Anonymous wrote:Thinking of this as an option for our tweens. They would have the phones for calling us only. I know verizon has pay as you go plans (you buy 100 minutes upfront or whatever). Has anyone tried this option and been happy?

We use extremely restrictive option called Kajeet. (Go to Kajeet.com) I pay something like $6.00 a month.
That gives my child only 10 minutes a month, but you can also go with additional Wallet (for extra, and it never expires. So it is more like pay as you go)
You can go with text messaging version, can block internet if you wish.
You control incoming and outgoing phone numbers (enter allowed only if you want)
You can block time phone accessible etc.
Or, and there is GPS locator for extra couple dollars (in case you cannot locate child or the phone..)
The only down side, if phone is not used often, it is sometimes not charged...
This can be solved with some battery booster.

My child mostly use phone for listening to music, and making emergency calls.

Yes, and it worked until ninth. We didn't get him a great phone, and eventually he needed better for texting.

Don't let them use data except in an emergency, but only wifi. It is like $3 a day on the paygo phones. The hundred won't last long at that rate.

Any reason in particular you want to use a smartphone? AT&T has a $40 flip phone (or they did when I bought it a year ago) that's fine for calling and the occasional text. You can use it as pay-as-you-go or add it to your family plan for $10/mo, I think.

Tracfone

We have Samsung Note 2 smartphone. We use a company called Pure Talk (AT&T subsidiary) that uses AT&T network for $10/mo. It only has talking & texting. No data plan. But we can surf on the phone using wifi wherever there's access to the Internet.

We already had AT&T, so transfer to Pure Talk was easy. We asked AT&T to unlock our phone (for free) and switched out the chip, kept the same phone number.

Lg ultimate 2, tracfone $99 gets you a year of service, 1200 texts, 1200 mkn talk and 1200mb data. You can add 1000 more texts for $10. I got it via qvc.com for the best deal. It runs on the verizon network. Comes with a case and car charger and regular charger. Make sure "mobile data " is off until you want to surf and then turn it on. Otherwise it runs on wifi. Saves on data.

This is what I do myself! I have an old iPhone 4 (hand me down from my parents) and I use Airvoice Wireless (which uses AT&T's network). I spend $10 a month and it is enough for limited texting, calling, and Internet usage. (iMessages to other Apple devices and anything else done over wifi is free.) I don't spend much time on my phone and I never use up the whole $10 a month (unused $ does carry over). It's a great deal.

Anonymous wrote:Thinking of this as an option for our tweens. They would have the phones for calling us only. I know verizon has pay as you go plans (you buy 100 minutes upfront or whatever). Has anyone tried this option and been happy?

I bought one from Walmart for around $10 and refilled it once a month when I was between contracts. It was fine.

I do this - definitely cheaper, but I got my kid a more basic phone and a low end plan. Mostly, my kid likes to text, so minutes/data are almost irrelevant.

Thinking of this as an option for our tweens. They would have the phones for calling us only. I know verizon has pay as you go plans (you buy 100 minutes upfront or whatever). Has anyone tried this option and been happy?