OMG, can he come up with-ANYthing else to screw up or lie about?????

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Terry, I may have an old Tmobile phone around here someplace that isnt a smartphone. I would have to look. I know you can get one on Ebay for about 10 bucks. It is a simple bar phone that only does calling and doesnt take pictures. It wont accept pictures either. I dont think it even accesses the internet.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
You can possibly put his phone on vacation or standby, which costs a LOT less than paying the full monthly fee each month. Be sure to ask ho many months it can be on standby mode though. Be SURE it is NEVER EVER EVER used during that time. If it is used even for a 1 min or less call, then it won't be on standby and full charges apply. Also be SURE that difficult child cannot get a sim card for it and put it into someone else's phone. Does the same thing.

You can get a Net10 LG300G phone for $25 that does text messaging but no web/email/picture messaging. It will use the phone and it will text but that is ALL. it is NOT the easiest phone to text from either, so it might cut down on that.

The $25 includes a card for 750 minutes and 30 days of service. At the end of the 30 days the minutes expire. Minutes can be used to buy ringtones, etc... IF the phone allows it.

Net10 has the best prices of the pay as you go companies. It is part of tracfone but is cheaper. Minutes are never more than 10 cents and texts cost 1/4 min to send and the same to receive. You CAN get cheaper minutes. You can get 200 min for $20 at stores selling the phone cards or you can sign up for the easypay plan that gives you 200 min for $15. You can always buy the $25 card that gives 750 min, or the $50 card that gives unlimited minutes. Ringtones, internet, 411 calls, texts, everything is charged by minutes. I only talk and text so I don't know all the details. I do know that husband and I couldn't find a plan that was cheaper even with a contract. Of course we don't use the phones a lot.

given that he is a kid, I would do the 200 min and save the $25 card for summer when he doesn't have school and can be on the phone more, or I would sell it on ebay or give it to the homeless shelter to limit his minutes and texts. If he goes over his 200 min, he either buys a small amt or he cannot leave the house and has another consequence.

Tracfone offers double and triple minutes for life cards. They SOUND great. Reality is that they are still not cheaper than Net10 unless you use an absolute TON of minutes and are never, ever off of your phone.

Whatever you do , DO NOT purchase minutes by putting the credit card number into the net10/tracfone. EVER. From that point you can buy minutes or whatever with-o putting the cc# in. I didn't believe it and actually destroyed the phone after figuring out that it let me purchase a TON of minutes with-o ever entering the cc# again!! I couldn't get the cc# to NOT work, so I just stomped the phone and then hit it with a brick until it didn't work. I was a bit emotional that day anyway.

So give difficult child the cards or go online and sign up to the easypay plan or another plan.

I bet this would be cheaper even if you have to pay for the other plan to be on vacation. $20 a month for 200 min is $240 per year - a whole lot less than he charged up on his phone. Even if you go to the 750 plan (esp on a phone with no picture or video texts or internet) that is $25 per month, it still just costs $300 per year. If you do a plan you can stop and start as often as you want to.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I've mentioned before on this site - in situations like this where the mobile phone is being abused (or you're concerned it could be) but you still want to keep tabs on your child and be able to contact them or vice versa -

TIC TALK PHONE. Look them up.

I did not post a link, I figure you'll have more luck searching for it in your area. The links I got were flagged for Australia mostly, but I found a US site.

The Tic Talk phone (there must be others that are similar) is pre-programmed by the parents. Four numbers including emergency. The kid can call one of the available numbers by scrolling though the four possibilities. There is no number pad, no text pad. It has a carabiner so it hooks onto a belt loop or a backpack. And I saw them reviewed once, they also talked about GPS capability so you could program in out of bounds areas and if the phone strayed into an out of bounds area, the parent got an email notifying them. You could also go online to track where your child is.

They are a little more expensive than a standard phone, but given how much our kids can cost us, it has to pay off in the long run. IF you need one.

We never needed one, thank goodness. But when Baby Grand gets older and goes to school, I'll be recommending her parents get her one of these. It's also a "primer" phone.

Marg
 
Top