Phone with contract for 11 years old!!!!

[Owes]

Hi ... Most of My Dc friends having contract in praimary school I disagree for that as I believe its Too early I just top up for My ds if nessecary but now as hè is going to start year 7 in far way school im really confused what to do pay as you go or free mints
Kindly want to HEAR parents experince
Thanks in advance to all

[scary mum]

Free mints?
Giffgaff - various one month rolling contracts.

[silverysea]

I found pay as you go always running out and v expensive. DD in secondary uses it mainly for texting friends to find out about homework, and me at work to keep in touch. The plan has been much better.

[doodles]

Tesco pay as you go has been excellent for us. They triple your credit - you top up £10 and they make it £30. Worth looking at.

[magwich2]

Vodafone pay as you go "friends and family" is useful.
Top up £10 each month on one of 4 phones and then pay £5 of that and all calls between the 4 phones are free. DD1 tells me that you can then do a complicated set of purchasing a bundle with the remaining £5 and constantly cancelling it in order to get texts and internet free. I have not tried that bit yet but apparently all the maths students at college have been doing this for ages with a system of alarms set on their phones to remind them of all the various dates!

[DC17C]

My dd (12) has a tesco contract phone -£7.50 a month and capped so it cannot go above the user allowance. DD travels by public bus and I am happier that she has a way of contacting me should she need it. This week unfortuanely she lost her phone and it turns out it had been stolen. Luckily it is insured through my bank and the fact the tarrif was capped means a huge bill has not been run up. She is quite upset about it - perhaps another lesson learned about looking after her stuff!!
Agree she did not want or need a phone in primary school

[modernista]

Using internet on pay as you go is prohibitively expensive. I have got her a 200 min contract with unlimited (IMO) data usage for £7.00 from 3.

[Sportsmum]

Why don't you leave it on payg until at least half term and see how she gets on in secondary school - you may find you have a better idea of what the change in use is likely to be and work out a contract accordingly - if necessary.

[Snowdaddy]

Carphone warehouse has a good tariff, about £9 per month, virtually unlimited texts, fairly low data but shouldn't really need to hammer the internet on journey to/from school and could always use free wi-fi if need internet at other times.

The good thing is it is capped so wont get runaway bill, and if it all gets used up few days before end of month, might teach some planning and rationing which they will need later in life.

One other thing, for an 11 year old, dont get a fancy phone, if they get it out to take a call, or text someone in some areas (including some bus routes) it will be an invitation to muggers. Giving them something expensive and desirable is indirectly assisting your child to be a victim of crime.

If they want a smartphone something like a galaxy ace is good enough. Remember most muggings etc are done by opportunists, and they will go for easy target or rich pickings, doubt if you've ever heard of a battered basic phone being stolen.

[Tinkers]

I'm with giffgaff, and have put DD on giffgaff too.
For £10 I get 500 mins, unlimited texts and 1Gb of data.
You can set up to auto top up, but top ups can be limited I think. I've put DD on a £5 deal which had less mins and texts, but we will see how she goes.
Giffgaff to giffgaff calls are free as long as you top up every 3 months, so she can call us for free.