A Smartphone is no longer a luxury item for most teens – they’re absolutely essential to staying safe, keeping in touch with family and friends, and even doing well at school or college.
If you have a teenager or pre-teen who’s been asking for their first smartphone, you’re probably wondering how you’re going to be able to keep the cost of it down as much as possible. Teenagers are notorious for heavy phone use and going over their contract allowance, so when it comes to saving money, parents often have to think outside of the box.
Unlocked Handsets
Opting for an unlocked or SIM free handset, rather than one which is locked to a particular network, can be an excellent way of ensuring that your teenager’s mobile phone contract is not costing you any more than is necessary. When you purchase an unlocked handset or unlock a current handset using codes available to purchase from Unlocking Smart, this allows you to keep shopping around for better deals which may be more suitable for your teenager and for your bank account. Along with that, unlocking the handset can also make it easier to sell and more likely to attract a good price when it’s time to upgrade your teen’s mobile phone.
Capped Contracts
When it comes to choosing a contract for your teen, you don’t want to be spending loads, but you certainly don’t want to get them a contract that’s cheap with a small allowance that they’re likely to go over. Opting for a capped contract for your teenager, which won’t allow them to go over their specified allowance of minutes, texts and data, can be the best way to ensure that you’re never paying any more than you need to each month. Although only certain UK networks will offer capped contracts, looking into this option can definitely make sure that getting your teen a contract phone is a lot less stressful.
SIM Only and Pay and Go
Although opting for a SIM only deal or a Pay and Go plan for your teen comes with the massive down side of not having a mobile phone handset included in the contract, this is an option that many parents might like to consider in order to help them save money. If you have an old smartphone that works well, you might want to consider giving this to your teen on a SIM only or Pay and Go plan, an option which could work out much cheaper for you. With many smartphones that are suitable for teens available at reasonable prices, parents who don’t mind paying a little more initially in order to purchase a handset for their teen can save money on the monthly cost in the long run.
At some point, most teenagers will need a smartphone of their own. As a parent, getting a smartphone for your teen can be expensive, but there are plenty of things that you can do in order to help save yourself some money when paying for your teen’s phone.
