Cell phone plans and policies

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Cell phone plans and policies
5
Tue, 08-22-2006 - 11:41am

my 14 yr old dd is using the phone more than ever before...we've had a family plan for a while since she had to take a bus to middle school but she never used the phone as much as she's starting to now -

my husband is the only one that uses the phone with great frequency for work... and he's always worried about whether we will go over on the plan each month - (it hasn't happened yet)

anyway - i was just curious how others handle this in their families...do your kids have their own plans or are they part of the family plan? do they pay for their own phones and if so how.... at 14 she's not old enough to have a proper job... she babysits occasionally but doesn't make enough to fund a phone plan...

is one phone plan better than another... we have t-mobile and my early research shows it to be the least expensive one out there now

thanks for any tips you can pass on ...

rachel

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2006
Tue, 08-22-2006 - 1:28pm

Hi Rachel,

For what it's worth - I have a family plan through SunCom, and am allowed a total of 1,000 minutes per month. Of that total, my dd(14) gets 300 minutes and I get 700 minutes. If she goes over her 300 minutes (even if I have not used all of my 700 minutes) she has to pay for the calls. Since both my kids receive an allowance, this amount (if any) would be deducted from that.

Amelia

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
Tue, 08-22-2006 - 4:44pm

We have a Cingular plan for 4 of us--my DH & I, his DD & my DD (both teens). It has free nights & weekends plus I think 1000 mins. a month. We had such a problem about 2 yrs. ago when my SD suddenly started calling who knows how many people and went way over the minds. Either my DH didn't notice or the bill didn't come in the mail (or she might have been taking the bill) but it cost us a lot! I don't even know what she was thinking because she was making the calls when she was at home, so she could have used the house phone for free. If it was me, I would have made her get a job and pay for the bill cause the grocery store would hire a 15 year old. This escalated into a lot of other problems and she ended up not having the phone for the whole summer. So when she started back into school last year, he gave her a choice--either don't go over the minutes or we'll get you a pre-paid phone and you will hardly ever be able to talk at all. So she hasn't gone over since and now we probably have 12,000 roll over minutes. Not she just talks at 1:00 a.m. when she's supposed to be asleep!

I guess that w/ a 14 yr. old, I would stress to her that if she goes over, there will be some consequences like taking the phone away or doing extra chores. I would make a big deal if it's a couple of $$, but you would want to avoid a situation like we had, so w/ most, you can check the minutes remaining as the month goes on. Either that, or you could get a pay as you go plan, but w/ those, since you're not paying a monthly fee, the per minute costs are more.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2004
Tue, 08-22-2006 - 4:57pm
Do you have unlimited high speed internet? If yes, get a cheap "head set" and a Yahoo account (free). Your DD can call her friends free,using voice-over. My DD talks to England for a hour each day,for no extra $$ Simple and cheap. No long distance phone bills.
Avatar for momtb4
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 08-22-2006 - 7:42pm

she's 14, WHY does she have a phone?? I know, you have a very legitimate reason. I'm gonna guess that it's so YOU and Dad can get a hold of her, not so she can talk to every Tom, Dick And Harry and all their sisters as much as she wants. Redefine the reason she is allowed to have the phone, Redefine the phone usage rules. Be prepared to have to take her phone away from her if she can't use it in a way that you all agree on. It's one thing to call a friend really quick and let them know she's running late, or not gonna meet them at the mall or whatever. It's something else all together to be laying on her bed, talking on the cell phone, or just randomly chit chatting about nothing.

I wonder, though, if your t-mobile plan has free mobile to mobile calling?? I can call anyone else that has Cingular for free and talk as long as I want. (my dad has Verizon and has the same deal)

Or, look around your local area and see if you have an all inclusive kind of plan, if you want her to just use the phone however she wants. My son has Cricket. He pays about $25 a month for unlimited calling. Then, he can add unlimited text messaging, long distance and a lot of other features of $5 each a month. I think SunCom that someone else mentioned is like that, although I don't know that for sure. Can't hurt to look around.

And, if she is gonna put you over your monthly minutes, her baby sitting money is gonna have to pay for that. Or, she can do extra icky jobs around the house to pay for it, like mowing the lawn, cleaning out the garage, scrubbing the kitchen floor, whatever you can think of that is way above normal chores.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2006
Wed, 08-23-2006 - 4:05pm

DD had a prepaid cingular phone for 3 years. After the first 2 years of keeping up with her phone and not wasting minutes we got her a fancy camera phone for her bday, she lost it (or had it stolen) 2 times. 6 months later we felt like maybe she learned the hard way and would keep up with it, so, we got her a razor phone for Christmas. She lost it on a ride at an amusement park, and they located it and mailed it. She was very relieved and felt she had learned, again. Then she lost it at school and it was not recovered. She she went all summer without a phone (I know some of you may think thats not long enough...and its probably not)
Since she will be riding the bus to school I needed her to have a phone to call me when her bus was near so I could know when to pick her up without either of us having to wait. So I got her another cheaper phone, with somewhat cheaper prepaid minutes. That phone (from Virgin Mobile)malfunctioned 2 times in one month! And I only had 90 days "warranty" on it. So we took it back and got our money back.
NOW, she has a Sprint phone with insurance on damage, or lost or stolen phone. She is on my plan and we share minutes and have mobile to mobile for free. It seems to be the cheapest route for us. We haven't had a bill yet. So we will see.
amy