July 26, 2006Recipe for Disaster: Take One Cell Plan, Add One Teen and…
My daughter is on my cell plan, and one month she went over by $500. She says she can’t afford to pay me now, but will in the fall. In the meantime, she is now going over by smaller amounts. I don’t want to cut her off because she is out of state and I think it is important for her to have cell access, but I also want her to be responsible for her actions. How shall I address her?
Meryl Responds
Set the conditions for her to continue on the plan, and if she does not abide by them, consider it her choice to be cut from it. Say,
You have (50) minutes left to talk this month. Not 52 minutes and not 51. I will continue the service as long as you do not go over that limit and stick to your agreed-upon repayment plan. If you go one minute over I will take you off my service. I hope that does not happen, but the choice is yours.
If you don’t mean what you say, she holds all the power because she knows you won’t take her off. If you do mean what you say, you hold all the power and she will face the consequences of her own actions if she doesn’t respect your conditions.
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She can also buy her a prepaid phone each month instead and going over the limit would not be an issue. It would teach her how to manage her time better when using the phone.
Comment by theresa — July 26, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
BUY HER A TRACFONE - YOU CAN LIMIT THE NUMBER OF MINUTES YOU BUY AND ADD MINUTES EACH MONTH OR WHAT EVER YOU AGREE ON. THIS WAY SHE WILL STILL HAVE ACCESS TO A PHONE BUT YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE AMOUNT OF MINUTES YOU WANT TO. IF SHE WANTS MORE PHONE TIME, SHE WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR IT HERSELF
Comment by MPODZIMEK — July 26, 2006 @ 4:12 pm
The two above responses are great and go hand-n-hand with Meryl’s. As I see it, they give both parties the power and are held responsible for their own actions. I think the plan holder’s reason for not wanting to cut the daughter off, “…because she is out of state…”, is based on the fear something might and/or could happen, and by cutting the daughter off, will leaves her no way to call for help. If this is the case, hopefully the plan holder can rest easier knowing that all cell phones, regardless of having an act plan or not, have the ability to call 911.
To me it’s amazing how many people don’t know this. Once I found this out, I did two things. First was to give each of parents one of my old cell phones and second was to incorporate it into my women self-dense classes/lectures. There are my different people (both children and adults) that can benefit from this feature, so please find an organization to donate your used cell phones to.
Comment by Randel — July 27, 2006 @ 11:59 am
Don’t forget that there are also phone cards. I have a very inexpensive card (3.5 cents a minute) that I picked up at Sams club. I keep it with my cell phone and when my minutes are getting close to the maximum, I switch to the phone card. If the daughter looses her cell phone privileges and the mom wants to give her a second chance…she might consider giving her a phone card for long distance and she will have to use her home phone for local calls. (When you have to wait until you get home to make a call, you are less likely to make unneccessary calls.)
Comment by Sharon — July 28, 2006 @ 11:12 am