Best phone plans for kids, teens and tweens

By

Published on

Getting your kids on a prepaid plan is key, especially when you're footing the bill

Is it time for your trusty old mobile phone to become your kid's first mobile phone? They are growing up so fast. Here are a few tips for spotting a suitable plan to get them connected.

First, take a look at prepaid phone plans before considering plans with a monthly bill.

Prepaid phone plans cut off specific services when your kids hit those limits, so you are protected from a huge bill after a YouTube movie marathon (or three).

You'll also want your kids to be able to contact you whenever they need to, so a plan with unlimited calls and SMS messages is the way to go. Even if they blow all the data in the first day, at least you know they can still phone home.

All prepaid phone plans are free from contracts, so start low and work up to the right one. You'll have a better understanding of your kids' usage patterns after a couple of months.

Kids

OVO Mobile $9.95 (30-day recharge) - $200 calls, unlimited SMS, 1GB data

At current rates, this credit equates to about 80 two-minute phone calls, which may be sufficient. I like this plan because it is the cheapest with unlimited SMS, so your kids can always stay in touch. Plus, OVO offers free access to a service called Family Zone, which helps parents control how and when kids can use their phones.

Tweens

Yomojo Mobile $19.90 (30-day recharge) - unlimited calls and SMS, 2GB data

At $19.90 Yomojo offers one of the cheapest plans for tweens. Another option is Kogan Mobile's 30 day recharge with unlimited calls and SMS and 1GB data for $16.95, but getting double the data for an extra $3 is a better deal in my opinion.

Teens

Lebara Mobile $29.90 - unlimited calls and SMS, 5GB data OR OVO Mobile $34.95 - unlimited calls and SMS, 8GB data

Plans for teenagers are similar to plans for adults, but with a big appetite for data. This one is a tie for me. 5GB is probably enough data for most, but 8GB for $35 is also a bargain. The Lebara 5GB plan is also currently on sale for $14.90 until the end of March.

Get stories like this in our newsletters.

Related Stories

Sick of the influx of spam but not sure of your legal rights? We take a deep dive into what the law requires and what you can do to reduce nuisance emails and texts.
TAGS
Comments
Shelley Bee
March 29, 2017 10.07pm

You are so right Joe about prepaid plans. I switched my kids onto Yomojo 2GB plan and it was the best cost management thing I could do. They get real time info on their data usage and learn to manage it (which is a good life skill for them). If they run out of data, well let's say they don't anymore as they learned I wasn't going to pay anymore than my set amount. The coverage is great - Optus 4G so no issues at all. The bonus is that their phone numbers were easily ported from the Telstra network - apparently it's a legal requirement now. I don't know but it worked just fine.

Zenia Saldanha
March 31, 2017 9.53am

Hi Joe, I switched to OVO & we are all happy with the decision. $ 10 is excellent. And limited data & calls make the kids savvy on usage!