How many people here have a $740 cellphone bill, my friend's 14 year old kid does.

[texanwitch]

The kid is in big trouble.

His father gave him the phone.

My friend took away the phone.

The kid is pissed.

I am glad I do not have kids.

[Lex]

1. Who hands a 14 year old a cell phone without restricting

the minutes and downloads and texts? Verizon at least makes it pretty easy to set up a kid phone with restrictive use.

[texanwitch]

2. A really stupid person.

My bill is $50 a month, and I think that is to much.

[Lex]

6. Yeah, I agree.

I use one for work (self-employed) and my bill is about $120 for 2 phones.

I looked into getting one for my nephew (13 years old) and the Verizon guy showed me how it could be set up with all kinds minute restrictions per month, downloads restricted, and only so many texts per month. Anyway, I ended passing on getting my nephew one but I was glad to see that they offered that plan for kid phones.

[DeepBlueC]

3. the kid is pissed

That part would have driven me right over the edge. :grr:

[texanwitch]

8. I could hear the kid in the background throwing a hissy.

He is the only boy, Dad gives him everything he wants.

The kid knows it.

[Initech]

4. I took an overseas trip last month and didnt rack up a $740 cell phone bill.

[bluesbassman]

5. Kids are kids. They don't know any better if you don't lay it out for them.

My kids have had cells for years and have never run up huge bills because I made it clear to them how I expected them to use their phones. I guess I'm lucky that they listen to me (sometimes :) ).

[texanwitch]

7. This kid is a brat, the only boy.

He is also the youngest, second marriage.

Dad will now have to pay the bill.

My friend said Dad will take his lunch to work, no more eating out for awhile.

[Dappleganger]

16. We made up contracts and haven't had problems.

But then again they know that we check the numbers online as well as texts. They pay extra for their texts which are NOT unlimited, so they know they'll have to pay if it goes over. We made up contracts spelling out the rules and expectations with not just the cell phone, but with using the internet here at home as well as driving (for the older teens).

I love my kids but they are still kids and know that it's always tempting to be foolish, especially in the wrong company.

[hibbing]

9. rip off

Hi,
Not being a parent hard to criticize, but those companies nickel and dime you to death. In this day and age though, I would have thought parents would know kids are texting like crazy.

Peace

[texanwitch]

11. A large part of the bill was texting but not all of it.

The rest was phone calls, the kind that cost per minute.

The kid is 14.

[hibbing]

13. okay

Hi,
Okay, well, think some investigation should have been done beforehand. Perhaps the parents didn't have cells? There was a story the other day about some girl sending out a gazillion texts in a month when she didn't have unlimited texting, ouch! Good golly the bills those companies send out are ridiculous.

Peace

[texanwitch]

14. I remember that story.

I would think that story would scare a lot parents.

I don't get the whole texting thing, I don't even like talking on the phone.

[LibDemAlways]

10. When my daughter first got a cell phone two years ago we

signed her up for a plan that allowed limited free texting which I thought would be adequate. No one at T-Mobile explained to us that texts she received would count against the total. By two weeks later she was a hundred texts over the limit because of all her friends texting her. I immediately called T-Mobile and they were very nice about it. They erased the charges for those texts and switched us to a plan that allowed more texting for an extra $5.00 a month.

There's no reason at all for a $740.00 cellphone bill. Somebody isn't paying close enough attention to what the kid is doing, and the kid apparently doesn't understand the limitations of the plan.

[texanwitch]

12. The kid is brat.

His sister is a great kid.

Thanks for the info about texts, I will pass it along.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. My older boy fell in love with a girl from Greece...

He stayed in touch over the internet mostly. Then one day he asked how much it would cost to call Greece. I suggested he make a 15 minute phone call to find out...It wasn't like 15 minutes would break the bank.

So he called her...but he didn't just call once; and he didn't always limit himself to 15 minutes. And I didn't have an international rate at the time, so it cost $1/minute. Picture my face when I opened the bill for $2000, yes that's two-thousand dollars.

Fortunately, when I called to find out how he could pay the bill in installments, the young lady took pity on me. She put us on an international plan at 10 cents/minute, retroactive to the month we got the horrific bill.

[elleng]

17. AH, the new world!

I have 2 'kids.' NOt so young. Have learned: the companies have ways to avoid such catastrophes; like verizon has way to avoid most texting charges, and others. Friend should call the company, and ask if there are ways to avoid such bills (short of throwing the phone or the kid into the lake!)