I'm looking for a phone for my daughter who will be in high school next year. I was going to look at the Telstra TickTalk, but that doesn't appear to be available anymore. WTF? I can't find any information of any value on any other website at the moment. I may go and visit my carrier tomorrow (3), but their cheapest plan is $29, and doesn't give any parental lockouts or controls.

Anyone know of any plans out there that allow you to control the amount of SMS' and who they can actually call short of buying a prepaid phone and letting her learn the true cost of a dollar?

Hello Paul, i wish you luck...kids learning about wat it cost is a headache. If they want a phone m8 make sure they work for it.......

Squizy,

check out the things each provider offers... and actually ask them in the store.

Some thinsg I've found... some phones DONT allow some access to the interent with some plans. Some providers...for soem reason dont advertise that the can 'lock out' numbers. I dont knwo why they dont advertise it... perhaps the whinging kids screaming loudly inside the store made them rethink advertising. But I know telstra recently stop advertising, but they do it.

Also, telstra (and I have no idea how many others ) have a strange thing where...if someone is on a plan and another is on pre paid ( i did this with my kids) u can send them monthly credit automatically. you can also pass on credit from pre paid to another pre paid. U have no idea how many kids did this at allys school. If one person had $10.00 but someone needed credit but only had $5.00 on them...they would buy the $5 credit.

I have no idea if three provide this ... we will also be looking into it ... as another daughter is going to high school next year...and we want to make sure we have best possible deal. I am on (3) and atmo I am happy. But I am on one of the top plans... and daughters are on (3) too now, witht heir own plans. They had pre paid first (all do) to learn about handling credit...then go to plan when its felt they are handling it ok.

good luck in ur seach.

Beb

my 9 yr old has a phone in case she misses school bus etc. Its an old thing, phone calls and sms only. Its got $10 worth of credit on it. If she uses it for non emergencies, she'll get... some kinda heavy dscipline. Granted a teen might need to use some credit finding out if the girls are wearing pink black green or blue tonight. Dont take this the wrong way but at high school a kid needs to learn some economics. I think if in your situation ( I will be in a couple of years) I would get the billed account as they are usually cheaper and pay a set amount of it, but let her know that anything over that will be coming out of her pocket in some shape or form.

I worked for Vodafone for a while.... a bad period in my life. Came across several youngi people in credit trouble.First thing you need to do is find out what phone company the friends are with. I think all the telcos have calls to other mobiles on the same network a lot cheaper.

Secondly you need to block premium calls to 1900 numbers. Downloading ring tones and screen savers is where most people come unstuck. If you are going to allow one or two, make sure you read the fine print very very carefully. The first one is usually cheap and you dont realise you are signing up for one a week or more. In a lot of cases the only way to stop receiving extra unwanted ring tones is to sms a 'stop' word. Only when you are 2 weeks down the track and out of money there is no way of finding out what that secret stop word was on the bottom of last weeks tv guide or the tv ad. Its a bit tricky tracing those, even though it can be done. I believe that at least one phone company cant be bothered even attempting to do it.

Third, ban WAP. I think it was only 5c/kb when I was working there. No big deal looking at the latest top 10 hits, but when you start downloading pictures of justin timberlake and britney mp3's it soon adds up.

Image is everything for a teen, we've all been there. You can buy daggy phones that dont have the bells and whistles but it will never be a popular thing. Just disable the things you dont want her to have on the network side. At least then she will be able to swap her mp3's and create her own ringtones from mp3 on the computer without the urge to download from rip off merchants plus swap them via bluetooth with the friends.

check out ISIM. cheap prepaid you can monitor on the web.
isim.com.au

Squiz

it all depends on the kid
I have 3 - and all have phones

Goth is the only problem. He just devours phones. Ben hardly uses it and Mat has one as well. yep - missed bus, pick up from sport, I'm going over to Freds. All that sort of stuff.
Best bet is prepaid until you can work out what they are like.
If they go ballistic then the prepaid runs out and no drama.
If they loose it - no great loss

Mat is with Telstra on a $20 plan. We got a decent phone and he can call one number for free (3 min limit)
That is mum's mobile
He texts his friends but the monthly bill is always around the $20
You geta a print of every call they make.

As for Goth.......NO amount of $$$$ will feed his craving for phone bills!!
But i have him on one of the $49 capped plans.

I am seriously looking at getting rid of the home phone - or at least looking outgoing calls.

i reckon pre-paid works out more in the long run. Kids don't see phones as special, they are Digital Natives. The best security monitoring is called a parent. You can check the spend on most providers, I have 3 which seems fine for $29 a month. Teaching them to manage their spend is a good idea, as it will probably be the biggest expense they have in early life, before they want a car. All depends on the kid though.

Most HSchools don't want phones (due to the stealing factor). Talk to them, many allow them to drop them in the office and pick them up at the end of the day.

Just buy iPhone when it arrives, save on the iTouch, iPod and phone all in one!. Don't get a lame phone ... destroys social status!

You can pick up an 02 PDA phone for $300 second hand. Uses Windows and work really well, cheap phone and PDA! - Less likely to loose flash drives at school too with one of them.

mate i have a motorolla very e4asy to use in really good nick takes pics and sends pic something like that and you can get a prepayed that way when the money is gone she will have to wait till the next topup a good way to teach them about excess
merry xmas