Cell phone help pls and tyty ( Be Gentle )

[girli565]

We have 3 phones, (iPhone 4 w/ unlimited data grandfathered in, iPhone 3S with the $15 data plan, and one regular talk & text phone.) 700 min, unlimited family texting, unlimited mobile to any mobile.

We pay about $175 a month including taxes and we have a 17% discount on the main line. I wish we could pay less but that's as low as it can get while still getting the mobile to any mobile.

 

[Mom21]

I went through everything with my DH. we are going to switch the plan to 700 mins so that should help us alot. We didnt realize that when he calls me from his cell phone to our house phone thats not free on our plan .. We need to talk cell phone to cell phone to get the rates down. My mother also calls and talks to me alot on my cell which is killing me. I am going to tell the teacher to call me instead of send me an email unless it is something I have to print/ fax back to the school. Att is also charging us for Roadside assitance and we never asked for it. I think by them refunding stuff we are down to $240 on the current 1400 min plan and I will bring it down more by changing plans and getting rid of more junk I dont need. My son dosent have a cell phone because he dosent know how to use one. The other 2 cell phones are for my DD and I am cutting there plan down to just texting ( teens ) so they will be happy and I will be happy with the bill. I dont think it will kill any of us not to be so despensible to everyone ( although today was rough on me ) I am going to change my ways and not let others dictate what they need/ want from me.yes the school needs to communicate with me, but they arent paying my cell bill either.this is just making me re-think things and we will go with the lower plan for 2 mo and see if we can change/ lower it again. My hopes is to save enough money on the cell phones that we can make a side trip when we travel to Nc to see my oldest son graduate.Also what I have learned and want to pass on to others. If something pops up on your phone and you dont text STOP then you will incur charges so dont ignore it and close it. Now i have a blocker on my phone that uses a PIN code. that way I dont get any more charges and the girls cant put anything on there phones either. so a win/win situation.I want to thank everyone for helping me. it was rough to ask for help, but so glad that i did. today is going to be a better day! ~Tonya ~

Still sounds off. I'll be happy to help you out. I can give you exact rates and what to say to the rep if you will tell me the type phones, the minutes you need (700 right?), and what you have now and prices. You can not just have texting on phones. You must pay the 9.99 each for your teens phones if they have regular phones. Also, if anyone has smartphones you MUST, MUST, MUST have a data plan. People think it is the cell phone companies just wanting more money. It isn't. The FCC requires a data plan on smartphones. Cell phone providers must comply with the law. Also let me know any extras you have that you want to keep.

Again be happy to help. Let's just say I'm familiar with their stuff.

 

[pintamino]

People think it is the cell phone companies just wanting more money. It isn't. The FCC requires a data plan on smartphones. Cell phone providers must comply with the law. Also let me know any extras you have that you want to keep.

I'd never heard of that before - do you have a citation or a link to information/an article about that regulation? With the FCC under fire and the huge problem with overregulation I'd be extremely interested in reading more!

 

[tyedye]

I was told by a rep that with AT&T if you have any smartphone you will be charged for a data plan, that they will first text you a warning that you will be charged in order to get full use out of the smartphone you are using.

In order to be sure you avoid additional data charges, make sure the 3g/data is off or set it to manually check. Of course if OP needs to know when they get the email that won't work, but you could still turn off all other apps to only get new data manually so as not to use your data when not necessary.

Also with AT&T if you have a texting phone only you can add unlimited internet for $10/month. It's kind of a limited internet in that it doesn't look like a traditional webpage but you can check email all you want.

I would suggest going into a store and trying the different phones to see how they work. Not all stores have working displays but the larger main stores do. A rep told me people come in and make business calls on them!!

 

[of2dbeach]

3 of us have smart phones. I didnt know you "had " to keep them as smart phones either. I had a non - smart phone before this one a few mo ago and they charged me $10 for a non smart phone fee.So we decided we might as well get the smart phones instead. so now we are thinking of getting 700 min plan for all of us to split. the girls dont talk much mostly text.not really sure what to say to them but come Friday I am going to be super sweet and ask if I can pay partial just to get the phones back on.this is what I have figured from what I gotten off the ATT site :
700 mins is $69.99 we have 1400 mins now
$9.99 for the other 3 phones $29.97
$6.99 for insurance x 4 phones $27.96
$10.00 Non - Smart phone fee
$25.00 Data Pro x 3 phones $75.00

we are thinking of getting rid of the insurance at least on the girls phones because one is 2 years old and the other we only paid $20 for it.. so no loss there.The Data Pro is killing us each month but we were told to keep it a few months see how much we use?

 

[bunny]

Wow, I can't believe these cell phone bills. I don't have a smart phone neither does my husband and our son has a prepaid phone. I don't understand why everyone feels the need for them and why in the world kids would need one. What am I missing here?

 

[momof1princess]

OP, i have AT&T, no smartphones, but DD14 and i have what they call a "quick messaging" phone, which is a cell phone with a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard (a samsung sunburst). DH has a plain flip phone. we have unlimited texting and 550 minutes per month, which we never use up. we pay $203.00 per month for our 3 cell phones, DSL, and our home phone.

this is just a thought, but would it be possible for your DS's teacher to text you, instead of sending e-mails? if you had unlimited texting and dropped the data and all that other stuff, you could probably bring your bill down a good bit. whatever you do, i wish you the best of luck with it, and pray you get a job soon.

 

[DawnM]

What you are missing is that people want them.

Noone NEEDS cable TV.
Noone NEEDS anything better than a stripped down car.
Noone NEEDS to go out to eat or to the movies or a go to Disney for that matter!

However, these are things that many of us have made the choice to have.

Now, if you can't afford any of the above, you should cut them. Period.

But some of us choose which toys to have.

Dawn

Wow, I can't believe these cell phone bills. I don't have a smart phone neither does my husband and our son has a prepaid phone. I don't understand why everyone feels the need for them and why in the world kids would need one. What am I missing here?

 

[Greenepona]

3 of us have smart phones. I didnt know you "had " to keep them as smart phones either. I had a non - smart phone before this one a few mo ago and they charged me $10 for a non smart phone fee.So we decided we might as well get the smart phones instead. so now we are thinking of getting 700 min plan for all of us to split. the girls dont talk much mostly text.not really sure what to say to them but come Friday I am going to be super sweet and ask if I can pay partial just to get the phones back on.this is what I have figured from what I gotten off the ATT site :
700 mins is $69.99 we have 1400 mins now
$9.99 for the other 3 phones $29.97
$6.99 for insurance x 4 phones $27.96
$10.00 Non - Smart phone fee
$25.00 Data Pro x 3 phones $75.00

we are thinking of getting rid of the insurance at least on the girls phones because one is 2 years old and the other we only paid $20 for it.. so no loss there.The Data Pro is killing us each month but we were told to keep it a few months see how much we use?

I would definitely call ATT back again. I have 4 phones on my plan - 2 iphones and 2 non smart phones and pay 204/mo in this way:

FamilyTalk Nation 700 with Rollover - $60
Family Messaging Unlimited with Mobile to Any Mobile Calling - $30
Additional Lines x3 - $29.97
Data Unlimited for iPhone Enterprise - $45
DataPro 2GB for iPhone - $25
Mobile Insurance Premium (one non smart phone) - $6.99

If your DD's aren't using the phones for data, why would you keep data plans on them?

IMHO, I would keep data on your phone and drop it on the others.

HTH

 

[Mom21]

OK. Just to clarify for those saying to drop Internet if not using. If they are smartphones you can NOT, NOT drop data. It will be added on again in an auto sweep. You will get notification but by then it's back. I'll get back to poster asking for written info. Also the 69.99 is for 2 phones. As a pp stated it is 60 for first phone and 9.99 for each individual. Family text is $30. Data must be had on 3 smartphones. Unless you use the data on non smartphone drop it. Waste. Insurance in my personal opinion is silly, but only you can determine if you think worth it. Do you really need the $25 data plans though? Especially if your dds don't use it then drop to $15 plan. You can always change it back. So bare amount is about 165 plus taxes. 4 lines (89.97), 3 smartphone data plans (45), and family text (30). And there ya go.

 

[SandrA9810]

If the daughter is all about texting, and the phone is up for renewal, I'd look into a messaging phone. It has the full keyboard like a smartphone, but doesn't have the internet capabilities. Then you can drop the data plan for that phone.

Do you have home phones or internet at home that is also on that bill? It still seems high.

 

[of2dbeach]

I think its because they are smart phones. they dont tell you all this when you get them that you HAVE to stay with this plan for them to work.I am cutting the girls phone back to the min. mine is being cut also.The teacher cant text me but he can call.I can rec email at home so will check that more often while cutting it off my phone. we are not living high on the hog by any means just have to get the bill down after things were put on that none of us asked for. It dosent help when Att says you need this and that and you are clueless! Also as another person said Att will and DOES add things without your concent. such as roadside asst. there is a lawsuit in Fl about it and they have to refund us the money ( which they do anyways if you ask nice nice
I am going to print out what we use from the last few mo and see what we need/ dont need and go that route. thanks for everyones help!!

 

[hsmamato2]

For Virgin Mobile, my ds has a smartphone, it's prepaid @ 35.00 per month he gets 300 mins. to talk and unlimited data,text,email etc. (he rarely talks,uses the data a lot)
I have an older flip phone (used to be on a verizon plan) and use PAGEPLUS prepaid cell service, b/c I want mine for talking (a lot) my plan costs 29.95 per month,I get 3000 texts,100 mb of data(don't use it much) and 1200 talk minutes ( use them a lot)
Virgin mobile runs on Sprint network, which runs pretty well in most places
Pageplus runs on Verizon network which is the BEST network available.
I highly recommend either of these depending on your usage needs. In todays economy there is no reason to be locked into a contract or company anymore.
(BTW, if you can't re-use your current phones on either of these plans, & you have to check their sites to find out, you have to buy a phone upfront. Still a much better deal overall than a "free" phone and a high priced contract)

 

[marie1203]

Wow, I can't believe these cell phone bills. I don't have a smart phone neither does my husband and our son has a prepaid phone. I don't understand why everyone feels the need for them and why in the world kids would need one. What am I missing here?

You are missing that prepaid phones don't always have good reception (in fact MIL has one and it very bad) and for people that can't miss calls like when my DH is deployed a cellphone with good reception and email is a must. I do not care how much it cost me but if something goes wrong and I miss my DH last call to try to save a few bucks I will never forgive myself. I am sure same goes to people that have kids with illnesses,etc.

 

[bunny]

What you are missing is that people want them.

Noone NEEDS cable TV.
Noone NEEDS anything better than a stripped down car.
Noone NEEDS to go out to eat or to the movies or a go to Disney for that matter!

However, these are things that many of us have made the choice to have.

Now, if you can't afford any of the above, you should cut them. Period.

But some of us choose which toys to have.

Dawn

I drive a Mercedes and own a DVC contract, so believe me I understand about toys and wants. I was just asking since so many people pretend that it is vital for them to have a smartphone or they will miss all kinds of important calls and messages. In the OPs case, she might need one for her special needs child, but for most others a simple cell phone plan will probably do.

 

[of2dbeach]

I totally agree and while you may look at my cell phone bill and say wow mine is cheaper it may be.. for you.. but for my i have a son with Autism and Epilepsy. how would you feel if you missed a call that your son had seized and they were taking a non verbal child to the ER Alone!? its a scary situation for sure. I dont always like having ATT they do seem high but now that I started this post I see I can still keep the phone and just cut down on some things ( more then I already had ) and still be able to keep the phone which was my original idea anyways.The other thing i wanted to add is everyone has there own things that makes there life easier,better , more fulfilled at least for them.. something they couldnt get through the day without. Some people have things like smoking, drinking , frequent Disney trips etc.. Mine right now is my phone. I have tv on my phone. Does it seem a bit much yes but factor in wait times at docs, hosp and neurologists with an 18 year old who has Autism and its a life saver for me.so what might seem stupid to one person is very much a need to someone else. I am interested in what others have to say but please be nice to each other or I will ask this to be closed down ][/B]

 

[Eliza32]

Wow.....no advice to offer, but I cannot believe how much you guys pay for mobile.
I just took out a new contract this week, and it's £20.54 per month for:
600 minutes mobile calls to any network
500 texts
unlimited landline calls
unlimited internet usage
A brand-new android phone included!!!
Guess I need to thank my lucky stars!!!!!!

 

[dcfromva]

3 of us have smart phones. I didnt know you "had " to keep them as smart phones either. I had a non - smart phone before this one a few mo ago and they charged me $10 for a non smart phone fee.So we decided we might as well get the smart phones instead. so now we are thinking of getting 700 min plan for all of us to split. the girls dont talk much mostly text.not really sure what to say to them but come Friday I am going to be super sweet and ask if I can pay partial just to get the phones back on.this is what I have figured from what I gotten off the ATT site :
700 mins is $69.99 we have 1400 mins now
$9.99 for the other 3 phones $29.97
$6.99 for insurance x 4 phones $27.96
$10.00 Non - Smart phone fee
$25.00 Data Pro x 3 phones $75.00

we are thinking of getting rid of the insurance at least on the girls phones because one is 2 years old and the other we only paid $20 for it.. so no loss there.The Data Pro is killing us each month but we were told to keep it a few months see how much we use?

700 mins 69.99 (Monthly cost for first two lines)
9.99 X2 phones 19.98
25.00 Data Pro X 1 phone (yours)
15.00 Data X2 (the other two smart phones 200mb plan) 30.00
30.00 unlimited texts (family rate)
plus taxes...

Is the $10.00 "non-smart phone" charge for a data plan: (Connect to all that matters in your world for only $10/month!* Check email, search the Web, update social networking sites, and access music and apps. Plus, access all your favorite websites like CNN, ESPN®, MySpace®, Facebook®, Twitter™, MTV, YouTube™, Yahoo!®, and more!) ?
Are those features being used on the "non-smart phone"? If these features are not being used, it would be a shame to be paying for them. Maybe you could get that taken off if it is not being used?

The insurance through AT&T is wicked expensive! Maybe you could see if you could get coverage through your homeowners ins.--it might even cover more such as if the phone is lost or stolen.

Was this your first bill? Sometimes the first bill is higher because there are activation charges included. Sometimes the first bill includes part of one month plus the next full month so the charges are higher than normal.

 

[DISdreamin']

OP, the very first thing I would do is drop the insurance. With four phones, chances are good that at least one line will be up for renewal quite soon (assuming you've had AT&T for a while). I'd rathre re-up for a new phone than try to use the insurance.

When we looked into it, the insurance was expensive AND if you went to actually use it there was a $50 fee for exchanging the phone. You had to send the phone in, and they'd determine what to send you if you're phone wasn't available any longer. It was such a pain in the tush that we ditched the insurance from there on out. BIG thumbs down.

FWIW, we have five phones on the 1100 minute family talk plan with one iPhone (carrying unlimited data) but no texting on any of the lines, and it runs about $155 a month. What you are paying seems outrageously expensive to me.

 

[thewebbs5]

Wow, I can't believe these cell phone bills. I don't have a smart phone neither does my husband and our son has a prepaid phone. I don't understand why everyone feels the need for them and why in the world kids would need one. What am I missing here?

I'm guessing they want one. maybe that is what you are missing. I love my smartphone. Not because I need it, but because I want it. If I ever need to do serious budget crunching, yep, they would have to go, but until then, I'm loving it.