Greetings my friends...
well i personally think that "catch up with pp for xp" is crap 

you could always #level and #setskill to help them out... 
if you want it to be more interesting let them do some special quests/tasks which grant them "bonus" xp ... or something like that...
buying levels isnt a good idea... 
but thats just my 2cp 
 
fare thee well
polydeukes
btw: who said that all chars need to be same level to have fun?