When should a kid get their first cell phone?

In My Humble Opinion
61

If you have a family plan, just add him on for $10 a month. He’ll get a free phone if you’re with one of the major carriers.

FWIW, my little brother who is 15 now got a phone when he was 9, and was one of the last of his friends to get one. There were times he was at a sports practice that let out early that he needed to call for a ride. One could make the argument he could always ask a friend for it, but for $10/month, it’s such a small expense.

Generally, if the kid is responsible overall, he deserves one. Is he making good grades? At minimum, I think people should have cell phones when they get their license, for safety.

I definitely wouldn’t allow him to text, however. My little brother was sending/receiving 1000 a month (we had an unlimited plan because it was cheaper than individual plans for the 5 of us) and couldn’t be responsible with it.

I really hate the “we survived without them!” argument. Guess what else we survived without for awhile? Penicillin, 911, and the internet. Arguably all 3 have made life considerably better and easier.

62

I wouldn’t recommend doing that at all - what about the day he loses the phone, and you’re stuck paying for the extra service for the rest of the 2 year contract time?

We held off on getting either of our kids cell phones until last year. They were 12 and almost-15 at the time. Our attitude was that they were never anywhere without an adult nearby so they really did NOT need one and there was a responsibility concern as well.

I was taking Moon Unit (age 12) on a Girl Scout weekend where the girls would sometimes be by themselves in a public place and that’s what finally decided us to take the plunge. We decided that adding them to the family plan, while cost-effective, was as I noted going to lock us into extending our contracts for 2 years.

And I was worried about them losing the phones. So I got them each prepaid T-Mobile phones (which happened to come with 25 bucks worth of minutes, effectively rendering them free), and they each get an allowance of 10 dollars a month.

This turns out to have been a wise choice, as each child has now lost his/her phone once.

And neither of them uses the damn things. Oh, Dweezil does - one advantage of us getting one for him was that we now allow him to go downtown to museums / Union Station, by himself, on the Metro, since he has a way to call us if he needs help. Of course, he’ll phone saying what time he’ll be home, then he’ll turn it back off, so we have no way of reaching him. We’ve spoken to him about this numerous times.

Or, we did permit that… he lost his phone on the last jaunt, and we won’t let him go again until he saves up enough money either from his regular allowance, or from his 10/month phone allowance, to buy a new one.

Re the OP: The kid wants one, he doesn’t need one. He’s never off by himself. My similar-age niece needs one since there are times where she’s at my brother’s condo, and bro does not have a land line.

Oh - another advantage of the prepaid is that putting only a certain amount per month will make them think twice about texting their friends for every little thing.

63

T-Mobile’s also roll over - minutes from a refill card last up to 90 days, and after you’ve put in a total of 100 dollars, they last a full year. We went with them for that reason. Verizon’s prepaid (which tempted us because then calls to us would be free as our contract phones are Verizon) minutes expired far too fast (a 10 dollar refill dies in 10 days for example).

64

Huh, I definitely never thought of this. The way my little brother and his friends treated their phones at the time (9 + 10 year olds) was like it was the most treasured, important physical thing to them. I find my peers (mid 20’s) are more likely to lose their phone in a glass of beer or the toilet :smack:

But just so everyone knows, in the future you can always buy a phone from ebay should your 2 year plan phone meet an early demise. And as far as warranties go, you can get one from square trade. Frankly, I’m so tough on my phones - constantly dropping them, etc - that I sell my new 2 year phone on ebay and get an older one that I can buy an extended warranty for.

To the OP, sounds like you have a good plan - and I think it’s worth it. I don’t think texting is a great idea, however - it’s like email “crackberry” for kids.