Anatomy of a cell phone bill (with a teenager on the plan)

[fairybasslet]

# of pages with my activity: 2
# of pages with my teen's activity: 21
# of my text messages: 12
# of my teen's TM's: 493.

TG for unlimited TM plans. They are now 15 cents each.:11: Oh, and rollover minutes, they come in handy too.

 

[alcina]

Do you have your teen pay?

We didn't, then we did...we found that they didn't have a clue about real world costs, even though we'd discussed it with them repeatedly (especially at bill time) and by having THEM pay for their phone use, they seem to have learned a few things We now help out with the bills, but don't pay the whole thing. It's become part of their budgeting plan.

It's taken a while, but one is 15 and one is 19.

 

[justleesa]

Yikes....scarey....

 

[Green_Manelishi]

# of pages with my activity: 2
# of pages with my teen's activity: 21
# of my text messages: 12
# of my teen's TM's: 493.

TG for unlimited TM plans. They are now 15 cents each.:11: Oh, and rollover minutes, they come in handy too.

How many of the teens pages and text messages are anything other than idle, mindless chatter that costs $$$?

 

[fairybasslet]

How many of the teens pages and text messages are anything other than idle, mindless chatter that costs $$$?

Everything except when I call or TM him. Of course, he would probably disagree.

Well, to tell the truth, he doesn't pay his portion of the bill because his is only about $20 a month. My plan is the larger chunk believe it or not. I have unlimited minutes and rollover minutes. I may not make a lot of calls but they are longer. It is amazing because looking at his calls, none of them are longer than 2 minutes. The cell phone bill remains the same month after month regardless of the number of calls or TMs.
However, I have disabled his ability to access the internet from his phone and he had to pay me back for all the ring tones and games he downloaded. So warning to those with teens who want cell phones: DISABLE INTERNET ACCESS!! There is not a bundled plan for that and that is what really adds up on the bill.

Just so you don't think he is a total slacker, he has a job and does pay for his own car insurance, gas,maintenace repairs, etc. He pays for more things than a lot of other kids in our town.

 

[OHGoDive]

Don't you wish the bill showed the actual text from the text messages?

Oh what fun that would be! :furious:

 

[justleesa]

My daughter is 18, is still in school/apprenticeship, has her own place and pays for everything....when she went on her own it was a reality check, but a real lesson learned.

 

[fairybasslet]

My daughter is 18, is still in school/apprenticeship, has her own place and pays for everything....when she went on her own it was a reality check, but a real lesson learned.

Wow. that is incredible!! Good for her (and you too). Generally speaking, girls usually do mature faster than boys. I hope my son is a quicker grower upper.

 

[fairybasslet]

Don't you wish the bill showed the actual text from the text messages?

Oh what fun that would be! :furious:

I probably wouldn't be able to undersand them anyway. I can't read TM.

 

[justleesa]

Wow. that is incredible!! Good for her (and you too). Generally speaking, girls usually do mature faster than boys. I hope my son is a quicker grower upper.

Notice I didn't mention my son....