If you provide your nanny / au pair with a phone...

[Strix]

Please tell me what you get her/him.

1. Phone model? (Android? iPhone? Balckberry? Other?)
2. How many minutes / texts / etc.?
3. Does she own the phone or give it back when she leaves?

I was noticing new au pairs' phone is a tad... well... outdated. i give her £30 for top up each month. And i was thinking that for the same price I could get her a much nicer phone if I moved to pay monthly.

We will be giving ours cheapest contract (?20pcm I think) which is unlimited local calls and texts but no Internet and best phone - will be letting them choose - for approx ?50 (no free phones here :( unfortunately). I will expect it back when they leave.

Android? Iphone? BB? Are you joking? But then i was entirely too cheap to pay for an iphone for myself when i got my HTC for free.

She gives it back when she leaves, yes. It's just for us to be able to keep in touch with her via text or short calls when she isn't at home - and to be honest we rarely use it.

Our current one doesn't do much phoning at all. Our one last year seemed to run a more sophistocated phone for calls to friends which she also financed.

We give her a tenner every couple of weeks which more than covers our use of it.

Our current one isn't much of a facebooker either - she's quite quaint in that way, unlike other Yoof of today! Our one last year had sent about five texts before 8 am.

I like to keep them happy with the smaller perks rather than a big fat salary which I can't afford. And I prefer not to share my generosity with the greedy Inland Revenue. So, I thought posh phone would be nice. But, she will have to return it when she leaves in September because I will need to give it to her replacement.

Am not an au pair and I don't have one, but I have an HTC desire from 3 with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of internet for £20 a month. I think there are cheaper deals with the same phone available there as well.

Not sure why I said it is an HTC Desire as it is an HTC Wildfire. But basically the same

Hi Strix, I don't provide a phone as nanny had one already. I would definitely expect it back if I was to provide one!!

Hi Strix,
well I'm feeling rather cheap now! I gave my au pair a new Sony (walkman thingy) PAYG phone which I top up £10 every couple of months. This is for her to contact me/or other adult in an emergency, if she wants to txt her friends (which she does) she has to top it up herself. You've now made me think that I may have a look for a cheapish pay monthly (but maybe not..)

and does the aupair want a new phone? i am for example hanging onto my broken old phone as i cant stand the new 'clever' phones at all. (my phone is siemens a55, so in your eyes probably very ancient).

We provide a cheap (£10) handset on pay as you go and top-up as required.
So far au pairs have returned it when they leave, but they have had nice phones of their own that they use for music/cameras etc. We chose pay as you go because pay monthly plans allow you to exceed your inclusive minutes/texts/internet without noticing. Also if the phone is lost/stolen/left on a bus it is not a major problem!
We provide a phone so that we can ask them to keep it switched on when they are doing the school run etc and so we know they can make calls in emergencies. Also it is cheaper for them to use it to receive/make calls and texts to UK based friends. I think we can ask them to keep it on if we provide it rather than using her phone iyswim.
Our au pairs can make unlimted landline calls and have wifi access at home so don't need internet for their phone.
The other option is to wait until you get your free upgrade and then pass on your old phone which will have nicer features than the cheap PAYG.

"I like to keep them happy with the smaller perks rather than a big fat salary which I can't afford. And I prefer not to share my generosity with the greedy Inland Revenue."

You mean that you provide Benefits In Kind? BIK are subject to tax and employer's NI.