12 yo ds wants a blackberry phone on a contract...

[oldqueenie]

title says it all really... I said if i posted this on mn you'd all say "you must be mad!"... he thinks it's an entirely sensible idea / request....
he has had one before which he bought second hand with his own money which was broken by someone else after he had for 18 months. it would be £15 50 (the phone is free) a month - his old phone cost 10 to 15 pounds a month plus the price of the phone.
Well?

Tell him from me "yeah right!" I have three 12 year olds, and there is no way on earth that they're getting contract phones. My lot have older phones and are on PAYG with Giffgaff. Dirt cheap.

Hmmmm. I'd love to be able to say "you must be mad" but actually, it's not a bad idea! Sorry Mum!

I've found it's a lot cheaper for DD to have a Blackberry on contract. Her's is £15 a month and she gets more than enough free texts and of course, there's the BBM, which is also free between Blackberrys.

The only thing I would advise is, make sure you tell whichever company you go with, that you need the minimum credit limit on it. DD' credit limit was £200, as it was in effect my contract. I reduced it down to £30, so it cuts off, if she goes over her limit.

madlizzy, how much credit do you end up putting on their phones each month?

Mine had phones on contract from not much older than this. we had one disaster but the shock of repaying that out of allowance meant that from then on it was all fine. BBM is a real winner so if all DSs friends have blackberries it's perfect.

make sure you can do the monthly cap like Maureen says - not all providers do it.

You must be mad!

Happy now?

Seriously I thoroughly regret getting ds (14) a contract - he's turned into a text addict and has been sending thoroughly inappropriate texts plus BBM is well nigh impossible to police plus although there are supposed to be parental controls blocking 18 plus sites that doesn't work on wifi so if your ds takes the phone to his room you have NO IDEA what he's watching.

We were very naive and are now having to come down hard - I've disabled Internet access on his phone (which means no BBM either), and if I could rewind the last few months he'd have stayed on PAYG until he can pay for his phone himself

ive a friend whose child racked up a £200+ bill on a contract...in a month. Needless to say, she is now on PAYG.

my kids are on PAYG and they are very sensible with their phones - My DD gets a top up when she has run out, in lieu of babysitting money. My DS is yet to become obsessed with phones!

my DD has had a contract since she was 13....its £10 a month with 3..unlimited text but only 100 mins..but all they do is text.
the first month she ran up a charge going on the internet....i phoned 3..and they put a total block on any thing that would incur a charge....been fine since then.
And i know she an always contact me....if she had a pay as u go..she would always run out

ta for the replies... will show them to ds and have a proper discussion with him.

DS1 (15) used to have PAYG and spent about £6/£7.00 a month on it.
He only texts his GF and used to watch his usage to spin it out.
I then got him a SIM only contract from Tesco for £6.00 a month. It gives him unlimited texts and 60 minutes talk.
Consequently he's on the wretched thing all the time.
By the way, he pays out of his pocket money.

I put a £5 goodie bag on their phone a month. That gives them 300 texts and 60 minutes talk time. Also, if people phone them, they gain more talk time minute for minute.

My teen had a contract phone up until one month when she ran up a bill of £180.

Just sayin'...

I want one too, but I can't afford it. I should imagine that a 12 yr old can't either....

Ds (12) would like one too. I've told him that if he can pay for it, he can have it . That's how it works in the real world. If I can't afford something that swish for myself I'm damned if I'm forking out for one for a 12 year old.

DS nearly 14 has been on contract with me for nearly 2 years. Found it much cheaper as he has free unlimited texts etc for £15 per month plus
3 hours of calls which he very rarely uses.

I would say however that when his dad bought him a blackberry it drove me flipping insane. The BBM thing is a nightmare - make sure you either get him to turn it off at night or confiscate it as other kids send "broadcasts" at very odd hours. Also DS just had robbed last week.

sorry, had "his" robbed last week at 4pm in the afternoon!

I'd be more concerned about a 12 year old having the access to internet tbh

I've been looking at this for dd, had a thread on it a coup,e of weeks ago.

T mobile have blackberry curve on contract on offer at the minute, or did last week anyway. They also do a thing called U fix whe you can set a max monthly limit so they can't run up a huge bill. Not sure if other places do this.

d1 (11) in year 7 has one - I had a spare (long story, was a work thing), but we are using an old sim card from my ancient nokia in it and just use it on PAYG. So no data plan/contract. She can access the internet but only if she is in a wireless zone. So she just uses it for texts and calls - to be honest she only uses it to show photos to her friends and to swank that she has a blackberry

I have had 3 teens on contract...
It really really depends on the teen! AT first all 3 were great £15 a month each, no problems.

Then DS1 got a girlfriend and it all went horribly wrong. Several £150 + bills later....(he has a p/t job and paid me back but still...)

Now he's on Giffgaff, as is his brother, as am I ..waiting for one more contract to end before DD1 switches. For £10 a month PAYG I get 250 mins, unlimited texts and internet! (£15 gets 400 mins) If they don't need internet £5 giff gaff is good.

I would never go contract again..not for the kids or myself:)

ds1 (14) has a blackberry torch on contract. he took over my phone contract as i had an iphone but started a new job and my phone is free, and im qallowed to use it for personal use as well as long as i dont exceed the monthly limits.
at the time i still had a fair few months to run on my ornage contract with iphone so i let ds1 have it as long as he didnt go over the limits. he was very good with it so when contract up for renewal i let him choose a phone, he chose the blackberry. he has still kept ithin his limits, bu has ha dhis phone stolen. I now pay for the insurance cover for peace fo mind, meaning his bill is quite expensive, but for me whether it be from him mturing with age or the novelty of a phone has worn off, contract costs a lot less than payg. i used to top up £20 a month, his dad would often give him another £10-£15 of credit a month and he'd buy credit with his pocket money. although even though it was only a couple of years ago, i think payg deasl are much better now.

you could of course buy him a second hand blackberry or a new one (new can get for about £150) and stick with payg and use a company like orange that has a cheapish payg tariff for blackberry usage.

Both my teens are on contract with . They have zero credit limit, but because we all have 3 phones we have 3000 free to 3 minutes so they can still ring me or dh once their minutes have run out. The other reason we went with 3 was they did the 0 credit limit, virgin's minimum was £60.

Johnniesbitch check the terms of your insurance carefully unless you are prepared to lie when he looses it/" gets robbed" ( quote from previous poster)

All the ones I have seen insure it for the contract holder and it needs to be in YOUR possession at the time- lending it to someone won't do.