think) & it comes with lifetime double minutes so every time we add minutes it automatically doubles them. It has texting which is what she uses most since you get 3 texts for 1 min of air time. And you can choose how much you wanna add & you can threaten her with running the mins out - if dd runs them out her phone gets taken away for a time & she's not allowed to walk home (which she loves) - she has to ask permission to text/talk unless its to us. And the best part is NO BILL!

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents...

 

[mickeyfan1]

I second the prepaid phone. You can get it on the AT&T network, if she happens to lose it, you aren't out a lot of cash. Staples often has them on clearance. Yoiu just buy the minutes you need monthly.

I would love to see Verizon offering the Iphone. Maybe in 2911.

 

[Petraman]

I would, but I don't want to extend my contract another year. It's currently up in 11/2010 and if I get a phone from AT&T it will be up in 11/2011. I'm not all that happy with AT&T. There have been times (like at Badger football games here in Madison and Cubs baseball games in Chicago) that I could not even get a phone call out until the crowds thinned. That's unacceptable, but I LOVE my iPhone so I put up with it. By next year, other carriers may be able to offer the iPhone and I am probably gone unless AT&T can improve their service. If I get a free phone from AT&T I'm stuck with them for at least another year.

Just as a clarifier, I believe that AT&T has the exclusivity contract with iPhone until 2012, so no other carrier will be able to offer it until then. If this is true, then extending your contract until 2011 is really a moot point if you are set on keeping your iphone. Worth checking into

On another note, we are going through the same process as we are looking to add our DD10 onto our plan and get her a phone. I can tell you that what we have heard and experienced first-hand is that going with a flip up without a big vidscreen on the outside seems to be the safest bet. The keys aren't exposed, nor is the main screen, so harder to damage. We have had 3 slider phones between DH, DW, and DD15 and all 3 have failed eventually. I do have a slider MotoROKR that seems very sturdy.

Good luck and I am jealous BTW.... we don't have AT&T in our small town so I can't have an iphone

 

[golfgal]

Correct me if I am wrong as well but by adding your DD to your plan you will have to change your contract to a family plan (if you don't already have one) thus extending your contract. I would double check with ATT to see if adding another line to your plan really means you have to extend your contract.

 

[jrmasm]

If you have ATT, look on their website for refurbished phones. I got my LG Shine refurbed for $30. I've never had a problem with it.

Do not buy one of these for a kid. The screens crack really easily.

 

[Boo'sMom]

My prior experience with my youngest children has proven that the best phone to get for their first phone is one of the "freebies" that your carrier offers. With the family plans that are out out there, these phones are even cheaper than the prepaid options.

 

[robinb]

Correct me if I am wrong as well but by adding your DD to your plan you will have to change your contract to a family plan (if you don't already have one) thus extending your contract. I would double check with ATT to see if adding another line to your plan really means you have to extend your contract.

Thanks . I think I can change my plan whenever I want (for instance, I changed minutes) without having to extend my contract. I'll double-check it and I will go ahead and get her a freebie phone if that's the case. The reason why I am going with adding her to my current account is because it's only $10 per month for her to share my minutes and all calls between our family are free (we're all AT&T). I think a prepaid plan will cost me more and I still need to buy the phone which is at least $30-50 for one with a camera.

 

[momof1princess]

i just bought my DD12 a kajeet phone. unlimited texting and 60 minutes a month for $14.99 per month. much cheaper than adding her to my AT&T plan. i had to buy the phone, but it will pay for itself in a few months with the savings over AT&T.

 

[Mskanga]

Thanks . I think I can change my plan whenever I want (for instance, I changed minutes) without having to extend my contract. I'll double-check it and I will go ahead and get her a freebie phone if that's the case. .

Your contract expiration will change when you add the phone wether you buy it from them or not. I know because that is what happened to me when I added another phone to my family plan.

 

[robinb]

Well crapity crap! Golfgal and Mskanga are correct. If I add my DD onto my plan HER phone NUMBER comes with a 2-year contract. My phone number remains the same so I could drop my plan next year, but I would have to convert her to a single plan for a year. *sigh* I'm back to square one I guess. Time to compare pre-paid plans now. AT&Ts does not appear to be all that great. Either $1 per day plus 10-cents per minute but with unlimited AT&T mobile to mobile calls or 25-cents per minute for every call. That could add up to the $10 per month extra for her line pretty darn fast.

 

[kristilew]

I just want to put in a word of warning about AT&T at WDW when it's crowded - as I'm sure it will be at the end of December. When we were at Epcot on a Saturday during Food and Wine, it was so crowded and so many people trying to use their AT&T phones, that the server (or whatever it is) crashed. There were about two hours in the middle of the day when no one could make or recieve calls or texts on AT&T. I probably talked to over a hundred people that were having this problem, in addition to the three in our family.

This was scary for me, b/c I had just let my DD12 go into a store in Germany while I waited for her in the courtyard. It was soooo packed that she couldn't find me and I couldn't find her, and we were sending each other texts but not realizing that they weren't going through. Later that evening, I got about 5 texts from her all in a row, all from earlier saying "where are you?" "I'm waiting at this spot". Calls were not going through at all. Luckily, she followed our family plan for separation and we found her as soon as we realized what had happened.

My point being, if you are thinking the cell phone will help you stay in touch and thus planning to give your DD more freedom at the Mouse, please make sure you have an alternate plan in case AT&T is not working.

 

[robinb]

I just want to put in a word of warning about AT&T at WDW when it's crowded - as I'm sure it will be at the end of December. When we were at Epcot on a Saturday during Food and Wine, it was so crowded and so many people trying to use their AT&T phones, that the server (or whatever it is) crashed. There were about two hours in the middle of the day when no one could make or recieve calls or texts on AT&T. I probably talked to over a hundred people that were having this problem, in addition to the three in our family.

Thanks for the head's up. We used our AT&T phones last year at the same time (Christmas-NYE) with no problem, but I would believe that they had connectivity problems when you were there. I think that the AT&T network is just not ready for all the iPhones and Blackberries on the system (but they are perfectly happy to sell you one!). I was in Chicago last weekend and I was trying to call my sister while staring at the "no service" message on my phone we drove my an AT&T "Best 3G Coverage!" billboard .

In any case, it's a good reminder to have a back-up plan for finding each other should we get separated and out phones don't work. Luckily, my DD knows WDW like the back of her hand.

 

[Alphabetsoup]

We use Verizon and last Christmas at WDW calls weren't getting through and the voice mail messages weren't showing up until 8-12 hours later. Cell phones were proving USELESS for keeping in contact while in the parks. Better to set a 'meeting place' and time!

 

[robinb]

Just as a clarifier, I believe that AT&T has the exclusivity contract with iPhone until 2012, so no other carrier will be able to offer it until then.

I read that the exclusivity agreement with AT&T is over in 2010 and so is my contract. So now I'm back on the fence leaning more toward a prepaid phone for my DD.