WOW! Verizon Wireless Must Know That They Make a LOT of Money from TEXTING

[BethR]

Just got a letter in the mail from Verizon Wireless today telling us that they are raising the price of a text message - SENT or RECEIVED - to 15 cents. Of course if you have a text package then those prices prevail.

It wasn't all that long ago when VW charged 10 cents to send and 2 cents to receive.

Then there is some other charge that is going from 40 cents per line to 70 cents per line. We have 5 lines. $1.50 for that.

Oh - but something else is going DOWN - 1 cent per line.

 

[cinamin27]

several months back, Sprint started charging 15cents for all incoming text messages too, not sure how much outgoing ones are as I dont do them. I am assuming 15cents too. I hate that they charge for incoming as your inbox message waiting envelope will show on your phone until you look at your text & never seems to go away unless you do.

 

[Lisa_M]

my sister is on a text plan w/ verizon for 10 dollars/month, which I feel is a complete waste of money, but she says she needs it. Whatever. I have a couple of friends that send me a text message here or there, but I dont' like paying extra for them, so I had verizon block text messages on my phone.

 

[T. Lynn]

That's good to know that you can have them blocked. I use to get them all the time on Nextel from people/companies that I never heard of. It was such a pain and then I get charged for them.

If I do switch to Verizon I might have to keep in mind about having them blocked.

 

[BethR]

That is so true about receiving messages that you never asked for!

I don't text - much. I like to receive the text message when I check minutes ("A free text message with this information will be sent to your handset." ) so that I can read it and don't have to listen to the whole message. Also, I have the back up thingie where they back up your phone book on-line every so often (free with people who use My Account). You have to be able to get text messages to do that for some reason.

My brother will occasionally text me (a couple times a month), but I think that I will tell him to stop!

 

[tiggr33]

Cingular started charging .15 in/out as well in January.

 

[BethR]

Cingular started charging .15 in/out as well in January.

Must be becoming the industry standard.

Now if Verizon would only allow 7-9 pm to be non-peak hours. Or if they would le t me have a "friends" list (DH was given a phone at work and it is not on Verizon - and now I am using a lot more minutes than I ever did before.)

 

[DVC-Don]

I had to block text messages on my daughters line. She was getting 50 a day for a bit there.

 

[kaw1218]

Cingular started charging .15 in/out as well in January.

I just got my bill yesterday and I was still charged .10 each......hmmmm, I will have to find out exactly when that goes into effect.

 

[TravelinGal]

bummer it's going up for those that use it.

We don't spend time texting. blech. DH and I are on a family plan so it doesn't 'cost' minutes to talk to each other and now that we have free long distance at home I call friends from the land line (which I prefer to do for local calls too)
I'd rather talk to the person than poke at keys to try and type a message. (when you're used to typing 50+ WPM on a qwerty keyboard, it's a real pain to have to tap one button 2 or 3 times to get the right letter to pop up.)
In the 3 years we've had Verizon service (and 2 years on ATT before that) we have gone over our minutes one time. That's all - one time in 5 years. So why would we even think about paying a surcharge to text? (and DH uses his phone for business, so he's on it a LOT - and it's not cool to send text messages for business 'calls', ya know?)

 

[BethR]

Robin, I don't understand the appeal of texting but occasionally I receive a text message.

I was just commenting about how Verizon must know where to make more money. I KNOW that texting is very big with some people (kids) and how the prices have jumped in a relatively short period of time. So I figure that Verizon knows where the money is. And right now, it is in texting.

 

[plgrn]

DH and I are slow on the tech wagon ('cuz we're just plain cheap!) so when we finally got cell phones a couple months ago we didn't know that texting cost anything but minutes! Since we had plenty of minutes each month, we were just texting away like kids with a new toy! I would go to the bathroom and text to people "I'm in the bathroom. What are you doing?" just because I could.

Rude awakening for us when the bill came. Now it's disabled.

 

[patsal]

Oh, I didn't know texting could be blocked. I hate that I have to open it to clear my phone, but I dont' text and I hate being charged for someone elses mistake. I will have to check on how to get it blocked!

 

[disneyfam]

Robin, I don't understand the appeal of texting but occasionally I receive a text message.
.

Me either! Guess I'm just to lazy to text.

Cynde

 

[Faerie]

I love texting, and sprint is 15 cents a message. I love that my plan is sooo old that I'm grandfathered into $5 unlimited texts

 

[Mom2Ashli]

Verizon also offers a $5.00 a month plan. But you only get 250 text messages per month. No matter who they are too.

 

[Chicago526]

I wonder how texting works with pre-paid phones. I have a pre-paid with T-Mobile. A friend sends me a text once a week or so. It must deduct from my minutes somehow, I doubt it's free! I don't use all my minutes anyway so I don't care enough to block it. Plus I have it set up that when I'm flying, the airline texts me my gate info and on-time status, this way I don't have to call or check online before going to the airport. It's pretty neat!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Robin, I don't understand the appeal of texting ...

The appeal, as I see it, is that you can leave a message with someone without having to get them on the phone, and they don't have to take the time to call up voice mail to get a message you might have left.

Here's a perfect Disney example:

DW was taking DS1 on a rind in the Indy Cars. We each had our cell phones and the weather was causing me to move DS2 to a different location. I knew with the noise, DW would never hear her cell phone ring, so I sent her a txt message on where to find us. That way, when she left the Indy cars and started looking for me, her phone would beep that she's got a message and she could view it without taking the time to call voice mail.

I also see where it's great for leaving a message with spouse when they might be in a meeting and you wouldn't want to disturb them.

 

[BethR]

have it set up that when I'm flying, the airline texts me my gate info and on-time status, this way I don't have to call or check online before going to the airport. It's pretty neat!

Now that WOULD be neat!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

What I don't understand is (ok, so really I do) why the companies want to charge so much for texting. It takes less network resources to send a text message, but they charge more for text than they do for voice. And this is BEFORE these 50% increases in rates.

Of course I believe the real deal is that they are increasing the per message charge hoping to get more people to just sign up for the $10/month plans.