Parents: how to choose the right mobile phone for your child

What should you look for when buying a mobile phone for your child?

Like it or not, more and more children now have mobile phones. A recent study by The Marketing Store found that 73% of ten-year-olds now have a mobile. If you’re being pestered to get your teen the latest smartphone or have decided it’s time your child had a phone for emergencies, it can be tricky to work out which phone and payment method to go for.

Make the wrong choice and you could be making your child a target for thieves or leaving yourself open to enormous surprise bills. So how do you choose the right handset and deal for your child? 

Pay-as-you-go vs contracts

The first thing you need to decide is how you want to pay for your child’s phone use. A young child who is only going to use the phone to let you know where they are or contact you in the case of an emergency is probably best off with a pay-as-you-go phone. In many cases a £10 top up could last them the whole term.

This option gives you complete control over how much money is spent on the phone.

If the phone is for an older child who is likely to use it more, then pay-as-you-go may quickly prove uneconomical. As a general rule of thumb if more than 100 texts a week will be sent and a few calls made a day then you need to consider other options.

One alternative is a packaged pay-as-you-go deal. With these you pay for a range of things up front. For example, 3 will give you 100 minutes, 3,000 texts and 500MB of data downloads for £10 a month on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The downside to pay-as-you-go deals is you will pay more up front for your handset than you would with a contract deal, where the handset cost is split across the length of the deal. Contracts tend to offer good value for money for phones that are going to be used a lot. But the big downside to contracts is that you are open to the risk of your child running up an enormous bill.

The way around this is to go for a capped contract. These are offered by Tesco Mobile and 3, and mean that once your child has used up their monthly allowance, the phone will only allow incoming calls until the next monthly period begins. Tesco has got a sim-only deal at £7.50 a month with 250 minutes, 5,000 texts and 500MB data that can be capped.

The other drawback of a contract is that if the phone gets lost or stolen you may have to carry on paying the monthly fee without getting any use from it. This is why it pays to pick the right handset.

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The best handsets for kids

When choosing a handset for your child there are a number of things to consider. First up is what they actually need. If the phone is for a young child to use in emergencies, go for a cheap, sturdy handset that only has basic functions on it. There's no point handing them an expensive smartphone.

A good option is the Nokia 100. It won’t win any beauty competitions, but this handset costs as little as £9 from Tesco Mobile on a pay-as-you-go deal. It has a colour screen, FM radio and text capabilities, but that is about it. Not only will it be cheap to replace if need be, it is also not going to attract thieves.

Crime is an important consideration when choosing a phone. Children aged 14-17 are the most likely phone theft victims, according to the Office for National Statistics. The last thing you want to do when providing your child with a phone is make them more likely to be a victim of crime. So, try to stick to older, less flashy phones that aren’t particularly covetable.

If your child is that bit older and desperate for a smartphone you could get them a cheap one such as the Alcatel OT 903, which costs £40 pay-as-you-go from Carphone Warehouse. It offers smartphone capabilities, but again is cheap to replace if it goes walkabout.

Another option is to upgrade your own phone and give your child your old handset.

If you do give your child a smartphone, make the most of the parental controls on offer. All providers offer these, which allow you to block websites that are unsuitable for under 18s. Also, switch off In-App purchases to stop your child from running up enormous bills within games on the phone.

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Insurance

As the chances of a lost or stolen mobile are much higher with children, it may seem obvious that you should pay to have the handset insured. But before you fork out, first consider your options.

Check your home contents insurance. You may well find mobile phones are insured as part of your policy. Also check your bank account, as many packaged accounts – the ones you pay a monthly fee for – include mobile phone insurance.

Then check the small print. Due to the high chances of loss, many policies don’t cover phones that are lost or stolen while at school or college.

If you are giving your child a cheap handset, it may well be wiser to save yourself the money and forego insurance, instead just being prepared to cough up for another phone if you need to.

For more expensive phones, or if you really do want insurance, then Gadget Cover offers policies for standard phones starting from £16 a year – this covers theft but not loss. Alternatively, Insurance2Go offers smartphone cover starting from £65 a year – this covers theft and loss with certain exclusions listed in the terms and conditions.

Be warned though, mobile phone insurance has an awful reputation, which has only been reinforced by a study from the Financial Conduct Authority this year that found it can be nigh on impossible to claim successfully on a policy. Read Mobile phone insurance almost impossible to claim on for more.

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More on mobile phones:

The UK's worst mobile phone provider

The UK’s mobile phone theft hotspots

Freephone numbers to be free on mobile phones... but not until 2015

Cap on what mobile providers can charge if your phone's stolen