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

[DiverBeth]

My oldest son is on my family plan and I told him feel free to use his phone as much as he wants so long as the monthly bills are reasonable. I've been using my cell phone less and less and he's a good kid so there's been no problem.

My younger son got his phone from the ex. Who went and changed cell companies so calls between the kids are no longer free which the ex complains about all the time. I've offered to get another phone on my plan for younger son but ex says no because then can't take away the phone as a punishment.

I guess I'm lucky.

 

[fairybasslet]

Blackberries ARE cell phones, and I wasn't speaking to whether that plan was right for anyone but simply that it is available, in response to your claim otherwise.

I paid $29.95 for my Blackberry on Amazon after all the rebates, how much did you pay for your "cellphone"?

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

Ahh - teenagers and cellphones.

Both my daughters have learned the hard way to monitor their usage - they are both responsible for any charges over the basic $9.99 their add on lines costs. And without any of the special deals they've paid some pretty hefty bills for text messages, ring tone downloads, AOL IM'ing and sending pictures. Why can't they just talk to each other?

The youngest has since added and pays $19.99 for 3000 text messages a month. I just checked the latest bill - she seems to be cutting back from a high of 2457 over Christmas break to only 1875 this past billing period.

Marc

 

[fairybasslet]

The youngest has since added and pays $19.99 for 3000 text messages a month. I just checked the latest bill - she seems to be cutting back from a high of 2457 over Christmas break to only 1875 this past billing period.

Marc

OMG I will never complain about my kid again. She leaves him in the dust.

 

[fairybasslet]

I was just talking to a friend of mine. Her teen-aged boy (I think he's 13 or 14) racked over $300 in TMs. Over 3,000 TMs. She is livid!!! She got her carrier to forgive half of them if she switched to unlimited TMs.

I warned her, but she thought, as so many of us do "Not my kid."

 

[Cacia]

says no because then can't take away the phone as a punishment.

yea, I have that issue with my children's father. There is NO punishment. Parenting becomes pretty tricky, dealing with daddy-war-bucks.

If I had it to do over again, I would not be so indulgent with my children. They would have pre-paid minutes only and the gps chip implanted behind their earlobes.

 

[dive_lover88]

500 tms? thats a joke...:lol:
I have friends averaging 2.5k-5k worth of tms a mth.

Mine is about 800 amth...

oh btw, i dont have to pay the bill

:lol:

VM...whats that?? never used it before. Always gets on my parents nerves when i dont reply their VM.

 

[fairybasslet]

500 tms? thats a joke...:lol:
I have friends averaging 2.5k-5k worth of tms a mth.

Mine is about 800 amth...

oh btw, i dont have to pay the bill

:lol:

VM...whats that?? never used it before. Always gets on my parents nerves when i dont reply their VM.

Rotten spoiled kid. You're grounded. And...I'm disconnecting your cell. So there.

 

[drbill]

I have yet to enter the cell phone era since I haven't activated the one my sisters bought mne for Christmas. Will probably do that tomorrow.

Why not get a pay-as-you go phone for a teenager. They get so many $$$ of service per month. If they go over that, they're stuck til next month. Of course that could affect its use in emergencies when they need to contact you. Or just make them pay their bill like my sisters do.