Best Phone Plans for Kids

Getting their sticky little fingers on their first mobile phone is a right of passage for kids. For them, it’s a sign of their growing independence. And for mum and dad, it affords peace of mind knowing they can be tracked and traced while out of the family home.

Choosing the right phone is the first step – and often the most contentious. Child’s thinking iPhone 16, parents are thinking a $300 OPPO. We’ll not venture into that murky territory here, except to say whatever phone you choose, it pays to invest in a robust case for it!

Choosing the right phone plan is the second step, and one that needs careful consideration.

Best mobile phone plans for kids: things to consider

When it comes to picking the best features for your child’s mobile plan, you’ll need to consider their age and how they are likely to use their phone.

Younger, tween children aren’t likely to be out and about on their own very often, and away from the family home’s wi-fi. So, they’ll subsequently use less data, unless they’re watching HD YouTube videos in the back of the car! Teens, of course, will be more data hungry. While unlimited texts and calls are always great to have on a plan.

When choosing a plan, some of the key considerations should be:

• Unlimited texts: no matter your child’s age, unlimited texts are a really good idea. It means they’ll always be able to reach you in the event of an emergency, and be able to text their friends without exceeding any plan data limits.
• Data limits and costs: a phone plan with at least 1GB of data should be enough for light use of basics such as Google Maps, web browsing and using messaging apps. Heavier data use, especially social media apps with video, such as TikTok, will use a lot more data. Also consider any plans with cheap excess data rates, and with a usage warning system – for example, SMS alerts when 50%, 85%, and 100% of the monthly data allowance has been used.
• Longer expiry periods: be wary of the expiry periods of some cheap prepaid plans, as these can be as short as a week. Instead, look at prepaid plans with 28-30 day expiries, as this reduces the risk of your child having no credit to call or text you, while also removing the hassle of recharging regularly. Short-term plans might be cheap, but consider how many times you’ll need to recharge each month, which can really add up.
• Adding your child to your plan: endless data plans, or ones with large data allocations, come with larger monthly charges. But some providers allow you to add additional family members at a reduced rate.

Best mobile phone plans for kids: prepaid vs monthly plan

The first and most important decision to make in regards to your child’s phone plan is whether you want to go prepaid or sign up to a monthly plan.

Prepaid pros

The best thing about a prepaid phone plan is that your child can only use the fixed calls, text and data that come with their plan. There is no bill shock with prepaid: once your credit is up, that’s it, unless you manually recharge.

This is a great way to help kids understand budgeting. Another positive is, if you’re short on money one month, or if you need to take your child’s privileges away, you can simply not recharge their plan.

Prepaid options also tend to offer a greater choice of cheaper plans with less data, which can be ideal for younger children. Whereas most monthly plans come with larger data allowances.

Prepaid cons

The most significant drawback to going prepaid is that once you reach your plan’s limits, you can no longer use data, make calls or send text messages. This can remove the safety net of your child being able to call you in an emergency.

Prepaid plans also tend to have shorter expiry periods, which can mean you find yourself having to recharge every four weeks, which equates to 13 times a year, instead of 12 times on a monthly plan. And prepaid plans tend to lack the same value as monthly plans.

Monthly plan pros

Even the cheapest monthly phone plans offer unlimited calls and texts, so you can rest assured that your child will always be able to contact you. Monthly plans also take away the hassle of having to manually recharge your plan. Although most prepaid plans do allow users to auto-recharge. You are also likely to get better value with a monthly plan.

Monthly plan cons

The biggest negative of monthly plans is their cost. While they tend to offer better overall value than prepaid, they have higher starting price points – usually around $40. Plus they require you to sign up to a contract, meaning you’re locked in to the monthly charges, unless you cancel.

Best mobile phone plans for kids: under $40

Once you’ve considered your child’s needs and your budget, you can start your research into the best mobile phone plans for kids. To help, Canstar has compiled a round-up of some of the cheapest mobile plans and prepaid deals currently on offer for under $40 per month.

2degrees

Monthly

$40 Plan

• Features: 300 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ ­– 5GB rollover data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, shared data, hotspotting

Prepaid: Calendar month

$8 Plan

• Features: 100 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 150MB rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting

$13 Plan

• Features: 100 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ– 600MB rollover data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, hotspotting

$19 Plan

• Features: 200 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB rollover data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up, hotspotting

$25 Plan:

• Features: 250 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 3GB rollover data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up, hotspotting

$35 Plan:

• Features: 300 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 4.5GB rollover data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up, hotspotting

Mighty Mobile

Prepaid: Calendar Month

$40 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Minutes and Texts to NZ & OZ – Unlimited Data (capped at 10Mbps)
• Extras: Hotspotting

Also available for $399/year ($33.25/month)

Rocket Mobile

Prepaid: Calendar Month

Rocket Starter – $30/month

• Features: Unlimited data at 2Mbps, unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ
• Extras: 10GB hotspotting

Rocket – $40/month

• Features: Unlimited data at 10Mbps, unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ
• Extras: 20GB hotspotting, $5/month discount for customers on group plan

Spark

Spark’s cheapest monthly plan is $45, although the telco has a wide range of prepaid plans. We’ve included the $41 plan because it’s close enough, and it’s worth noting that the $31 and $41 plans come with unlimited free data to listen to music via Spotify:

Prepaid: Four-week period

$16 Plan:

• Features: 25 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 150MB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting, save 10% on Spotify Premium

$21 Plan:

• Features: 200 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting, save 10% on Spotify Premium, Data Stack*

$26 Plan:

• Features: 250 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 2GB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting, save 10% on Spotify Premium, Data Stack*

$31 Plan:

• Features: 300 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 3GB Rollover
• Extras: Hotspotting, save $7 on Spotify Premium + free Spotify data, Data Stack*

$41 Plan:

• Features: 400 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 4.5GB Rollover
• Extras: Hotspotting, save $7 on Spotify Premium + free Spotify data, Data Stack*

*Data Stack: every time you renew your plan, you are awarded a bonus 200MB of data, up to a limit of 3GB. Note this bonus data does not rollover.

Skinny:

Prepaid: Four-week period

$8 Plan:

• Features: 100 minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 250MB Data
• Extras: N/A

$17 Plan:

• Features: 200 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Unlimited minutes to other Skinny mobiles

$27 Plan:

• Features: 300 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 4GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Unlimited minutes to other Skinny mobiles

$40 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ ­– endless data (speeds reduce after 10GB)
• Extras: Hotspotting

NB: Skinny also offers similar weekly plans, although they work out slightly more expensive.

The Warehouse

Prepay: Four-week period

$9 Combo:

• Features: 100 minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations*) – 300MB rollover Data

$15 Combo:

• Features: 200 minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations*) – 1.25GB rollover Data

$25 Combo:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations*) – 3GB rollover Data

$35 Combo:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations*) – 6GB rollover Data

One

One’s cheapest monthly plan is $45, although it has a wide range of customisable prepaid plans.

Prepay: Four-week period

One’s MyFlex Prepay gives you the freedom to personalise a plan to feature your choice of data, minutes and texts. This gives you the flexibility to give your child unlimited texts and increased data, but less talk time. Here are some example plans:

$15 Plan:

• Features: 100 rollover minutes & 100 texts to NZ & OZ – 1GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up (up to 100% free data if your plan renews regularly)

$25 Plan:

• Features: 200 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 2GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up

$30 Plan:

• Features: 200 rollover minutes & unlimited texts to NZ & OZ – 3GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up

Kogan

Prepay (30-day period)

Kogan offers a discount if you pay for a 12-month plan upfront, as shown:

$15 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Data
• $160 per year ($13.15 per 30 days)

$25 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 4GB Data
• $250 per year ($20.55 per 30 days)

$35 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 15GB Data
• $330 per year ($27.12 per 30 days)

Best phone plans for kids: shared data plans

If you’ve already got a monthly phone plan, it’s worthwhile looking into shared plans for your children, especially if they are data-hungry teens.

Shared data plans typically involve a main plan, with similar plans clipped on at a discounted rate. Below, you can see a breakdown of shared data plans from:

• Spark
• 2degrees
• One
• Kiwi Mobile
• Nova Energy
• Rocket Mobile

Spark

Spark has two monthly endless plans that allow you to add companions:

• 150GB Endless: add companions for $40/m each
• Unlimited Endless: add companions for $45/m each

Plan features:

• Entertainment – free Spotify Premium ($16.99) included with the Uncapped Data plan ($7 discount on 150GB plan); save $5 on a Neon subscription, $15.99p/m instead of $19.99.
• Hotspotting – plans offer unlimited hotspotting, although data caps apply.
• 5G – plans are 5G ready

2degrees

2degrees only has one endless plan:

Group plans – you can add up to five group plans for $40p/m per plan

Plan features:

• 5G – 5G ready
• Hotspot – included

One

One has two endless data plans that can be combined with group plans:

Group plans – One allows you to add up to three group plans at a discount:

• Medium plan: add up to three group plans for $35 p/m per plan
• One plan: add up to three group plans for $40 p/m per plan

Plan features:

• 5G – plans are 5G ready
• Hotspot – included with both plans
• International texts and calls – 250 texts and 50mins to 20 international destinations
• One NZ rewards

Kiwi Mobile

Kiwi Mobile’s group mobile plans deliver unlimited data, capped at download speeds of of 1.2Mbps once you hit one of five data caps. The plans are unique because they are charged on a per-day basis and, once you hit your data cap, if you don’t want your data speed slowed to 1.2Mbps, you can opt to move up to the next data tier, either manually or automatically.

However, whatever data/price tier you end up on by the end of the month, when the next billing cycle comes around (there are 12 per calendar year), your plan automatically resets back down to the 5GB $1.30/day plan.

If there are two linked plans, both receive a discount of 15c per day, and if you link three or four plans that saving increases to 30c per day:

Plan features:

• Endless data – all plans have endless data till max speed limit, then reduced to 1.2Mbps
• Talk & Text – unlimited NZ/OZ
• 5G – plans are 5G ready
• Hotspot – included with all plans

Nova Energy

Nova offers unlimited mobile plans that feature four different max data speed caps, from 5GB to 40GB. You can add up to four more people to your plan for $29/month per person. Obviously, the more expensive the base plan, the better value the add-on plans. And there are extra savings if you bundle your phone with Nova’s energy or broadband plans.

Plan features:

• Endless data – all plans have endless data till max speed limit, then reduced to 1.2Mbps
• Talk & Text – unlimited NZ/OZ
• Hotspot – included with all plans

Rocket Mobile

Rocket Mobile has three endless plans that offer group discounts. Its most expensive plan, Rocket Max, delivers unlimited full-speed data, while its Rocket and Rocket Plus plans have their data speeds capped, but still at speeds fast enough to watch Netflix in HD!

Rocket Mobile has a unique approach to its group discounts. Any Rocket Mobile customer can invite other Rocket Mobile users to join their group (members can leave at any time) and earn a group discount.

Rocket Mobile’s group discounts:

• $5 p/m off for Rocket and Rocket Plus plan members
• $20 p/m off for Rocket Max plan members

Note: Prices correct at time of writing (20/03/25). Further information on pricing can be found at individual provider websites. This should be used as a starter guide and not considered an actual quote.