Army of Mom

So this is how liberty dies ... with thunderous applause.

11.28.2007

Help requested from Cingular customers

Hey folks, I'm contemplating getting a phone for the 13-year-old for Christmas. I bought a Go-Phone pay as you go thing, but after reading all the fine print, I'm thinking it might be cheaper just to add a line to our family plan and increase the minutes/texting.

Anyone have any experiences with the Go Phone or with adding a teen to their plans?

Many thanks.

posted by Army of Mom @ 4:44 PM  

7 Comments:

  • At 4:49 PM, November 28, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I did a go phone, but it was cheaper to buy a plan from Metro PCS . They have unlimited calls and text. MOT

     

  • At 5:07 PM, November 28, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    AoM,

    We have had 2 teens (1 still on) our plan, for us it was cheaper to go to the family plan. It really depends on the child's ability to budget minutes. We've used this as a learning tool with both kids, they only get X number of minutes a month. I go over the bill each month and they loose privileges if they've not managed it well.

    One lost the phone multiple times, the other hasn't yet.

     

  • At 8:43 PM, November 28, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    We have the Cingular/ATT Family plan. We have five phones on our plan now, four are ours and one is my mom's. One of the phones is our teen's. He pays for his own service, which is about $20 a month on our plan. His part includes insurance for lost/broken/damaged phone, and 200 text messages. He has had to replace the phone once already and has only been on our plan for 3 months. But that's why we made him pay for insurance. It is a heck of a lot cheaper to put him on our plan than if he tried to do it on his own or do the go-phone thing. And if you pay for the insurance, you don't have to worry about lost/damaged phones, they are easily and very quickly replaced.

    As for minutes usage, our plan includes 550 anytime minutes that we share and unlimited nights/weekends. We have yet to use up our 550 and in fact have a ton of them leftover on our rollover, like 2700 minutes. So we aren't having trouble running out of minutes, either, even though we have a teen using a phone. A lot of his friends (not all of them) are on Cingular too and those calls are free (Cingular-to-Cingular calls don't cost anything).

    When the next teenager gets old enough, she'll go on the plan too.

     

  • At 8:47 PM, November 28, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    for the cingular family plan, adding a phone is 9.99 a month, unlimited texting is 19.99, insurance plan is 4.99, only $35 a month plus taxes, we never have an issue with going over minutes or text messages (he texts on average 2,000 a month), they text more than talk (mine does anyway), I have many friends that spend way too much time monitoring their minutes and texts and their kids are grounded or paying off a phone bill that is as much as the mortgage and one or two months of going over minutes can cost $300 - $400 or much much more when a year at $35 a month is $420, do the math, if you are making the decision to get them a phone, give them a plan that makes sense moneywise for you, and you are the hero/cool mom for giving unlimited texting and minutes (it's ok to be cool and he doesn't have to know it's for budgeting purposes). You may have to up your minutes/plan though, monitor your usage for a month or two and adjust it as necessary. My kid has to pay for a lost/broke phone, and he has to have the money in the bank at all times to cover it as soon as it is lost.

     

  • At 9:17 AM, November 29, 2007, Blogger Gadfly said…

    I have a cell phone


    Kicking and screaming have I been dragged, finally, into the latter half of the latter half of the 20th century.

    Although it has a camera and some blue toof. That's 21st century stuff.

     

  • At 9:49 AM, November 29, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    (from a dad of 4 with the att/cingular family plan)

    The 19.99 unlimited texts covers EVERY LINE IN THE FAMILY. my wife does not text, and I rarely. therefore we purchased the 4.99 add on per kids line (3 have phones) now when the next one gets a phone ,several years from now, I will transition to the family unlimited texting.

    We have something like 1500 minutes to use amongst all 5 phones, but have not exceeded it, because calls between the family members are free, and do not charge minutes. Calls after 7pm (IIRC) and on weekends are gratis as well.
    We also have rollover with a ton of minutes available.

    My biggest concern was making the kids understand that ringtones, "premium" texts etc that will cost regardless of plan/minutes/unl text.

    HTH
    Rob

     

  • At 1:28 PM, November 29, 2007, Blogger Kelly said…

    I'm no where near needing to figure this out for my kid, but I read an excellent review of Kajeet by my friend Vicki. Here you go:

    http://www.vickiforman.com/?p=776

     

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