Texting the dollars away
I bought my son a pay-as-you-go cell phone almost a year ago (because I wanted to be able to contact him occasionally while he was with his dad, and I figured it would come in handy at other times too.) What I didn’t figure on was just how prevalent cell phone use is among young teenagers. He was barely 13 at the time, but he was by no means one of the first to get a cell phone. And this year it seems like most of the kids in his grade have cells.
It’s not as if he goes to a school where most of the kids’ parents are well off either. According to schoolfolks.com, 54.10 percent of the students at his school receive a free lunch, and another 8.72 percent receive a reduced-rate lunch, bringing the combined total to almost 63%.
It seems like the kids spend their time texting each other. Maybe it’s just me, but I sort of wince whenever I get a text message (especially if it’s just “hi”) because when I send or receive a text message it’s 15 cents a pop. That can really add up. At least my son’s plan is about 2.5 cents a message, but still, with the rate that the kids text each other he’ll spend more in a single day than I would in a week. He’s paying for his text messages himself, since him texting his friends was not the purpose of the phone. He asked me tonight if he could change to the plan that’s not quite a penny per text message, and I said no for now. Of course it’s a better deal if you send a lot of messages, but I asked him to work at staying under the 200 message per month limit instead.
I’m questioning myself a little now in regard to having gotten him a phone, and more so in letting him sign up for a text message plan. I wonder if it’s not contributing to the idea that you work in order to maintain personal belongings, or that a cell phone is a “necessity”.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
All three of my kids have a cell phone. My son, is the text message King. After using a text plan..and him FAR exceeding it…we decided that text messages would be blocked on his phone. It was just too outrageous of a bill–and I made him pay for most of it. So no more texting for him. The girls text–but they know they have to pay for it–so they keep their numbers down…atleast so far they have.
Good luck!
January 10th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Mm Hmm…
Teenagers and cell phones. Welcome to the club!
My daughter went from texting Princess to “talking on the cell even when you’re at home” Queen. Lawd, I don’t understand it! After the 2nd $150+ bill (6 months apart from the 1st offense), the phone is on an indefinite restriction to emergencies only.
January 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Youch. It looks like I better keep a close eye on the amount used!
January 15th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Things have changed a lot in the last 7 years! I got my first cell phone when I was 13, just like your son. However, mine was prepaid, instead of pay-as-you-go. Also, it was the crappiest phone you ever did see – it could receive text messages, but not send them.
Most importantly, I was the only kid to have a cell phone for years and years. Some of my friends are just now starting to get them!
I’d say the best thing to do is continue to make him pay for the text messages, since they’re not the purpose of the phone.
January 16th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Assuming you have sat down and discussed his good idea about switching to a plan that is less expensive for him, and shopping around is a great idea. The plan overall may be more expensive, and that would have to be factored in. Also, why is he texting so much instead of talking to his friends face to face? Just because or for a valid (to him) reason?
January 16th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
triple-e, the plan is pretty cheap. It’s $16.22 with tax for 3 months. He doesn’t use the minutes up in that time, it’s just the text messages that are big. He does talk to his friends face to face, but they don’t live nearby and I think the in thing to do is to text. Along with putting comments on myspace pages and sending emails…
January 24th, 2007 at 9:33 am
[...] Blunt Money says don’t text your $ away! [...]