Mobile Phone - Daughter starting high school
 

Hi all,

I was wondering what everyone else has done in terms of supplying phone and sim to your child.

I've held back as long as feasible in letting my daughter have her own mobile as I believe up until now it would have been for social use (Instagram etc) and not a necessity.

She'll only have a 5-10min walk to school as of September, but given that we used to transport her to primary school (2 miles away) it's going to be a little strange I guess. I'm not concerned about her getting to school, it's more about security and keeping in contact.

"School don't permit phones to be used in school hours, including breaks", which is great news.

I came across this http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hukd...offers-2481975

She would like an IPhone as she has an iPad now, and to be honest we all have apple ****e in our house, why? - Fcuk knows :wonder:

Anyhow I bought my own phone and I use a sim only deal from Three at £17pm which does everything I require, I also have a work phone on Vodafone which coverage is terrible around here so I've decided that Vodafone is a no-no.

Any of you guys/girls have any experience in my quest or shall I just trial it? I think Giffgaff is £10pm with unlimited texts and Internet on a 1 month rolling deal, I could try this I guess?

Or is there decent phone/sim deals out there?

Thanks,
Rob

My daughter is older than yours but I remember the great phone debate. For the security point of view and walking to school would you consider it a fairly safe route? Has she got a pal she can walk with or is it safe to cycle? Having a phone adds a tiny increased risk to being mugged of course. I got my daughter an alarm to keep in a pocket or bag and she also went to a "action against an attack" lesson which was basically kicks them in the balls and poke your fingers in the eyes and run like hell. But I am not sure she would have ever have taken this action. On the reassuring side I don't know of one incident of her or any of her mates running into trouble. The local wide boys and druggies would congregate outside Tescos so they just avoided them. Haven't a clue about phones but I use a dirt cheap £10 pm month Tesco special which no self respecting mugger would want. To be honest I was more concerned about her getting her drinks spiked in bars/clubs but you can run through that with her. The police can be quite helpful with advice btw. David

My daughter went the route of hand me down, new PAYG for Christmas, Blackberry on contract (back when everyone used BBM), Samsung S3 Mini and now an iPhone, basically more expensive as she's got older and more responsible (now 17). My son on the other hand started with a contract Android handset at £7.50 a month from Tesco, no worries about running out of credit, he was just happy to have a phone at 10 years old so wasn't worried about what it was. Added bonus of triple clupcard points on the bill as well.

Cheers David,

I don't mind her having a phone to be honest, and a few of her mates have modern phones so it seems fitting for her to also have one. I've been batting back the "want v need" for several years now but always said she can have one when she goes high school.

The walk to school is fine, but unfortunately unless her friends detour here first she's going on her own. To be honest mum will no doubt do the school runs until confidence, well mums panic subsides.

I've thought of the pepper spray thing, but know it could be misused so decided to give this a miss.

Cheers for your input.

Rob

Cheers Shane.

I gave that some thought, but I look after my gear so my phone is "As new" albeit it's now 2-3 yr old 5s, and I'm in no hurry to buy a new 6s either at £400 ish just so she can have mine.....:nono:

I've check flebay and this is maybe a route for now, as she will bloody drop it no doubt at some point! :freak3:

My kids are on giffgaff saves them ringing up a big bill on a contract

A number of companies do "shockproof tariffs" where you can only overspend by a £5 each month (Tesco and ID from Carphone Warehouse spring to mind).

My children are 12 and 14 and both have iPhones on a shared tariff with EE.

I bought a couple of Moto E's on Three Pay as you Go for my two eldest. No point buy top of the range phones and the Moto E's are good enough for them and don't cost much to replace if they're lost or broken and not as desirable to thieves. Although they're a bit miffed that they can't play Pokemon Go on these phones, which is a good thing in my opinion!!

Get an iphone then you can track em on wheres my iphone lol

You can do that with Android too! :thumb:

I bought my daughter a Samsung Galaxy Alpha and I got her a sim only contract with Three where she has unlimited internet. That way she can tether laptops if she is out and she never has to connect to wifi zones which as people know are usually bad for people hacking into your phone through open networks.

She uses picture messaging with snapchat so I don't have to worry about extra charges :)

Hi my daughter is on Tesco you cap the tariff so she cant go over and has a safety buffer of £2.50 if she uses all her mins tx and data

I got my daughters (4 of them!!) the cheapest sim only deal on 3, £7.50mth iirc. Its got 250 mins a few GB of data but unlimited texts. So even if they run calls down (which tbf they don't) to 0 they still have text contact me if needed!

Data and calls are capped so can't use anymore than is allocated :thumb:

Cheers for all the advice.

I've bought her an almost new iPhone 5 with all the original kit for under £100, and opted for the "ID" network for now at £5pm, this meet all her (my limitations) for now.

Rob

Rob i have Three for my kids, like yourself, Benefits for me was its 12 quid a month or a max of 20 wish for all you can eat.

It also benefits from the Three at Home service so when i travel most often than not the country is covered under the tariff so no MASSIVE bills.

Spain's covered and USA which was surprising to me... i think the Unlimited Texts is the key here, however just be mindful of WhatsAPP and Facebook these could bounce the data tariff up....

Good Luck.