First phone for an 11 year old - GiffGaff? ?

[IToldYouIWasFreaky]

I am looking for a first phone for nearly 11 year old DS. Actually, I already have the phone - my old Galaxy. I was looking at GiffGaff and it seems to be a good deal. The cheapest package would probably do him as he only needs to be able to call or text when he's out and about on his own and so I hope that the data usage would be minimal.

I would be interested to hear about other people's experience's of GiffGaff and I also have a stupid question - my old handset was with Vodafone. Can I just use the GiffGaff sim in it or would it need to be unlocked first?

Any other "first phone" tips would be gratefully received too!

I got the Plusnet £5 deal for my daughter. I think it's £6 now. More minutes and text than she's likely to use until she's really in her teens. The 1GB data looked like plenty, but in practice it disappeared rapidly until I taught her to turn her data off and only turn it on when she needs it. I think video ads when she was playing games were probably the main culprit.

One advantage of Plusnet for children is that they don't support short codes, so they can't get caught out with premium rate texts.

check local reception. I live in one of those places where only vodaphone works reliably, and even that not everywhere.

i m a giff gaffer, it runs on the O2 network only cheaper and better. There is no contract, you can stay or go, change your monthly goodybag as you like etc. As it happens i have some sims which will give the user a free £5 credit. You will need a phone thats either unlocked or locked to o2 if buying used.

Try iD mobile. Cheap and good.