Pay as you go plans, which is better for a child?

[ROSES5682]

I in the process of getting my 9 year old a prepay plan and T-mobile gave me two options and I'm not sure which would be the better option.

Option A) is 3 dollars a month for 30 minutes that expire within 30 days

Option B) is a legacy plan where you pay 100 dollars for 1,000 minutes that are good for up to a year. After a year you can pay 10 dollars to rollover any existing minutes for another year.

I don't anticipate my child needing a lot of minutes because the phone is more for her to communicate with me regarding drop/off and pick up from after school activities. I never had a pre-pay plan and am seeking feedback, from those who may be more experienced in the pre pay arena.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Just_Me_D]

When my adult kids were younger, I bought them pre-paid phones, but that was before texting became the preferred method of communicating among the young. My youngest son (11), is on his 3rd iPhone and he is on my Verizon account (not prepaid). He knows the amount of data he is allotted each month and he has yet to go over. He's very responsible in that regard, he tries to always be on Wi-Fi when he's streaming music and videos and I'm very proud of him. With that in mind, if your child is responsible, consider having a shared data plan on your account.

 

[ROSES5682]

Thanks, I didn't consider that and will look into it. I figured we would be mostly texting, so we didn't need a plan with a lot of minutes AND the way the planes work 1 text is equivalent to 1 minute which allowed for flexibility.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Thanks, I didn't consider that and will look into it. I figured we would be mostly texting, so we didn't need a plan with a lot of minutes AND the way the planes work 1 text is equivalent to 1 minute which allowed for flexibility.

Most family plans allow the owner to set limits for the other lines on the plan. You might want to check into that as well. If you're using an iPhone you're likely using iMessage, which uses data (not SMS/MMS or phone minutes).

 

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks, I didn't consider that and will look into it. I figured we would be mostly texting, so we didn't need a plan with a lot of minutes AND the way the planes work 1 text is equivalent to 1 minute which allowed for flexibility.

You're very welcome...