Mobile phone plan for a 10-11 year old?

[ChristmasTidyings]

What data, call and sms allowances do you have on your DC's mobiles? We took the lowest for DD, she has a prepaid with 10 MB/month data. This is eaten up just by the basics of running the phone when she's out and about (system services), she hasn't been actively using her data and she's only taken her phone out a couple of times in the month. I've turned mobile data off for now.

She will soon start to go by bus alone to one of her clubs and I want (her) to be able to:
check the bus time table in the app
track where she is

i.e. I need to leave mobile data running when she's out and about. How much data do you think she would need for this?

The next prepaid plans are 40MB, 200MB, 400MB.

@ChristmasTidyings I’m planning to add them both (11 yo twins) to the sky plan in August before they start Year 8. That way we can juggle the data and I plan to move to sky in November when my o2 contract ends. O2 is so much more expensive than sky now. We joined o2 for the family package but they’ve stopped it. Tesco is the other one DD’s friends are on.

The cheapest deals I can get in my region are
prepaid inc. 10MB/month*
prepaid inc 40MB/month £3.60
prepaid inc 200MB/month £8.10
prepaid inc 400MB/month £12.60

then it goes to the most basic plan
2GB/month £17.50

*this is what she has.

She will be out and about for up to four hours once or twice a week.

I didn't realise you could get less than 2gb these days! I have 2gb and rarely use it in a month, but im rarely anywhere without WiFi. DS (mid teens) has 5gb because he's more frequently somewhere without WiFi.

Can you get one of these?

smarty.co.uk/#plans

Didn't even realise you could still get plans for under 1 GB.

Gigaff - £25 unlimited everything. It's the best value for money I find

DS has unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 1Gb of data for £6.

Are you restricted by supplier and area? I'm amazed you can't get better data for the prices you are quoting.

Dts are 11 and on the cheapest one I could get which was 2gb. They were burning through it and couldn't figure out why, I kept topping up because they were going on the bus to school.

Finally realised it was because life360 was draining it. Got rid of that and now use find my iPhone and 2GB is plenty. They know not to stream if they're not on wifi. They can always tether to me or DH if needed. They did this when we were away before Christmas and there was no wifi.

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton yes, unfortunately. That's why I said I wasn't after advice on which deal to get, but after advice on how much data to get.

Where on earth are you that your phone plan is in MB? Does the plan have unlimited calls/texts? MB are nothing, I'm surprised she can even run the phone on that.

As to what she needs, that completely depends on what she uses it for. My daughters stream a lot of music and video so they are both on unlimited data. Clearly that's not what your daughter needs but it's impossible to say without knowing more.

I have the three of us on a sim only plan £22 12gb each. The more phones you have the bigger the discount I think two phones was £18. DS has a cap on his so he can't go over his limit.

I think you are paying a crazy premium for pre-pay.
Go to your own provider and ask what they'll do for an extra SIM.

@Sugarfree23 I'm on the 2gb plan I quoted above. It's the cheapest provider that covers where we live. There is no "family" option.

@Rockbird not unlimited but more than she needs. And yes, that's the main problem, the phone won't run on it!

@Rockbird I want her to be able to contact me. I want to be able to track her and find her if e.g. she messes up with the bus. I think she should also be able to use maps and the bus app.
I don't see why she needs data apart from those.

Based on your posts about her potential usage then I’d say the minimum she needs is 1gb.

try the 400mb just in case but you will probably find she needs to go on the same plan as you.

Apart from Facebook which I use a lot to upload photos System Services including mapping is the biggest consumer of data on my phone. Far more than any other social media etc.

Can you do a PAYG option? We've gone with 1p mobile as recommended by Martin Lewis

Where do you live that only has one option for mobile phones?

There are 3 networks in the UK. EE, O2 and Vodafone. Every other provider uses one of those 3 networks.
If you only get reception on one of the 3, find out which networks it is and shop around on who else uses that network.

But of a pointless question - there is no standard usage at that age (as you know). Once she’s on the bus, you won’t be able to control her usage.

I have 2gb and never reach the limit, obviously don't watch anything when out or stream music. Ds1 has 10gb and also never uses it all (he goes to school so out more than me)

Sorry I missed 3 they also have their own network.

I really think £17.50 for 2gb is pricy and you should shop around for other deals. Lots of offers on just now.

As I say I pay £22 for 3 SIMs with 12gb each. More than plenty

Smarty is £10 per month with 45gb of data

Look at Lebara. Incredibly cheap deals with loads of data. Lots of options available depending on how much data you want.

Can you use EE?

As of 7 July 2021, when you buy any pay monthly phone or SIM plan we'll make sure you stay connected if your data runs out. You'll automatically switch to a slower speed (0.5Mbps) when you've used your plan allowance, so you'll still be able to use things like WhatsApp, Maps and messaging apps.

Are you not in the UK?

@Swimmum1206 Lots of options available depending on how much data you want.

This is what I'm trying to figure out! How much data she needs.

I don't think you are going to get the answer you are after, as most of us are not used to having options with data packages that low these days.
So, DS has 1Gb, but that's the lowest package we can access for him.He doesn't use it all.

How easily can you change plans? So if you went up a level, and it's still not enough, can you easily step up again?