When is my kid ready for cell phone?

I have a lot of fellow mom friends who are younger than me and know my oldest has a phone so I get this question a lot as they are working through the issue. I recently saw a campaign to get kids to wait to a specific age to have them. Let me answer the big title question right here:

Whenever you as the parents decide to give your child a cell phone.

No family, no kid is the same. It is truly nobody's business when your kid gets a cell phone. My 7 year old does not have one but if I were in a contentious custody situation, it would be a different thing.

I've had people tell me that our oldest was too young. She was 11 and I was on the other side of the planet. I wanted a way for her to talk to me about things that she might not be comfortable talking to her dad about. It worked for our family. If you are still pondering this and wondering the specifics of how the Stevensons go about this, here is what our family decided.

Our kids don't go on our plan. We started with a "pay as you go phone" and she had to use her own money to buy minutes. The phone was $50 and she got it as a Christmas gift. If she loses it or has to upgrade it, it's on her. I like the "pay as you go" plan because when you use up your texts...they are gone. We figured out that it was cheaper to get the cheapest plan from Tracfone so she has a month to month plan. It is $16 with tax and seems to serve her well since she is mostly on WiFi. She has her own debit card and she pays for it herself by babysitting and Christmas/birthday money.

Best wishes as you decide this for your family!