SIM card for Daughter

[sippo]

So my Daughter is perstering us for a mobile phone. She's only 10, but starting secondary school next year.

 

Any recommendations on a sim only deal? Do they do such thing as parental controls?!

 

I feel old asking this....

[simpsonj]

Might be worth look up Smarty, cheap and filters adult content as standard.

[jmak]

Giff Gaff are consistently competitive and you're only committed for a month at a time.

 

Otherwise, just look out for the deals and snap them up once you see one you like. I signed up for Vodafone this time as they had the data package I wanted at half price which worked out cheaper than Smarty (which is Vodafone's budget brand). I got 2 out of 3 phones on the deal, but didn't get hold of OH's phone for a couple of days (I needed it as they sent verification code to the phone for the contract change), by which time the deal had expired. I then spent over an hour on webchat with their customer retention team trying to persuade them I would leave if they didn't offer me something at the price I wanted. Got there in the end, but it was very annoying.

[sippo]

Do I also need to 'track' her and usage?

[Andrew_C]

Usage - You better believe it. Make sure txt and data is hard-capped or all-you-can-eat.

 

My brat ran up vast bills; shame you can't divorce children.

[mrbios]

I recently got my son a sim card. I'm with EE so got him an EE one, they have a number you can text so that they can't overspend on the sim and they also get some degree of filtering( https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/safety-and-security/content-lock/switching-content-lock-on-or-off ). I also use an app: https://www.qustodio.com/en/ to limit time, whitelist numbers he can call and who can call him. That combined with Google Family Link covers all bases.

[sippo]

I was looking at Qustodio. Looks good.

[Andycat]

My family are all part of my EE plan, they're all on minimum contracts and I gift my large data allowance to them.

[Jawloms]

30GB Data @ £10 pm plus a £20 gift card. 12 Month contract. iD Mobile (They piggy back 3)?

[Mewdewgooboofoo]

I saw on Three that there is a unlimited min/texts and 12gb data for £10 a month

I know you can put parental controls on the web browsing on data.

I think its on by default with three as well

[localtech]

First look at what network works around your area and the schools, most networks have parental controls but if you are worried about it get a non data contract & tell her if she is good you will add data at a later date. Always good to have a bit of leverage over the kids. I have 3 phones on Vodafone all calls & text + 500GB data £13 a month which I think is pretty good..

[timbo343]

+1 for Smarty. I use them sometimes for the unlimited data for when i used to go away and it's a 30 day rolling plan - https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

[jmak]

Almost all of the monthly contracts are unlimited talk and text now - because no one uses very much, so they can offer it without it really costing them much.

[dmason2]

giffgaff or smarty are your best places

[steveg]

One of my kids is on Smarty, the other on voxi, have been very happy with both. Smarty you get a bigger data bundle, voxi slightly smaller but whatsapp and social media doesn't come off of data allowance. Look out for offers when you sign up, the voxi one I got for extra data seems to last forever as long as i renew each month.

 

I put £10 a month on each, if they run out of allowance then it's tough - they can't spend more than that.

 

If you get her a phone set it up with family link or whatever the apple equivalent is. Can set times for it to turn off, all apps have to be approved etc.

[MatthewL]

I'm with EE, have multiple SIM's on my account, my Dad got his first smart phone so got a sim only deal for him with minimum data and I just gift if he needs more, costs him about £10 a month.

[bald_pig]

Here is giffgaff's info on parental controls: https://www.giffgaff.com/blog/internet-safety-parental-controls

 

You can get a PAYG SIM with £5 credit here