Anonymous wrote:My 13 yo has a tmobile $15 a/month plan unlimited texting and 10 cents/min calls (which he rarely makes). No data. I bought a $30 phone from Amazon.

I'm the PP with the TMobile $30/mo plan and I just looked into switching him to this plan. They don't offer it any longer. Annoying, because all he really needs is the texting.

My 13 yo has a tmobile $15 a/month plan unlimited texting and 10 cents/min calls (which he rarely makes). No data. I bought a $30 phone from Amazon.

My 15yo has a TMobile phone with unlimited texting and data, and 100 talk minutes/month. It costs $30/month.

I'd prefer he not have data but that's part of the plan. I think he doesn't know he has it but if he does know, or figure it out, there is web guard on it, for what that's worth.

Tracfone is pay as you go, no monthly fee. We've used ours for years.

Virgin Mobile Pay-Lo option. Cheap basic phones, most without internet, pay as you go, low monthly fees.

Straight talk or tracfone. It's $30 a month and they have very simple phones that text and call only.

I really like Virgin Mobile also.

Get a cheap iPhone 3Gs on Ebay, and activate it with a voice-only prepaid service. Internet-wise, WiFi at the mall or home shall do the trick.

I have Virgin Mobile and very happy with the coverage and how incredibly cheap the plan is compared to Verizon.

I have a pre-paid phone (not smart phone) from T-mobile. I pay $100 a year for 1000 minutes. Coverage is OK, not great in rural ares.
I certainly get my $8.33 a month though.

OP here. These are great suggestions. Thank you for responding.

7th grade DS has a Track Phone, which I bought at Safeway for $20. You can buy minutes at Safeway, CVS, BestBuy, etc.

DD 10 has a simple pay as you go phone from Target. We add minutes in 30 minute blocks. No texting.

We have virgin mobile and I really like it.

My young teen does have internet, it helps him navigate metro, and he's looked up things for homework on it, but you can get pay as you go plans that don't have internet if you don't trust your kid.

We're to the point where we'd benefit from our older children being able to be in contact with us via cellphone, and I'm starting to shop around. I just want basic calling and texting capability (like in the old days), no smartphones, internet access, etc. I want to keep the price of the plan down, and the price of the phone down too because they WILL get lost or stolen.

I see a lot of prepaid phones on the racks at Target, etc. I wonder if anyone has researched this and come up with a good solution?