Those of you with children with phones

Jun 27, 2010

—

how do you do it?

I’ve got a T-mobile deal atm which costs me £5 a month and gives me unlimited texts and 100 minutes. As you may be able to tell, I don’t do a lot of talking on the phone.

Now Big has got to the point of going out and about on her own that we feel more comfortable with her carrying a phone, and we had Tim’s old phone with a minimum of cash on it. Which worked well as an emergency phone. But that cash has now run out, plus she’s made friends who have mobiles who asked for her number! (Shock, horror 😉 )

So, what do I do? Would love to hear how other ppl manage it 🙂

It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

19 responses to “Those of you with children with phones”

Merry
27 June 2010
Fran and Maddy have basic Nokias on PAYG -I’ll fund Â£10 voucher every so often (2-3 months) as they use them for emergency phones as well as friend contact. One is on Orange, one is on O2 and both have a system where Â£10 gives 300 texts for either a month or as long as the voucher lasts, whichever is shorter. So they use the 300 texts in a month and then the voucher till it runs out. I did say that if the Â£100 didn’t mean it could last at least 2 months, that would be changed and they’d have to pay themselves, but they’ve been very responsible.
.-= Merry´s last blog ..All the other things weâ€™ve been doing =-.
Reply
Alison
27 June 2010
Ours got a tenner on them (payg) when they got their phones and top them up from their pocket money. I think C was feeling generous once and put some money on them, but basically it’s up to them to sort out. Gwenny sussed out topping up at the corner shop before C or I thought of that and has since showed Violet how that works. But they do far more of their communicating online than by phone.
I’d suggest to Big that her friends with mobiles also live in houses with landlines, and that unless she is texting or literally having a 10 second conversation, that she uses your landline!
.-= Alison´s last blog ..June already- =-.
Reply
Claire
27 June 2010
Charlie has a PAYG phone on Orange. He has the same Â£10 deal that Merry mentioned. I bought the phone and paid for his initial credit. He has to top it up himself from his pocket money. I think he’s topped up Â£10 twice since he’s had it which is just under a year.
Reply
Alison
27 June 2010
I think that these two comments show that if they have plenty of credit, they will use it, lol!
.-= Alison´s last blog ..June already- =-.
Reply
Alison
27 June 2010
Sorry, meant if they are *given* plenty of credit they will use it! And Claire’s comment would seem to support that – Gwenny’s use is a bit more than Charlie’s, but Violet’s is less.
.-= Alison´s last blog ..June already- =-.
Reply
Jax
27 June 2010
Hm. Guessing I’d have to up her pocket money, she’s currently on Â£1 a week. We are v stingy parents! But tbh, she doesn’t seem to have much to spend it on, it’s only since she’s started going out independently (partly to the sweet shop :lol:) that she’s started running out of money.
I was wondering if anyone used one of these family deals where you can have multiple phones on a price plan but it doesn’t look like it so far.
Reply
Sallym
27 June 2010
DS1 bought his original phone himself with birthday money. It was on Virgin and I would top it up every now and again, probably about Â£20 in over a year. Since he has been at Secondary its cost more in top ups but I gave him my N95 when I upgraded and put Â£10 on it and he hasn’t used all that yet. DS2 has Ts old phone and had Â£5 put on it when he was given it and he hasn’t used that either. Since I don’t do pocket money I have to top up but I would never top them up more than Â£5 a month, if they want to use more than that then they would have to do something earn it. DS1 did get some free texts with his Â£10 top up tho as he is now on T mobile. Not that he ever remembers to take it out with him *rolls eyes*
Reply
Sallym
27 June 2010
I think Deb Notsheep has the family thing, ping her 🙂
Reply
Alison
27 June 2010
Well, I think everyone knows by now how much pocket money my kids get, lol 😉 I guess you either put her pocket money up or decide on a topping-up rate 🙂
No, don’t have family thing – C and I have contracts and the kids have acquired phones over the years.
.-= Alison´s last blog ..June already- =-.
Reply
Deb W
27 June 2010
My oldest two have phones, and we also have a spare “family” phone which can be handed to any of the others if it seems sensible to leave them with one, or lend to guests etc. Mostly they send texts, which is cheap. The bulk of their calls and texts are within the family, and I’ve an O2 add-on which means all of those are free. All are payg except mine; my contract is monthly (i.e. no tie-in) and I get 400/400 or something like that, plus the family add-on thingy, for about Â£15 a month.
.-= Deb W´s last blog ..School Uniform =-.
Reply
Alison
27 June 2010
Sounds like a good deal 🙂
.-= Alison´s last blog ..June already- =-.
Reply
Hannah
27 June 2010
C doesn’t have a phone yet but I’m thinking about it.
The contract I have on my own phone is Â£10 a month and gives me unlimited texts and internet and 100 minutes of call time. You can change the unlimited parts to landline calls too, but I don’t really call people. I had to pay Â£30 for the handset but I think that’s been redeemed considering how much it’s in use.
I was going to go PAYG but I like the security of knowing I could make calls for an emergency without having to faff around with top ups.
.-= Hannah´s last blog ..this moment =-.
Reply
Barbara
27 June 2010
Beth has my old very basic Nokia PAYG phone. She has an O2 SIM that if we top up with at least Â£10 every three months then we get Â£5 a month off our broadband. So the deal is we go halves on that every three months and if she wants more she has to fund it herself (she also only gets Â£1 a week pocket money). But she never has. The first Â£10 did run out early and she couldn’t afford to top up and had to wait. The next Â£10 lasted too long and she (understandably) didn’t want to pay her share when I needed to top it up (to get the cheaper broadband) but luckily it happened to be about her birthday-time so I paid the whole Â£10 and we called it a birthday treat.
The next Â£10 she budgeted exactly right and I guess we must be coming up to the next one so not sure where we are with that one yet.
Reply
Sarah
27 June 2010
We have O2 contracts; the girls have O2 PAYG which is totally their responsibility unless we’re feeling generous – they get Â£5 pcm pocket money so can only top up every couple of months at best – Anna never does as she always buys scrapbooking magazines instead! They use their phones when they have credit but if not they go without – but at least if they take their phones we can ring them (for free).
It’s one of those things that *might* be cheaper another way around, but it’s also a good way of them learning to manage money and what they actually want/need. Neither of them NEEDS a phone but we’re happy for them to have them (in fact it’s jolly useful sometimes), they like having them but I like them having to learn about money management in order to fund it, because I’m mean like that!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..RIP Weekend =-.
Reply
Mark Ure
27 June 2010
It might come down to how assertive or good at negotiation the parent and the child are with each other regarding money. Holly clearly expects us to top her mobile up all the time and that sometimes happens. They also use ‘phones very differently than we do because they text a lot compared to us. I also wouldn’t underestimate the value of free Facebook access because it frees up the PC for other purposes and means you can effectively text each other for free.
I wouldn’t let Holly have a mobile until she was fourteen because at that age, her brain would’ve almost stopped growing, but that’s another matter. Also, it doesn’t spend much time close to her head or ovaries.
The only reason we heard about Daniel’s accident so quickly was that his mobile was on him when he was hit, so they had our number immediately and could ring us on it.
Reply
Joyce
27 June 2010
I pay Â£25 per month into Hannah’s bank account by SO as an allowance. She can increase that by getting cash payments for doing serious work round the house – ie not the dishwasher/laundry/dog etc, which is just part of living here. But I’m prepared to pay for family ironing, which is a fairly big deal, as both Bob and I are wearing formal shirts etc to work – him every day, me a couple of times a week. So she does that most weeks. I don’t ask, remond or cajole though: so if she does it, I pay her, if she doesn’t, I just do it myself. Out of that she pays 50% of her MOTB costs, she buy some clothes, runs her itunes and amazon accounts,and her phone. Although she worked out pretty smartish that she isn’t required to pay for use of the house phone, so will use that if she can! She has a PAYG tesco phone – got a new handset for her birthday, which is the first time she has had a new phone.I put Â£15 on it when she got it – about 10 weeks ago now, and having just asked, she has more than half left.
Reply
Carol
27 June 2010
A(14yo) has a Tesco PAYG phone which triples her credit and gives her texts for 5p to her faviourite numbers. We topped it up when she got it and also on birthdays and Christmas but the rest of the time it comes out of her pocket money and she tops up every couple months. E(10yo) has the same deal but rarely if ever tops up.
.-= Carol´s last blog ..The Sunny Side =-.
Reply
Claire
28 June 2010
The mistake I made was not getting Charlie a PAYG on 02 which is what I am on. So his credit goes on phone calls to me, for example, if he is out with his friends or has walked to the village shop for me, I make him call me on the way. He only texts Fran and his friend next door and they are both on Orange so it’s free anyway with his deal.
Reply
1. Jax
  28 June 2010
  Tim and I are on different carriers anyway, so a family deal would involve some reorganisation, but I wondered whether it would be worth it. Am guessing maybe not. She’s desperate for some credit on her phone though, so I need to do something.
  Reply