Mobile phone on contract for 12yr old DD...is it a good idea? She currently had pay as you go.

[shadypines]

Hi, I am not 'well up' on anything to do with mob phones, I have a pay as you go account (?) and that is all I know, DD, DH and DS have the same. But now DD, 12yr keeps mithering me about being on contract and how it would be so much better as she wouldn't run out of credit in an emergency. I can see the advantage of this but are contracts another way of syphoning money off of parents? Or is it genuinely a good idea?

Would appreciate your answers if you are knowledgeable , ta!

Are you happy for her to be on her mobile all the time?

Not running out of credit in an emergency: She needs to be responsible to learn to always have £1 credit or whatever on the phone, and to not use it for socialising until she has topped it up. That is not a reason for giving her unrestricted mobile access.

otoh If you are happy for her to be a high usage user, then a contract would be cheaper.

Have you got good rules in place re phone in general, e.g. off at mealtimes, downstairs overnight etc?

All my family are PAYG.

My kids all have contract phones. They are with Tesco so they are capped (ie can't spend more than the contract says). They have off the top of my head 2000 texts and 250 mins a month plus 500mb of data for £7.50 pm.

It's fine, DD in particular never uses her minutes! Before this DS1 had a PAYG and I was putting £10 on it about every fortnight.

DS is 13 and it was getting ridiculous paying out for payg. I pay seven pounds a month for unlimited texts, five hundred minutes and five hundred MB. We have phone rules, no phone at the table and phone off and left downstairs at eight o'clock. Phones have to be handed in at school during the day. He's not allowed on the internet on it either as safety features can't be put in place. I do check his phone now and again and the rules are that dh or I can do random checks or he loses his phone.

Another fan of tesco contract. You can also set an 'age appropriate' (parental controls)with then in terms of blocking unsuitable content on the account which is in your name so they cant change it. If you set this on the phone all they have to do is a factory reset.

Beware parental controls. If you use Opera mobile or Chrome they will bypass the mobile operators filters due to the way they load the pages.

Are you happy for her to be on her mobile all the time? Def not Teen!
If I were Prime Minister I would ban them for anyone not old enough to vote but sadly tis the way of the world now so I can't.

I suspect someone/s been nagging her at school about it and so that has transferred itself to me and DH. I hate the idea of unlimited texts etc etc. All you see these days at bus stops etc is kids glued to their phones and not talking to each other in person

Thanks for all your answers.

Kids don't need to be on their phones all the time, just put rules in place, it doesn't need to be all or nothing.

If you get one from Tesco you can cap it so she can't go over a certain amount and if she does you can just buy a top up

Ooops.. posted before I rtft

My 12 yo has a Tesco contract, capped as others have said. She is not on it all the time. If your teen is obsessed, that needs dealing with, regardless of whether they are on a contract or not.

I do like the fact that I know she will never run out of credit (the text/mins limits are very generous) and it was much cheaper than PAYG.

Look at GiffGaff too

If you can trust her not to go crazy with it then yes, it's much cheaper.

I think you need to check how her friends like to communicate. My daughter facetimes two of her closest friends on her ipod, they never speak on the phone. Since the start of Year 7, I've only put £20 credit on her phone (it still has £9 credit) and she only uses it for letting me know she's going to be late - that's the only reason she needs one at the moment.

Mine had PAYG initially, but both are on contract now - DD with Tescos which is fab as it is a great deal AND capped so she can't go over! DS is on a Talkmobile contract which is not capped but is fab at not going over. I will get him a Tesco capped contract for the next phone.