Or you could give them contract phones, explain the consequences of exceeding the terms of the contract and trust them to act accordingly?

Not looking forwards to all of this personally, our eldest is 3 now and christ knows what novel technologies the yoof will be using to burn money by the time she’s a teenager…

A couple of general question for those with teenagers at the minute;

1) At what age did you get/allow them to have a phone?

2) Do you Fund their phone directly or expect them to cover it (from pocket money/allowance/working)? and if so what sort of conditions apply?

3) How many of you chose to go contract and how many see PAYG as a good way to keep control over their spending?

Just wondering like…

At 15yrs old she could earn some serious money to pay that off.

And I’m not suggesting she does what you lot think I am suggesting either..

druidh you can do the same with payg, “I trust you not to spaff the £20 credit in the first week of the month texting all your mates” difference is you don’t end up with a massive bill if your little darlings turn out to be fricking hopeless at this sort of thing. Plus of course it might help them learn quicker if they have finite resources form the start, “here’s your credit for the month, no there isn’t a bank of mum & dad to bail you out if you use it all up.”

We put our girls, 17 and 14 with Tesco as the text limit is higher but the main reason was that we can and have capped the phones so they cant go over on calls, texts and internet.

That’s not exactly “trust” the way I understand it….

1) 11 – Basically when she started High School.
2) I just fund it. I don’t see the point in giving her pocket money just to take it off her again, so the phone is part of what she has spent on her regularly.
3) Contract. I’ve always had a contract phone and never had any problems. The only issue is being tied in to a handset until the upgrade period comes around but she just accepts that “there’s always something newer and shiner around the corner”.

1) At what age did you get/allow them to have a phone?

2) Do you Fund their phone directly or expect them to cover it (from pocket money/allowance/working)? and if so what sort of conditions apply?

3) How many of you chose to go contract and how many see PAYG as a good way to keep control over their spending?

1) Last Christmas, a couple of months before her 12th birthday. About half of the girls in her class had phones by that point.

2) I top it up monthly, but she doesn’t get any pocket money. It’s PAYG with a fixed minimum monthly charge.

3) She’s a sensible girl, and I probably could have just got her a contract phone. But it’s one less thing to worry about, and one less hassle. (It’s also a useful lever when she gets stroppy, that’d be harder on a contract 🙂 )

@molgrip – 3) if you pay for the contract/PAYG…. just confiscate the sim.

Many thanks for all of your input, some helpful stuff amongst it 😉

To update you I have today spoken to Virgin who maintain they can’t do anything until the bill has been generated, but that’s over a week away so now I have to sit & wait, no use getting upset until they decide one way or another, I’ll update anyone interested when I know what the outcome is.

Cheers all.

An update for anyone interested, I spoke to the CEO’s office & they have reduced the bill from £599 to £199, it still feels like more than I should have to pay but I don’t really want to take the matter up with anyone outside of Virgin mobile as it could take months/years to resolve, oh & I have had the credit limit reduced to £50 to make sure this can’t happen again, not that my daughter is stupid enough to do it again but incase she looses the phone & someone else runs up a bill, I suggest every one checks their credit limit to save this from possible happening to them 😉

Cheers.

As a PSA I am bringing this to the fore again.
No Need to reply so I have to relive the pain though 🙂

Has it happened again then?

No, but as I laughed at the recently revived left handed thread then I thought that this thread should serve as a warning/help to others.

Cheers.