I hear ya - it took me a while to get on the 'cell phone' bandwagon .., but with field trips and outings for business I felt I needed one to call 911 in an emergency and contact parents in an emergency and so forth.

I started with your basic 'free phone' ... it was not a 'smart phone' but it had a camera and music option with it and than I had the bare bones package with Rogers cause we 'bundle' and have our internet and cable with them so the 3rd bundle got us an additional 10% off our bill ... it had unlimited 'incoming' anytime minutes so people could call ME and it did not cost me anything and I had 500 outgoing minutes and long distance was 'extra' cause I did not want a long distance bundle and I would not be using it 'long distance' - it had no texting option or data plan or anything 'extra' but I did upgrade to the add on package that gave me caller ID and Call answer and Call forward so if I was busy parents could leave a message on it - never used the call forward but the 3 came together in the bundle ... I barely used that phone at all it was a glorified MP3 player cause the photos on it were not great quality.

However do not be deceived by the $25 bundle price ... cause by the time you added the HST, the government regulatory fee, and all the other 'charges' and so forth the $25 bare bones cell package with the $8 ID package added cost me $45 and change monthly

This past Xmas I upgraded because they had a friends and family deal going on - I upgraded my old phone to an Iphone for $50 and my spouse got a FREE LG smartphone and my stepson got my old phone ... we each have the MY 10 package which gives us each 10 numbers within Canada that we can call / text calls from unlimited plus free between our three phones and we share 400 daytime minutes for other numbers plus unlimited evening and weekend minutes than we shared 2 GB of data plan for surfing online and so forth.

I did not get any 'service package' with the plan like call answer or ID because with the Smartphones if you program your contact list with the names and numbers of everyone you know it shows you for FREE ... the only time it shows up unknown if it is someone calling who is not in your contact list in which case I generally just do not answer it - if it is someone who KNOWS me they will text me instead

Our contract for the 3 phones with the My 10 package costs us by the time you add the regulatory fees and taxes it costs us $115 a month!

My new phone can now do so much more than it did before which I love

First the photos are high quality and it will take awesome VIDEO as well - so it replaces carrying a camera around for my documentation of the program.

The Iphone easily uploads my music from I Tunes in SECONDS - unlike the old phone which was slow .... so we have a much larger selection of children's music for at the parks and grooving to on walks ... it is way more friendly for creating playlists and so forth so we do not accidentally get some 'adult music'

I can now email photos to clients while we are 'out and about' if desired instead of waiting until nap time and having to upload to the computer and than email them - which is handy specially with a 'newbie' to say 'hey I know you must be missing him so just wanted you to see he is having fun at the park'!

Plus the 'contact list' has more options so that I can store ALL their emergency contact info - parents numbers, child's health card number and Dr, Dentist, Emergency contacts and so forth on the PHONE so I do not have to carry the forms around with me anymore which is a huge convenience.

It was definitely worth the investment ... and I too rarely use the cell phone for personal use - and to be honest my spouse only uses it for 'emergency' calls like I am going to be late do not worry .... we never go anywhere near our 'max' usage of either minutes or data!