Cell Phone Plans for Kids (Chicago: how much, buying, taxes)

[Joel67]

My daughter has reached the age and grade level where a cell phone has become appropriate. Since these are uncharted waters for me, I'm curious what companies/plans other Chicagoans have chosen for their kids. My goal is to have reliable voice and data, while minimizing cost. I use AT&T, but it's through my work and has been for years so I have neither a choice as to my own provider, nor a frame of reference as to the relative quality of other providers operating in the Chicagoland area.

I'd also be interested in any lessons learned in terms of purchasing coverage for young people (such as paying extra to have the phone as a hotspot [mainly so my younger son can mooch her data in the car], do I need a certain number of minutes or are minutes meaningless to that generation since text/data is the norm, does damage protection pay for itself or should I forgo it [she's fairly responsible/careful], etc.).

Lastly, if you are comfortable sharing monthly costs (or wouldn't mind PM'ing me what you pay), I'd appreciate that as well.

Thanks in advance for any helpful responses and lessons learned.

[nikitakolata]

Well first off, I should probably say I have no experience buying a plan for a child, but I think the plan I personally have would be great.

I have a pre-paid package from T-Mobile. I bought a Google Nexus 5 phone directly from Google to use. The plan is pretty simple, but it works really well for me. It's 100 minutes/month with unlimited text and data. Because it's prepaid, when you're out of minutes, you're out. No overages. I personally use the google hangouts dialer and my google voice number 90% of the time, which uses data (not minutes) so I basically have unlimited talk time as well. I can use my phone as a hotspot whenever I want to for no additional cost. The plan is $30/month.

Other Prepaid Plans | Unlimited Talk, Text & Data $30/$35/Mo |T-Mobile

T-Mobile does not make it easy to find this plan on their site. If you look at the "Pay Only for What You Need" plans, it is there. I've looked around for other unlimited plans and I haven't found anything else as affordable that meets my needs as well.

Edited to add - It truly blows my mind how much people pay for cell service. There is zero reason to be paying more than $30/month since you can get a google voice number and with that you really don't need any minutes at all.

[Joel67]

Thanks, that sounds like a great option. Do you have any taxes, etc. added to your $30 per month? If so, what is your total monthly payment on that?

For my work phone with AT&T, I have unlimited text/data and some # of minutes that I never run over and my company is paying in the $90 range but I think tax is at least a portion of that, and my last iPhone cost $200 right when the iPhone 6 came out. I believe I can use my company's discount to get her the same package if I wanted to but if T-Mobile has the device for $549 and it's only $30 per month, the break-even is 6-7 months.

[damba]

Some of use our phones frequently for work/travel away from urban areas as well, so GV just doesn't cut it unfortunately. Price is obviously great, however

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by Joel67

Thanks, that sounds like a great option. Do you have any taxes, etc. added to your $30 per month? If so, what is your total monthly payment on that?

For my work phone with AT&T, I have unlimited text/data and some # of minutes that I never run over and my company is paying in the $90 range but I think tax is at least a portion of that, and my last iPhone cost $200 right when the iPhone 6 came out. I believe I can use my company's discount to get her the same package if I wanted to but if T-Mobile has the device for $549 and it's only $30 per month, the break-even is 6-7 months.

There are taxes, it comes to $33 and some change. FWIW, the phone I bought is quite affordable as well, $119. No way I'd pay more than $200 for a phone for a kid, but as is evidenced above, I am cheap.

https://www.amazon.com/LG-Quad-Core-...ywords=nexus+5

Edited to add - The T-Mobile site is a little confusing because they say the plan only works with phones purchased at Walmart or activated on T-Mobile's website. The thing is, I am pretty sure you can activate a google phone on their site regardless of where you bought it. That's what I did when I got this phone, at least, and I haven't had it that long yet.

[damba]

Buy a kid's phone on an installment plan? No way. They break stuff too often to make this feasible.

Visit gazelle.com. Grab a gently used phone that's compatible with ATT. Get your kid a cricket plan to enjoy the full ATT native network coverage. Done.

Plan 'B' would be to purchase a BLU phone on Amazon that has the necessary frequency bands for use in North America (ATT or another carrier). Most BLU smartphones are decent enough for kids and hover between $199-299.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Joel67

Thanks, that sounds like a great option. Do you have any taxes, etc. added to your $30 per month? If so, what is your total monthly payment on that?

For my work phone with AT&T, I have unlimited text/data and some # of minutes that I never run over and my company is paying in the $90 range but I think tax is at least a portion of that, and my last iPhone cost $200 right when the iPhone 6 came out. I believe I can use my company's discount to get her the same package if I wanted to but if T-Mobile has the device for $549 and it's only $30 per month, the break-even is 6-7 months.