J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

My 3 kids have PAYG mobiles, but to be honest its a pain in the ****, all on different networks
and we end up spradically topping them up by thirty quid, I think they must use a tenner, maybe fifteen month so am thinking it may be best to stick them on a contract.

This is for my benefit, as its so much easier, topping them up on different networks is a pain in the **** and they forget until they are out and need to ring us. Not bothered about them getting new phones as the ones they have are all decent, wouldnt mind a cheeky HTC desire out of the deal for myself but not that bothered, if I took out three contracts do you think I could get one phone between them kind of thing, do they do deals like that, potentially it could be quite lucrative for the network if I forget to check their usage !

Anyone any experience of kids using contract phones ?

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

J4cko

My advice is to get them a sim only deal, i`m with vodafone and for £10 per month i get 600 mins free cross network, unlimited texts and free calls to any other vodafone mobile. I never use my 600 mins a month because most of my mates are on vodafone which is free.

This current deal i have is now £15 per month to anyone else as it went up but you have piece of mind that it will be very difficult for your kids to use more than 600 mins especially if they all get the same deal with the same provider as the calls will be free vodafone to vodafone and they don`t come out of the 600 mins.

Just ring around for the best deals if you go the sim only route and get them to explain exactly what it is you get.

These are the vodafone sim only deals.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/sim-...h=1&cid=ppc-go

Turbohot

I bought a contract phone for my 17 yr.old last year. I was sick of her excuse of not returning my messages due to her short-lived top-ups all the time. I got her O2 contract phone with 200 mins and unlimited texts for 15 quid (**** deal, I know). She ran me the average bill of £160-200 for first 6 months! it has now gone down to 40 quid a month now, which I can cope with, but for this money, I could have got her and Iphone on contract. Then again, that could have incurred extra costs too, with this-apps and that-download milarky.

Dunno how old your kids are, but I wouldn't get contract phones for teenagers unless they pay out of their small job wages, if they have got one. But then again, they would do your head in by not answering your calls and texts with "no credit" excuse. They will always have enough credit to send useless texts to their mates and BFs and GFs, wouldn't they? No win situation, I am afraid.

Like Rob says, I will get her a Sim Only, once this 24-month contract is up.

Hope you find good deals for your kids, Jacko. I also hope that your kids don't run your bills too high

Snazy

I paid for my niece and nephews phones. Had no problems til my niece picked up a pikey mate who does the "drop call, call me back" thing, and she suddenly decided that sticking to her limit was not important and went over.
Given the tariffs you can get these days its probably easier to get contract, both saves time on top ups and gives peace of mind that they will never not be able to contact you because their credit has run out (which was always my concern)

I would say contract is not a bad thing, and the best part is, you get to keep their upgrades lol

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

The O2 simplicity deals look good value...

There pay as you go,but i think £10 a month gets you 12000 texts,100 free minutes..

Jamie

Nope no kids

But vodaphone are doing a good deal on payg £20 gets £50 credit!

PaulC72

We have our 15yo on a 3 contract as we are with them.

I won't go into the ins and out as mostly allot of contract are very much alike so you would IMO be better getting one on a similar network to yours or who ever they tend to call the most. As usually this may get them extra minutes for calling numbers on the same network (I think my daughter gets a couple of thousand 3 to 3 mins like we do)

The one thing I would advise whichever contract method you go for is as soon as you have it contact them and get the credit limit reduced to a level you want to set (ours is at £10) this way is they do go over their minutes the exposure is only that amount...believe me I have been there with a £90 bill (which we successfully argued as it was an unlimited contract...)

PaulC72

We have our 15yo on a 3 contract as we are with them.

I won't go into the ins and out as mostly allot of contract are very much alike so you would IMO be better getting one on a similar network to yours or who ever they tend to call the most. As usually this may get them extra minutes for calling numbers on the same network (I think my daughter gets a couple of thousand 3 to 3 mins like we do)

The one thing I would advise whichever contract method you go for is as soon as you have it contact them and get the credit limit reduced to a level you want to set (ours is at £10) this way is they do go over their minutes the exposure is only that amount...believe me I have been there with a £90 bill (which we successfully argued as it was an unlimited contract...)

oadamo

iTrader: (1)

ive got one for my kid off t mobile £10/m and he got to pick between about 3 phones and he picked the toco light, and hes well happy with the phone. saves us topping it up and worrying if he every runs outof credit when he needs it.
adam