Cell phone for an 11-year old

[ZacDeath]

I know almost nothing about cell-phones so I thought you guys may be able to give me some advice. My son in going to the Middle school and may be home for an hour or so after school before I can get home, so it is probably time he gets a phone. He doesn't need a data plan, just needs to be able to make calls. I thought about buying a new one for myself and giving him my old one, (I phone 6). Man, new phones are expensive. Looks like I can just buy any old phone off Amazon for around $100. Any advice would be helpfull. I would rather spend the money on Transformers than on something he will either lose or break probably in first 3 months. Thanks.

 

[Ultra Magnus13]

If it's going to strictly be for emergency calls or texts and pick ups from practices etc, a pre paid Tracphone used to be the cheapest to keep active. Your price per minute/text was high, but if you arnt using many it didn't matter.

 

[wonko the sane?]

If the conditions are as magnus suggests: most cellular stores DO offer a small selection of dumb flip phones, usually pretty cheap. It would prevent him from using it as anything other than a phone and text device, and texting would be ridiculously impeded because of the keyboard. And the lack of a large breakable screen makes them pretty rugged.

Plus, in a few years when he gets a "real" phone, he'll love the hell out of it even if it's a completely basic smart model.

 

[Pocket]

Even my mom's first "smart"phone (that ran an already-multiple-years-out-of-date version of Android) was only like $30.