My daughter's going to a new school in Sept and I guess the time has come for her to start texting during lessons / happy slapping / taking lewd photos to post on Facebook / cyber bullying like all the other kids.

I'm wondering what the best package might be and where to get it?
The phone only needs to be quite basic.
Are there any good Pay as you go deals?
Are there specific packages for the younger user?
Are the supermarket deals any good?
Are there any nice phones that are popular with the younger generation these days? (iPhones etc are well beyond the budget)

I'll probably get it today so I'd be grateful for any ideas.

No good looking at me. When I was that age it was 'here's fourpence: push button A to connect, button B to refund'.

Tesco Mobile cheapest pay as you go deal you can find. Once they prove they can look after a mobile then you have an xmas/birthday present sorted every few years. The classroom one upmanship on mobiles is not a race you want your kids in.

Not much different for me. If I wanted to make a call I'd be using one of these beauties!

Thanks John - sounds like you have some experience in this.

This seems like an incredible deal..
http://shop.tescomobile.com/mobile-phones/pay-as-you-go/samsung/galaxy+y?deal=5113
What's the catch? If she starts using the browser does the data get expensive on PAYG?

My daughter (13) has one of those and while she mainly uses wifi, rather than mobile data, it works out fine. We top her phone up with £10/month and get £20 of free credit from Tesco and she's sorted for the month.

However, as Bockers says, I'd go for something bum-basic first off, until she's proved she can go 3 days without losing it. To put this in context, the Samsung is my daughter's fifth phone.

If I cough up the £49 for a PAYG phone, do I own it?
If she loses it is there a hidden cost to replace or is it another £49?

I didn't know they took groats

Nope, it's just another £49 (although I think you'll lose any credit that was on the phone, perhaps).

If you want a very good deal on a smartphone , have a look at this - we got one for my son last month, never heard of them before, and for the money ( £50 ) it's a fantastic bargain

http://www.phones4u.co.uk/shop/shop_payg_details.asp?ItemKey=695561#sthash.vBo0FPxv.dpbs

As Azzurra says, they're a not well known manufacturer here but seem to make decent phones....it's not hard to find all inclusive packages quite cheaply (my daughters have giff gaff sims) it's the data usage that will eat the credit quite quickly if they're on youtube/facebook/twitter all the time.

Have a look at these options as well as Tesco's fine deals >>> http://giffgaff.com/index/offer

Looks good - faster processor and more camera resolution than the Samsung, also the battery life might not be too bad.
Any problems? One thing is that the memory is just 500M and it won't take a regular memory card on one of the reviews?

That begs another question. Am I locked to Tesco or Vodafone or Phones4U's PAYG SIM if I buy the phone from them?

I think most are monthly based, so you can swap then or when the credit runs out, whichever is the sooner assuming the phone is bought SIM free (ie non contractual basis)

Tesco sell phones with a variety of networks and network-free, although I've been with Tesco nearly five years now and have never had a problem with it (I think the Tesco network is actually just the O2 network with new badges stuck on).

Have a look at Pay as you go with 3, they were offering festival mobiles for £5 with a £10 top up.

Yes you can now buy a phone for less than a packet of fags!

Well Phones4U and Tesco are almost next door to one another
I'll have a look at 3 now.

Can i remind you of your title that this is an 11yr old. Get the cheapest most basic starter phone. if they look after it then that is a future present sorted. Plus if they do look after it you have a handy spare phone when they upgrade. At some point the phone will be stolen, the trade in smart phones is rife in the school playground Asking an 11yr old to look after a smart phone is just being a little too hard on them responsibility wise IMHO.

It is her birthday present, and she's owned a tablet for a while without breaking/ losing it. I guess I'm lazy as I'd quite like to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
Could get her something else and a £10 phone maybe?

Does the tablet go to school. It's a tough environment and there are lots of other envious kids.

I was with Tescomobile before switching to Three and I couldn't fault them.

Coverage was fine (I also understand that they piggyback O2's network) and they were the cheapest deal at the time.

I only left because they couldn't or wouldn't match Three's deal when it was upgrade time.

It doesn't.

Thanks for all the help gents!

Off shopping now...

Nothing bought yet.

Tesco was OK.

Phones4U revealed that if you buy one of their PAYG phones with a package in the shop they don't lock the phone to that provider- so it is like getting £20 off an unlocked phone with the £10 of credit.

No probs - he loves it and the phone takes standard micro SD cards for memory expansion. I had one lying around, stuck it in, formatted it via the phone and off he went.

If you're going to be putting around £10 a month on to the phone, then you might be best getting an unlocked phone and then getting a 12 month SIM contract from someone like Tesco.

Tesco only charge £7.50 a month for 250 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB data
This should be more than enough for an 11 year old.

The good thing with Tesco too, is that you can get them to cap the monthly amount, so once all the allowances are used up, that's it until next month, unless you top it up like a PAYG.

It'll teach your daughter to use her allowances wisely and/or earn more pocket money to top the phone up further, should she use up all of her allowances.

I was with Tesco on a year SIM contract and can't fault them.
I only went back to 02 because I wanted an iPhone 5. Once the contract is up, I'll be going back to Tesco

Thanks - Tesco seemed to be cheaper for some of the phones too, although the selection was a bit limited.