4 teens in the house, all clamoring for smart phones... what to do?

[headachemustache]

My spouse and I have survived for years with simple flip-phones and pay-as-you-go minutes through T-Mobile, using our cell phones primarily for on the road or emergency use.  We have a landline at home.  Our 4 teenagers all want cell phones.  We've held off, but it's now time to bite the bullet.  After reading reviews of Ting, Republic Wireless, and getting confused by family plan contract deals at certain big cell providers, I really don't know the best way to proceed. My goal:  to find the most frugal way to outfit the family with cellphones (talk + text, and perhaps data via wifi or 3g too?), without having to fret about overage fees, etc.  I really like how Republic Wireless works/charges, but even their low monthly plan cost when multiplied by 4 or 6 might not beat a family plan elsewhere.   Any advice for us?   

[Argyle]

I only have one teen, but I give him a Tracfone with a certain (low) number of minutes per month.  Around here not all his friends have fancy phones -- one doesn't even have any phone -- so there's less pressure and less chance of being left out without the fancy phone, I hope.  Anyway, to earn extra minutes he does extra chores.  So if he does the weeding he gets $10 of minutes; if he makes dinner once a week for a month, that gets him an extra $30 worth of minutes, etc.  He's pretty cooperative anyway so this has worked in our house.  Not sure how you'd scale that up for four, but it's worth thinking about.

[nereo]

yeah - it's decidedly a "want", not a need, especially for teenagers.
If they want smartphones, why not have them pay the cost? Better yet, keep track of what they spend on their contract, data-overages, and phone and in a year or so when they want something else you can show them that they've spent $1000 on a phone.

who knows, the message might possibly sink in one day

good luck!

[warfreak2]

Get them to pay for their own phone use? If they want to go on a family plan, get them to split the bill.

My siblings paid for theirs; they hard part-time jobs. (I didn't want a phone, but my mum eventually made me take her old phone, which I had on PAYG and very rarely used other than to receive calls/texts.)

[Frankies Girl]

If they are teens, then I'd tell them they can have phones when they can afford to pay for them. I was working at 15, and saved enough money to buy a car by 16. Granted, it was a clunker, but I made enough to cover the gas and maintenance.

Phones - smart or otherwise - are a luxury. If they want one, then they should have to pay for it. Simple as that.

I would think if they can come up with the cost to purchase a phone, then the Ting plans are the best since it's a pay as you go and if they can't keep up with the bills for their usage, then the phone gets cancelled.

So they get jobs, save up enough to buy a phone (from someplace like Glide) and then they pay for their usage going forward. If you're feeling really generous, you could agree to match them something like they save up half, you pay for the other half on the phone cost. But if they break or lose it, that's it, and if they can't afford to pay for their bills more than 2 months in a row, it gets cancelled.

You teach them about earning their own money, saving, paying for a luxury, being responsible, and delayed gratification. You also don't get stuck holding the bag for a bunch of expensive plans. Sounds like a win/win in my book.

I plan on switching to Ting this summer, based off of the POP's experiences:
http://www.plantingourpennies.com/lowered-cell-phone-bill-100month/
http://www.plantingourpennies.com/lowered-cell-phone-bill-100month-part-2/
http://www.plantingourpennies.com/cut-cell-phone-bill-100month-part-3/

[catccc]

Just say no.  But if you have already decided you are going to do this, I would recommend Airvoice Wireless' $10 plan and second hand smartphones (I got my iphone 4 a few weeks ago for $100).  No data, they can just use wifi.  It's prevalent enough.  $10 reloads automatically every 30 days, and they get $0.02 texts and $0.04 minutes.  There are no overages, afaik, when you run out, it just stops working.  (people get some sort of out of service message when they try to call; I'm not sure what happens if someone tries to text.)  After they run out, they can use their phones with just wifi until the new 30 day period starts.  They'll learn to self regulate, use fb messenger on wifi instead of texting, etc.

[GuitarStv]

Get them to pay for their own phone use?

Yes!  Puts the onus for providing for a want on the person who stands to benefit from it.  This lets them learn to decide on their own if it's really worth the time and effort it would take to earn the money to pay for it.

[Midwest]

1 daughter 11 mentioned wanting a phone.  My response, how are you going to pay for it?

[Simple Abundant Living]

I have my 13-yr old on Airvoice Wireless.  She bought a used iphone 4 for $120 using birthday money.  I put her on the $10/mo. plan.  You can use it for talk, text, or data.  I believe $10 will give you 500 talk mins OR 250 texts.  The data is .06/per mb, I believe, but she doesn't use it.  She uses it on wifi mode only.  Most months she uses <$3, so the balance rolls over to the next month. 

IP Daley is the expert in this, but prepare yourself for the lecture you will get about giving your teenagers smart phones.  ;)

[TrMama]

My kids are only 5 and 7 so take this with a grain of salt, but around here the broken record response to any unreasonable request is, "You are more than welcome to buy that with your own money."

DH and I only plan to get the kids cellphones if we want to call them.

[totoro]

My son used his birthday money and he pays for the fee with his allowance.  He does chores around the house which are not connected to his allowance.  Recently, he cracked the screen because he was pretty careless with it.  He's started to work to save for a new phone - good lesson.  I have to admit it has been pretty handy for checking in and I'm okay if he is spending his own money on it.

[Rickk]

We wanted our kids to have a phone so WE can communicate with them.  They wanted smart phones.  Two of them bought Motorola G ($200) and one bought a Nexus 4 (when on clearance $200) which they are really happy with using on WIFI around the house and at school.  They use them for games (free) and ProtoBowl (think jeopardy) all the time.  It has also become their information device - reading news and general surfing.  I pay for PTel ($10 for 60 days - pay as you go).  That makes my bill $15 a month to communicate with 3 kids with a device they are happy with.  All in all I am very happy with this arrangement.  The T-Mobile coverage has been fine with the kids.

My wife uses an old iPhone 3G (free from relatives) on AirVoice ($10 for 90 days pay as you go).

The configuration of the Android devices is MUCH better for data - so the kids have all background data turned off (except email and a couple of other items) and only use data when they want to.  They have never run out of money.

The iPhone is more temperamental with data (has to be turned off) and picture texts don't work right, and Airvoice is annoying with the balance notifications - but my wife likes the AT&T coverage so we keep it (and it is cheaper per month).

[Spork]

It seems to me this could be a good learning experience...  Sort out how much you're comfortable paying for all of them to have a basic phone (assuming that some basic communication is your desire here.)  Tell them you'll gladly pay up to $X for a basic device and $Y for a basic plan where you can talk/text with them at a reasonable rate.

Have them create a "budget" of how much talk time, text messages and (possibly) data they think they "need".  Let them figure out how much it costs and how to go about getting it.  Subsidize them with your $Y a month for basic service and let them pay the rest.

There will invariably be budget misses/overages... and those are all learning experiences. 

The things I earned myself always meant more to me than the things I was given.

[CarDude]

My kids are only 5 and 7 so take this with a grain of salt, but around here the broken record response to any unreasonable request is, "You are more than welcome to buy that with your own money."

DH and I only plan to get the kids cellphones if we want to call them.

Yup. Apply the discipline you use on yourself as a financially savvy adult to your parenting. You don't buy yourself everything you want simply because you want it; if you want your kids to learn this, you need to teach them.

[Shor]

Time-honored Response: "Ohh you kids... when I was your age..." <start rambling>

[headachemustache]

Wow, thanks for all the replies, everyone!  Guess I should have stated up-front that we have held off on the whole kids with cell phone transition because we realize it has been more a want than a need (although the scales are tipping more toward "need" for our older teens in terms of being able to be in touch with them while they are away/at work, etc.), and because we do expect them to appreciate and, yes indeed, to share the cost.  The cost-sharing requirement is yet another reason why I want it to be a wise/frugal choice that I'm making not only for my sake, but their sake.  So, that said, I'm hoping for any advice concerning the choice of plans, rather than advice about teaching my children a lesson.

[innkeeper77]

Honestly, the best plan information has already been posted here, whether or not your kids will be paying or you will, cheaper is often better. All of the "family plans" etc are usually still more expensive per person than simple service. I am very happy with my $10 per month airvoice payg plan (as suggested earlier on the thread), though that is on a dumbphone (I am a college student who recently switched from a smartphone to a dumbphone. Couldn't be happier! I pair that with a wifi tablet, which would be similar to a wifi smartphone on the same plan.)

Data is cheap (.06/Mb)  on airvoice if they want to use that, and if they run out, you can add a $10 credit to the account in addition to the monthly $10. Honestly, even at $20 per month you are still far ahead of traditional plans.

Check out IP Daleys superguide, it is how I chose airvoice. His guide focuses on cheap smartphone use, and in some ways he has made it cheaper than a dumbphone..

[headachemustache]

Thank you - hadn't yet read the super guide - just found it.  Here's a link to it, in case anyone else reading this thread hasn't yet come across it:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-son-of-the-superguide!/msg230582/#msg230582

[Cassie]

I raised 3 teens and if they wanted a p.t. job they could have one if their grades were good. I don't think working is right for all kids. Good grades, activities, etc really come first. They have their whole lives to work. That being said you have to decide if this is an expense that you can & want to handle. No different in my opinion then deciding you are going to pay for sports.

[hybrid]

If it were just me, myself, and I, we'd have a PTel flip phone like Mustachian Buddy and be done with it. But since it isn't, I had to make a compromise. We ended up going with T-Mobile and we pay 102.99 including a Federal discount for all you can eat talk, text, and 500 MB of data per line for four lines. Three of us have very basic Alcatel Android smart phones ($80 each) that have been just fine as far as I am concerned. Far from the fastest phones, but pretty darned good all the same. My adult daughter opted for a Samsung Galaxy Lite that we got her for her birthday when we got the plan about five months ago.

What I like is there are no overages ever and it's a lot less than the other big boys, and no contract. If my kids want more data, they will have to pay for it (they decided they could live without it). My daughter pays for her own plan, the son is just starting out so we still bite the bullet on that. I live just fine on 500 MB and use maybe 300 MB in a month including both my work and personal email. I'm actually very fond of my smartphone now, it's a very useful tool.

Son messed up his phone the other day, it still works but has cracks, he will have to buy his own replacement. At $80 he gets to own that mistake. Much better than messing up a $500 iPhone or Galaxy G4

It's been a decent trade-off, and if you feel like you are outgunned on the home front this is a decent way to go.

[scrubbyfish]

Definitely have them work outside of the home and pay for it.

Also have them (not you) research the plans, costs, and options. They can do that together.

I don't make my 9 year old work outside of the home yet, but...I give him a $31/month allowance and out of that, he pays for: his weekly Scouts fee, extra Scouting activities, replacement of any necessary clothing he has lost, optional clothing he wants "for fun", recreational stuff, toys, gum, candy, and any other special stuff or activities he wants. He asked for a data plan, I told him how much it would be (coming out of his allowance), he's never asked again.

Despite a severe learning disability, he's getting really good at grasping costs, seeing the value in buying second hand vs new, considering his wants, prioritizing, and budgeting. I'm super impressed! He's also gotten much better at not losing hats, swim trunks, etc, all the time.

[scrubbyfish]

...hoping for any advice concerning the choice of plans, rather than advice about teaching my children...

Sorry, got all excited...read this clarification after I posted :)

I'm imagining you are in the US, in which case I have no info on phone plans as I don't have access to those delicious American options, sigh.

[TrulyStashin]

At one point, I had my son set up with Ting.  His Ting bill was linked to HIS checking account.  Every month, I'd put $30 into his account as my contribution toward his phone bill.  If he went over that amount, then he had to cover the rest.   It forced him to plan his use and plan his cash flow over the month so he'd make sure to have enough money in his account when Ting drafted it.  It also made him balance his checking account.

It seemed like a good idea to me, as it was a sneaky way to teach some basic money management.  Failure to manage cash flow (which is inevitable for rookies) would have merely resulted in loss of service and some bank fees -- both of which are very instructive.

But then my ex-husband intervened and added son to his Verizon plan.  Oh well.  But, you're welcome to the concept if it would work for you.

[Daley]

So, that said, I'm hoping for any advice concerning the choice of plans, rather than advice about teaching my children a lesson.

I'm happy to see you already found the guide. :)

My advice? Don't get a family plan, don't give a toss about trying to avoid overage costs (there aren't any in prepaid, service just stops working until you add more money), and don't modify your own usage or increase your costs to subsidize their habits. The options provided there in the guide are cheap enough for any teenager who may actually need a cellphone to pay for it themselves (hardware and monthly) on their own. If they can't budget their time and money on the device sufficiently to go PAYG or they actually have a need for that much mobile talk time, they can pay the price premium for a plan that doesn't meter.

The next time they ask about a phone, I'd recommend letting your children read the guide. Tell them, "Someone has done the hard work of researching out some of the most affordable and reliable cellular providers available, and has highlighted plans that can range from about $3.50 a month up to around $45 depending on usage and need. There's also suggestions on affordable handsets ranging from feature phones to smartphones. The T-Mobile network works well in this area, so I suggest that you pay attention to Daley's mentioning of P'tel and Spot Mobile."

Basically, this addresses the need versus want issue in a way that doesn't deprive them if they can justify the costs, and gives them the freedom and path that they could actually potentially afford on their own. They make the value call instead of you. My parents did the same with me when I was younger. "You want your own phone line? You can pay for the equipment, installation, and bills yourself." That even applied to driving and other independent right of passage stuff, and I did. It was a valuable lesson that actually left me feeling empowered in the end even if it took time to enable that freedom and groused about how other kids parents gave them what they wanted before having it myself. My parents trusted me enough to let me have my own dedicated line of communications, but instilled the cost and value of it with me. And you know what? I never missed a payment and never asked my parents for money to pay the bill those years, even after I met a girl out of country and racked up a few $1000 long distance bills... but that part's more of a boneheaded story for another time and different venue.

Point is, you know it's a want versus need issue, but you probably don't want to say no given you're asking about options to let them have what they're asking for... so don't say no, just tell them they have to fund it themselves and then provide them the tools to feed that want on their own budget. Otherwise, you may find yourself in the same trap I've seen countless other parents where they went with family plans "to save money and get more service" only to find themselves subsidizing their adult children's mobile phone habits five years after the kid has already moved out.

Anyway, enough out of my verbose soapbox going into a subject you already said you didn't want more of.

IP Daley is the expert in this, but prepare yourself for the lecture you will get about giving your teenagers smart phones.  ;)

I aim to never disappoint.

Now that you're familiar with the guide and if you've got a solid internet connection, next step for your own budget is to replace that home phone line with VoIP service. ;)

[MrsPete]

I just said no, and the conversation was at an end. 

In all honesty, the vast majority of my high school students DO have smart phones, and it's not a trend that's doing them any favors:  They pull them out constantly, to the detriment of their attention to their schoolwork.  They use them to cheat on tests (look at the test, ask to go to the rest room, go look up the answers you don't know . . . text a friend or just look up the answer in class).  Used to be at the end of the school day kids walked out of the building talking to each other, and it was a happy, social time of day -- now 95% of the kids walk out silently with their heads bowed over their cell phones.  They're not a positive thing in school.  They're not a positive thing socially either:  Not long ago my youngest and I drove up to see my college daughter for the weekend; we were in a little café having lunch, and I noticed that my girls were literally the only teens in the place who weren't checking their phones.  Really, why do you go out with a group, then spend the time on your phone?  The oddest social thing I've seen:  These days when I chaperone the prom, at any given point, 20% of the kids are sitting at tables using their phones.  Whom are they texting?  Everyone's at prom! 

Having said that, when my kids have asked for other expensive items, I have made a "halfway offer" with them that's worked well:  Say I'm willing to pay X amount for jeans or shoes, and they want the ones that cost XX.  I'll still pay X, and they can pay the difference.  Since neither of mine has asked about this option for a cell phone, I'm figuring it isn't all that big a deal for them. 

[Dee18]

I told my teen if she wanted a phone she had to pay for it:  the phone and the service.  She has learned a lot from the experience.  She loves her iphone and thinks it's worth the money.  She earns her money babysitting, working a few hours a week as a lab assistant, and selling personal items on the neighborhood trading list (like a local craigslist).  (I have a phone that cost $19 in 2007; it still works great.) 

[CommonCents]

Otherwise, you may find yourself in the same trap I've seen countless other parents where they went with family plans "to save money and get more service" only to find themselves subsidizing their adult children's mobile phone habits five years after the kid has already moved out.

5 years?  My husband is 37, turning 38 in less than 2 months and his mom *still* pays for his phone.  I think it's ridiculous (and have told him he ought to at least pay her back).

He's not the only one too.  Learned a 34 yo friend going through a divorce has not been answering her phone, and her husband commented that "her parents have the most right to complain about it," because they pay for the phone.  When it's related to their kids, I think he can complain too though.

[libertarian4321]

If they are teens, then I'd tell them they can have phones when they can afford to pay for them.

Sounds like a perfect plan.  Their enthusiasm for the iPhone 12 (or whatever number it's at now) will dampen when they realize they'll have to spend months working low wage jobs to buy it.  That "uncool" flip phone may not look so bad.

[nikki]

We ended up going with T-Mobile and we pay 102.99 including a Federal discount for all you can eat talk, text, and 500 MB of data per line for four lines.

Wow! Feeding four people and full phone service for only 102.99 a month :-O

;-D

[MrsPete]

5 years?  My husband is 37, turning 38 in less than 2 months and his mom *still* pays for his phone.  I think it's ridiculous (and have told him he ought to at least pay her back).

If they've determined together that they can get a group plan that will serve them better than individual plans, I have no problem with that -- but an adult should be paying his portion. 

In fact, my college daughter and I were discussing this very thing last weekend:  She still has two years of college to go, but she was thinking ahead to her transition from college-to-career:  Job applications, where to live, how to manage expenses, etc.  And I told her that she is welcome to stay on our insurance, our phone plan, whatever . . . as long as it makes sense for her financially, and as long as she covers her portion of the bill.  Or she can take over the phone bill, and I'll be "her dependent" and write her a check twice a year for my share. 

[CommonCents]

5 years?  My husband is 37, turning 38 in less than 2 months and his mom *still* pays for his phone.  I think it's ridiculous (and have told him he ought to at least pay her back).

If they've determined together that they can get a group plan that will serve them better than individual plans, I have no problem with that -- but an adult should be paying his portion. 

In fact, my college daughter and I were discussing this very thing last weekend:  She still has two years of college to go, but she was thinking ahead to her transition from college-to-career:  Job applications, where to live, how to manage expenses, etc.  And I told her that she is welcome to stay on our insurance, our phone plan, whatever . . . as long as it makes sense for her financially, and as long as she covers her portion of the bill.  Or she can take over the phone bill, and I'll be "her dependent" and write her a check twice a year for my share.

Actually that's what I do with my parents.  (I was never on their plan as a kid - got my first plan on my own as an adult, but my dad was getting a smart phone about the same time as I was in 2011, so we talked and decided it made financial sense to join together in a plan, while my mom kept her old phone.)  Dad gets a discount better than my work discount, so it's in his name.  My bank deposits money in their account every month for my share of the costs - which is the full cost and not an "add-on" line cost.

That said, my husband does not pay for his share, and never has.  I've given up on the "back pay" but think he ought to pay going forward.  His mom doesn't care though.

A bigger issue is that his car is actually in his mom's name, because it was cheaper for them not to switch plates over to his name when they were buying cars and doing trade ins.  So he paid, but it's in her name and the car insurance is in her name (and she pays for it).  This is a HUGE issue for me, because if we get into an accident, the insurance could use this to try to deny our claim.  No good having insurance if they won't pay out (or in other words, penny-wise, pound foolish).  I've finally gotten them to agree to switch it over this year, as we moved to a house located where we really need the car in our name for dump stickers, etc.  My state is raising the cost of switching registration in July, so I'm pushing them to do it in the next two months.  So I'm fighting the battles that matter, which is this one. 

Better not to get started with these problems.

[ketchup]

I didn't get a cell phone until I was 18 (in 2009), because I knew I would be the one paying, and didn't feel it was worth it even for a cheapie phone.  When I did finally get a phone, it was a very cheapie one, something like $25 for the phone on a ~$10/mo Virgin Mobile plan.  The decision for my parents to not pay for it helped me develop frugal habits and value money. It was one factor among many for me, but I am a strong believer in kids learning to pay their own way on optional luxuries.

[Dibbels81]

I use Kitty Wireless, a Page Plus dealer.  They use the Verizon network, and have good smart phone plans around $40 a month, though I use the $12 flip phone plan.

[Nords]

Like most of you curmudgeons who grew up without smartphones, I also walked to school backwards & barefoot during the dark in the snow uphill-- both ways and year-round.  I'm one of those guys who as a teenager was routinely scolded "If you can't learn how to do logarithms and square roots in your head, then what are you going to do-- carry a calculator around with you all day?!?"  Gee, apparently that's exactly what I'm doing. 

Yeah, we made it through our teen years with our clay tablets and wood styluses ("stylii"?), but admit it:  if you could spend $30/month learning more efficiently, would it have made your life (and your GPA) better?

Like most of you, I poo-poohed my daughter's "wants" for a cell phone because she didn't "need" one.  So she got pissed off at us, got herself a job, and bought herself a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for calls & texts. 

Oddly enough, life at our house immediately got better.  (For free!)  Our phone stopped ringing at all hours of the day (and night) with homework problems or "Can I talk with your daughter?" queries.  Teens stopped calling our landline six times in a row during dinner to say "Hey, c'mon, pick up!!!" and then hanging up without leaving voicemail.  Our daughter actually got more information on teacher office hours, study groups, and homework modifications before she showed up in the classroom.  There was no more biking/driving back & forth to school over schedule confusion.  Her phone had a (very cheap) camera on it, and she started taking pictures of the teacher's whiteboard. 

It turned out that there was a giant teen tactical data-exchange network operating on the cell phone frequency, both voice and text.  Our daughter had really been missing out on the academics.  She'd been missing out on the social side, too, but that was her problem.

Some of the teens had data plans on their smartphones.  They could look stuff up on the Internet without signing up for the library computers or standing in line.  They could learn things [Dr. Evil voice]ANYTIME THEY WANTED TO![/Evil]

When our daughter turned 17 years old, we bought her an iPhone with an unlimited data plan.  She did her part by getting a full-tuition college scholarship, so the iPhone cost was a drop in the bucket compared to our college savings.  Suddenly she could look up her own info any time she wanted (without borrowing my desktop computer), she could take high-quality photos in the classroom, and she could even record audio/video of the teacher's talk for later playback. 

We kept this up through college, and next month she graduates.  A large chunk of her GPA is credited to that cell phone.  By the way, her campus is totally wireless but there's not a payphone anywhere on the grounds.  I know-- I've searched and I've asked.

So don't worry about your teens wasting time (and your money) on cell phones.  Worry about the academic skills that your teen is missing out on, and decide whether that's worth the cost of the phone and maybe even a data plan.  Consider it part of the college fund.

[headachemustache]

Thanks for the lively discussion, everyone.   Took your advice, I.P. Daley, and told my kids that they first have to read your (aptly named) superguide, then we'll talk about next steps.  Well thank you, that shut them up for a while!  And the guide has given me a lot more to consider, including whether we can ditch our landline.  Question:  does anyone know a simple way to "test" an internet connection to ensure that it can handle increased traffic, were we to use it for voice too?  I don't want to cut the cord without ensuring this is doable.

[Grindin' Away]

You can google speed test, or use www.speedtest.net to test your internet speed.

I'll give a quick plug to research Republic Wireless more if you haven't.  Just finished up my ridiculously expensive 2 year contract on my iPhone, and now have the $10/month plan at RW.  They just released the MotoG for $150, and it's an awesome phone.  The $10 plan doesn't have 3G, but you can find WiFi everywhere, or you can do the $25 plan with 3G.

They also have a referral system.  So you can have each of your kids set up an online RW account, and refer each other.  At 20 bucks a pop, it'll add up.

[Daley]

Question:  does anyone know a simple way to "test" an internet connection to ensure that it can handle increased traffic, were we to use it for voice too?  I don't want to cut the cord without ensuring this is doable.

There's three network quality tests linked at the bottom of the first page off my crash course guide on using VoIP in the home.

They're Visualware’s Voice over IP Testing utility, Speedtest and Pingtest. Fortunately, voice services don't use a great deal of bandwidth. If you've got a good router that you know how to configure for packet prioritization, so long as the internet connection itself is fast enough with low jitter and latency, you could get away with a 3Mbps connection streaming video to one computer and still have a VoIP based conversation happening at the same time. The bar is set pretty low so long as there's no noise on the line. :)

[NumberCruncher]

This is covered in the superguide, of course, but it's really amazing how price gouging text messaging is: http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/141867-price-gouging-it-costs-more-to-send-a-text-message-on-earth-than-from-mars

[Simple Abundant Living]

This is covered in the superguide, of course, but it's really amazing how price gouging text messaging is: http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/141867-price-gouging-it-costs-more-to-send-a-text-message-on-earth-than-from-mars

Wow, that is crazy and really interesting at the same time!

[matimeo]

Here is exactly what I would do (and will do when my kids get old enough to want phones):

Definitely use Ting.  Why get screwed by one of the big companies and a contract?  The more users on Ting, the better it is, and with kids you have full and immediate control over their usage without having to call customer support.  Ting has been the most amazing thing and is already saving us tons.

Kids buy their own phones if they want a fancy one- however I think it is extremely irresponsible parenting to let a teenage boy have a smartphone with guidelines or boundaries as to it's use.  Pretty much guaranteed he's going to get into something that ain't good.  They need to be educated on how to use them and have good boundaries.

With Ting you can limit the number of texts/minutes/megabytes each phone can use per month.  If I was paying for the phone service, I would set a reasonable limit and when it's gone, it's gone.  Thus they can learn to have responsible usage and not be addicted to their phone.  There would also be clear guidelines about when it is appropriate to use a phone (not during family time, not before finishing homework, not while at school during instruction time, etc.). 

People need to teach their kids how to use technology, because they don't figure it out on their own.  With a reasonable Ting plan like this that allocates sufficient usage for two adults and four teens (given usage of WiFi whenever possible and using something like Google Voice for texting, using a landline when at home or where one is available), you're looking at under $100 a month easy.

[Emilyngh]

I use Kitty Wireless, a Page Plus dealer.  They use the Verizon network, and have good smart phone plans around $40 a month, though I use the $12 flip phone plan.

We also use Kitty/Page Plus and have smart phones, but only have the $10 every 120 days plan (so like $2.50 a mo).   The key is to keep data turned off when not using it, but at 10 cents a mb there's the ability to use data when one really needs it (and wifi when it's available, and one can easily add more money if they anticipate a trip or some other reason for higher usage).   Obviously this plan is for very light users, but it's crazy that there're plans even this inexpensive.   

[oldtoyota]

Just say no.  But if you have already decided you are going to do this, I would recommend Airvoice Wireless' $10 plan and second hand smartphones (I got my iphone 4 a few weeks ago for $100).  No data, they can just use wifi.  It's prevalent enough.  $10 reloads automatically every 30 days, and they get $0.02 texts and $0.04 minutes.  There are no overages, afaik, when you run out, it just stops working.  (people get some sort of out of service message when they try to call; I'm not sure what happens if someone tries to text.)  After they run out, they can use their phones with just wifi until the new 30 day period starts.  They'll learn to self regulate, use fb messenger on wifi instead of texting, etc.

I second this. I am really happy with AirAvoice Wireless and use wifi at home and anywhere else it can be had.

[t-rymz]

My parents made us pay for our own phones. No matter why, we always had to pay for our own phones. And then we couldn't drive unless we had a cellphone.

Make them pay for it. They'll pick a nice pay-as-you-go. Or they'll really want that smart phone (Virgin Mobile) and value it more if they buy it.