The Best Prepaid Cellular Phone Services for Children

It can be a challenge to find the ideal cell phone plan for your child, but thankfully there are a lot of options for you to consider.

Prepaid or Family Plans?

There are certainly advantages to opting for something like a family cell phone plan when you are looking for a mobile phone plan for children. With nearly all family plans, calls between family members are included, so it won't cost you anything extra to stay connected with the young ones at any hour of the day. This can be handy both for the youngest of children when they are being cared for by someone else or even for teenagers when they are hanging out at the mall with their friends. Sticking with family members, the calls are virtually unlimited.

The trouble is that if the child decides to make any calls outside of the family plan, these minutes may or may not be included and you could be in for quite a surprise at the end of the month when the bill arrives. Especially when it comes to younger children, it is a lot easier to control costs by opting for prepaid cell phones instead. This way, they can't possibly spend any more money that what has already been loaded into the account.

The Best Prepaid Cellular Phone Services for Children

Just like you would when looking for a plan for yourself, it is important to compare cell phone plans when looking for the best prepaid cellular phone services for children as well. Some plans do not come with any premium charges for features like caller ID, whereas others may not include this feature. Furthermore, nationwide minutes -- maybe little Timmy is staying with his aunt in Vermont -- may or may not be charged at the same rate as local minutes. These are just some of things you may want to consider when looking for the best prepaid cellular phone services for children.

If your child is old enough to understand a regular cell phone, you will have a lot more options. If they are younger and need a more simplistic user interface, you may want to look into services that cater specifically to children, such as Firefly Mobile. The phone is limited only to preset numbers, so children will not be able to call anyone that you have not pre-authorized and pre-programmed. Another alternative is the TicTalk. Realistically, it might be best to just get a basic conventional phone than one of these seriously limited handsets catering to children.

For most children, you want to look for a prepaid cell phone plan with minimal commitment and maximum coverage. This is because young children will not be using their phones all that much, but you want to make sure that they can call when they need to do so.

T-Mobile

The T-Mobile prepaid cellular service offers the convenience of not having to fill up your account very often. Simply buy the $100 refill value and the value will still active for at least 365 days. The rate works out to 10 cents a minute anytime.

AT&T GoPhone

I've found that some of the best value from the get-go comes from AT&T. While their rates may not necessarily be as exceptional as other prepaid phone services, you can get your hands on a cheaper prepaid cell phone. The basic rate is 25 cents a minute. Alternatively, you can pay $1 per day on days that you use your phone and pay 10 cents a minute instead. This latter option also includes free mobile to mobile minutes. Both plans offer nationwide long distance.

Virgin Mobile USA

With Virgin Mobile, the basic rate is 20 cents a minute. If you know you'll be using a few more minutes, you can pay a flat rate of $6.95 a month and get a rate of 10 cents a minute. This is worth it if your child uses 70 or more minutes a month. You can also add 200 text messages for $5 a month.