Find other useful mobilephonenerd.com articles and guides:

Capped mobile phone contracts - for your children and teens !

Written by: Sam Swan

Date: 31st March 2012 ( 31/03/2012 )

When it comes to choosing the right phone and tariff for our children, teens, our even ourselves, it can be a difficult choice. We want to give them freedom to look after their possessions, but you don’t want to see them run up a huge mobile phone bill. Therefore, it would seem that a Pay As You Go (PAYG) mobile phone is the best option for teenagers. It allows them to manage their spending amount without any nasty surprises. PAYG is not the only option because in recent years capped contract phones have been introduced. Please your little ones (and you!) with a phone and contract, while capping the costs / direct debit which is explained by Sam Swan.

What is a capped contract?

Capped contracts are the new PAYG, and an easier way to keep control of your funds. With a capped contract, the bill payer will receive their standard monthly bill, just like any contracted customer except there will be no surprises, as a capped contract has a fixed tariff (or a cap). When you set up the contract, you can set up a set amount you want debited each month, whether it’s £10, £20 or more. You may wonder why not go for the PAYG option instead? However, with contract phones, including those with caps, there are often more deals available than with PAYG, as well as selection of phones to choose from.

What networks offer this? 

Currently T-Mobile are one of two networks offering such a deal is called You-Fix, which allows customers to fix an amount they want to spend each month, starting at £15.50 a month on a 12 month contract. If you need any extra credit, you can top up like PAYG. A £20 deal currently includes 100 minutes call time to any local/national UK network, at any time of the day, 100 texts and a "booster" which could include unlimited texts or internet. The "booster" can even be applied to their £15.50 contracts which means you can have unlimited texts or internet too!

Tesco mobile also offer capped contract deals except they are offering customers the opportunity to cap any
new tariff, with any phone they offer - just choose the "cap contract" . You can even cap at less than £20 a month if you prefer. That means you have a lot of flexibility than the T-Mobile option, however do compare carefully at the overall costs. They are also the only network on the market that offers a capped contract with an iPhone! (Although be prepared to pay a higher upfront cost compared to other networks). Tesco mobile piggyback their signal from O2.

So what makes this perfect for children and teens?

Well, with a capped contract you no longer have to worry about topping up phones anymore, as a set amount is available every month. There will no longer be any surprising bills, as what you set up is what you pay. Finally, with a capped contract, there are more deals available, which means you could save more than with a PAYG mobile phone.

Fancy a capped contract then? We have made pages for those interested in blackberry deals, iPhone deals and android deals!

Editor selected picks:

Purchase

Purchase