Can someone help me with something boring? First mobile phone for 11yo

[Crunchymum]

We have no clue.

I'm on a very cheap pay monthly with a 2 year old phone and dad still has a PAYG (yes they do still exist!!)

DC has absolutely zero interest in having a phone but it's becoming a necessity now to allow them to have certain freedoms.

I just want something they can use to call / text (was debating WhatsApp too) and I'm happy to have PAYG. I don't want them on a contract particularly.

Any suggestions / recommendations?

We've recently bought our son a Motorola phone which was about £150 but they do do cheaper models, we are all on SIM only deals on a rolling 30 day contract with Lebara currently £5 a month for 3 of us in an introductory offer, this will go to about £5 each a month, still not much.

Thank you, so do you buy the phone separately and then the SIM elsewhere?

Following as I am also interested
We are looking for a simple android smart phone that can do YouTube, WhatsApp and can have a tracker

This one is a pretty decent first phone-
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/1172418

All our kids got basic android phones - but the handset and then separately a SIM only deal. We currently use Motorola as Samsung tend to use a lot of the memory up for their own software.... Eg Motorola g22 is currently around £100 in John Lewis. You can also install parental controls 🙂

Refurbished iPhone SE - was £150, then a SIM only contract for £11pm. We're an Apple family so it makes sense as the parental controls are so easy when you're all on Apple.

Get them a second hand IPhone from here:

Music Magpie in good or excellent condition. I get all my dc's phones from here.

Just brought my daughter her first samsung a03 from buyone.co.uk.. think it was £70-80. It is pay as u go.
She has an 02 sim that we top up every month

Yes we bought the phone from amazon then the SIM direct from the mobile provider

We use am app called Family link this allows us to set limits on screen time, we can see his location and we can approve app installations via it

I'd get a refurbished phone from giff gaff and then a £6 a month call plan (that's what we did when my DDs first had phones)
https://www.giffgaff.com/mobile-phones/refurbished?sort=price-asc

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Much appreciated.

So how does giffgaff work? If I buy a refurbished phone and a plan do I still need to buy an actual SIM elsewhere for the phone?

Can't believe how clueless I am!! 😳

Black view phones are a must being android and unlocked. It's what me and dp have and we are on PAYG giffgaff as that works best for us. Get a good deal on data too

3210 😁

We did this too, for the same reason.

My dd got a refurbished iphone X from I think its called ioutlet or something similar online, then got a sim only contract from EE which is £10 a month. My dh has an iPhone so he can do all the parental controls.

Giffgaff will send out a free sim