Teenagers & text msg.

[a70eliminator]

Wife got my daughter a pay as you go phone with a $50.00 credit as a gift and OMG as of today she's used it all up! I now found out she's been texting and thats what ate up the credit, something like 20cents a line for each text.

Can anyone here recommend a decent plan, something unlimited, even if I have to go with some type of family plan, my wife and I and two teenage daughters so we each can have a phone. My land line costs about $50.00 month and I think I could just get rid of it.

At the least could you just me what your monthly cost are so i have something to compare, I'm not up at all on the wireless community, but AT&T is who we got the phone through.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

Ayuh,...

I don't have any Real answers for you,.. My phone is company supplied...
But,...
My Love got phones for her 2 teens, Last christmas...
The boy still has his,...
The girl lost hers after the 2nd $300.00Plus monthly statement....
Ayuh,.. It was All Texting fees...
The little wench even has the audacity to Borrow someone else's phone to text on...
We had to confront her about it to get the $20.00Plus she texted away on the company secretary's phone....

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

Let your daughter pay for the texting,that worked for me,we also put them on my business account with nextel for the free incomming calls

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

OMG Bondo! Thats it I'm done NADA 0 ZILCH!!

No just kidding but really I would kill her!


It's tough for the 13yr old to pay anything being She's to young to have a job, and anything she gets from mama for doing chores ultimatly comes from my wallet.

I don't know how parents can afford it, She says all my friends have phones, and they do too it seems there screwed right to their little heads.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

Hey it adds up quick. I had a co-worker whose lovely 13 yo racked up $1300 in texting ......... that ended quickly.

Best texting plan for a teenager is NO TEXTING PLAN.

 

[QC]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

We have a Verizon Family plan, runs about 240/mo. That's for 4 phones, Mom plus 3 kids, 13, 15 and 20 (mine is separate company supplied). They all have unlimited Txts (Mrs. too), the oldest has a Blackberry, and that includes his separate email and Internet use. It's called the Family Plan or something. I suggest unlimited txtng, and limited minutes, Verizon has been very honest about suggesting plans that will be better for us after reviewing a bill with us. You have to ask, but it was worth a few minutes.

Ultimately I think txtng is cheaper, they don't simply stay on the phone although it is always glued to them. You can get quick notes to from the kids wherever you are, share info, even pics etc. So I think it is pretty much a good thing.

The plan also includes something for the phones, but I have no idea what portion of the contract that is. Also, we add insurance. That's around $5 month per phone, and there is a $50 deductible, so once we reach a point in the contract that a replacement phone would be less than $50, I cancel the insurance. I re-up when we "upgrade" to a new phone. I have replaced 3 phones under the insurance. $50, we have it in two days, all done on the net, no questions asked. Most typical issue is water damage . . .

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

you bought her the pay as you go phone. that's plenty. Let her Pay as she goes, even if its with her allowance. There is no way she will ever learn to budget and be responsible, until she can see where her dollars go. you give her $5 allowance and she will figure out how fast that goes away at 20 cents per text.

Thats the problem with kids these days. Parents giving them too much. Due to people still feeling bad about not getting a tricycle from Santa when they were 8 years old They are teaching their kids that Mommy and daddy will always be there wallet in hand to bail them out.

when I was growing up it was food, shelter and 3 changes of clothes at Sears in the fall and in the spring. Anything else and it was on my dime. It sucks and they wont be the coolest kid on the block but it will teach them some real life lessons.

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

AT&T, like all others, has unlimited text plans for about $30.00. I never used to text, so I didn't have this plan. All my friends would send me text messages and my daughter, being on my plan is a speed texter, so I finally gave in and added it to our plan.

What do ya know, after adding unlimited text to our plan, my bill went down. Now, I send about 50 text messages a day. It comes in handy when you have something to say but, do not want to go through having a phone conversation with someone.

Look at it like this; before email, how often did you write letters to the people you know? Since email has become so popular, how has this changed?

Give in, buy the Unlimited plan and learn to text just like you learned to post on chat forums like this one. Everyone will benefit from your move...

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

HOLY CRA** BATMAN and it just keeps getting better!

I'll be showing this thread to my wife so keep it comming please

Good or bad (keep it clean though)

I'm not totally against the idea yet.


Thanks, we will be going back to the AT&T office.

 

[QC]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

What Unregistered Man said, txtng is their method of this Forum, PMs and IMs . . .

Budgeting is also an important lesson, there are other avenues for that and instant commnication is part of life and business these days, so I embrace it.

 

[oops!]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

uh.....what are you guys talking about?

the plans must be soooooo different in the states.......we text up here cause its cheap.......5 bux.....unlimited text messaging....thats incoming and out going.

its our calling thats expencive......

years ago my business cell phone was getting as high as 1200 dollars a month. i pitched that out and got a pay as you go phone.......it costs 45 dollars a month for somthing called unlimited 45.....

free early evenings and weekends, free in coming calls, free- my space and unlimited text......thats for 30 days....

up here in canada we were under the assumption that the states had far better plans than we do.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

OMG Bondo! Thats it I'm done NADA 0 ZILCH!!

No just kidding but really I would kill her!


It's tough for the 13yr old to pay anything being She's to young to have a job, and anything she gets from mama for doing chores ultimatly comes from my wallet.

I don't know how parents can afford it, She says all my friends have phones, and they do too it seems there screwed right to their little heads.

if she is too young to earn any income, she is too young to have an expensive item. BTW at 13 I was mowing yards, shoveling snow, babysitting and snapping up any side job that came my way. I learned early on that $1 a week was not going to buy me that (insert useless item here ) and the only way to get it was to earn it.

P.S. I have always maintained a job since I was 15 and since moving out of my parents house at the age of 19 (13 years ago) have only borrowed $20 from my Pops and that was paid back within a week.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

Your right, it seems like those days are long gone though.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

My wife added unlimited texting to our cell phones for about $10 a month. I don't text, but she gets lots of texts from her sisters and nieces/nephiews, so its worth it.

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

One more thing...

The pay as you go plans can be very expensive ways to go. While it does not look like much up front, unless you limit your teens use, IE take the phone away during the day, and only let them have it for a few hours at night.. It will not work out to your favor.

You can take the pre-paid phone to you local AT&T store and have them add it to your plan. We have a family plan that has only 500 minutes a month, but unlimited mobile to mobile, texting, and free nights and weekends. Nearly everyone I know uses AT&T, so 90% of our calls are free mobile to mobile. Even only having 500 minutes, most months we have roll-over minutes that keep adding up.

With all the texting my family does, very few minutes get used in the first place. While not all of our friends have AT&T, mostly my daughters friends, using text is the cheap way to contact them since we have unlimited text anyways.

Now the security of it...

I don't know how old your daughter is but, if young enough to be needed. I would have no problem taking the phone and checking to see who is being contacted. Things can get out of hand in a real hurry if your child can not be trusted. Hopefully she can, or you would have not given her a phone. Another great thing about AT&T is you can view these calls online by going to your account and opening the expanded view. Use the contact list tool to keep track of the numbers and then you will see the person's name instead of just a phone number.

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

I can't figure why text when you can callit might be I am a very slow typist and a faster talker

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

I can't figure why text when you can callit might be I am a very slow typist and a faster talker

I fell your pain...

When texting became so popular, I would get messages that I could not even read. People would use initials for words instead of typing them out. I would spend hours a day googleing abbreviations just to figure our what was said. I still have to do this from time to time.

With the advent of QWERTY keys on many of todays phones this has slowed down the abbreviations but, has not stopped them. So I still rely on the Urban Dictionary and other sites to understand some texts and even some posts on this and the many other forums I frequent.

 

[projecthog]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

EagleJim,

You'd be surprised how fast you get to like the texting, and how fast you get to text without even looking!
BTDT, 'till they told me that I was going to have to pay $50 for 500 lines, that's incoming AND out going, after having unlimited for $5????? (I am on an international plan,) Not a chance... (That was with Rogers up here.)

I lost my composure, killed the texting and am now going to have to find a better deal from someone else, AT&T or Bell most likely, .....but texting is one heck of a convenient way to get the point across without having to listen to the tonal inferences from your superiors or your kids

My kids are all gone, but that doesn't stop 'em from calling, and more so with texting, God bless 'em. lol.

PH.

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

BTDT, '

PH.

Feeling silly now, or maybe it was a brainfart. I had to look up BTDT...

 

[projecthog]

Re: Teenagers & text msg.

Did that on purpose