cell phone problems again

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
cell phone problems again
14
Fri, 06-15-2007 - 3:48pm

I just looked at the cell phone bill for this month, which I pay online, and it was really high. Last month my DH charges an extra $30 by calling 411 so I thought he was up to that again. But it turns out that my DSD charged an extra $80 for text messaging. I didn't even know she had texting because he had cancelled it on her phone a while ago.

This really burns me up for 2 reasons. Back at Christmas time my DD's present was a new camera phone. She had been asking me for so long to add texting. Since the phone bill is in DH's name, he thinks he is in charge of the phone when in reality, we pay it from our joint acct., so I don't know why he feels he has to give permission. Anyway, when we were getting the phone, I asked him if DD could have texting, which is only $5 a month for 200 texts and she said she would pay for it, so I don't know what the big deal was. She is 18 and has always been very responsible w/ the phone, never going over her minutes. He finally said yes and that we would even pay for it. Since then, she has never gone over 200 texts, even though there is no way for her to check the number, since he will not allow her to look at the bill online, which is the only way to check it (I don't know what the big secret is there either.)

So apparently somehow DSD (17) must have the same deal all of a sudden, although he didn't tell me, but this month she used 900! texts because the 1st 200 are free. I see she is even doing this during school hours. She has a history of not being responsible w/ her phone. A couple of years ago, it costs us hundreds of $$$ extra for her talking before the free time which starts at 9:00. I will tell DH and be anxious to see what he does about this. If it was up to me, I would def. make her pay for it since she has a job. She never had to pay for the overcharges before. This same girl just caused $900 in damage to DH's car, which she claimed she didn't know how this happened. She was sleeping over a friend's house and she claims she came out and the tires were flat. Considering that the tail pipe was also broken (which is why is was so expensive), it seems more like she hit a pothole very hard. Even though DH was very suspicious, he didn't really pursue it, so we got the shaft.

I guess I am really burned up because every time I do anything for my DD, he will say "how much did that cost?" Not that he tells me to take it back, but I feel like I have to justify every purchase. If he buys clothes or something for his DD, I never ask how much it costs.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
Wed, 06-20-2007 - 10:48am

I would be so thrilled if our cell phone bill was only $100 a month. It's normally about $175 but this month it was closer to $275. What happened was that when we joined all 4 of our phones to one acct., we got 1000 shared minutes. Well, after DSD finally understood not to make calls before 9:00 p.m. when we had the free minutes, we hardly ever use any daytime minutes anyway. DH & I will call each other, but calls between any cell phone users who have the same company (not just the family) are free, so we could probably go down to fewer minutes a month and save money.

Then we run into the problem that many times I will call and because the phone is in DH's name, they won't talk to me, even though I'm the wife and I know the on-line password and his ssn and I call and tell them I am looking at the bill right now. DH has to be prodded to do anything because he has memory loss, so it should really be in my name. He finally had to give me the password (nice of him, don't you think, since I'm only his wife) so I could pay the bill on line because he was always forgetting and then our phones would be shut off.

Avatar for weberdns0
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2000
Wed, 06-20-2007 - 11:31am
With our tracfone we pay $100 for 250 minutes and you can carry over any left over minutes!
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-14-2006
Wed, 06-27-2007 - 1:51pm
It sounds like you have a blended family. That can always be a source of stress. It sounds like it is a little rough since you have "his daughter" and "my daughter" issues. It would seem fair for your DSD to pay the overage, but, if I were you, I would try hard to not be the heavy. She'd just resent you more. I'd opt to let him handle it as her dad.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-1999
Wed, 06-27-2007 - 2:37pm
That's why I told him about it, so he could deal w/ it. But of course, I'm the one who is actually reasonable. He's much rougher on her than I am.

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