Top 6 Ways to Save Money on Your Teen’s Mobile Phone Bill
Adolescence (Photo credit: kevinthoule)
So what about that indispensible object that you are absolutely dependent on as far as your social and professional life is concerned. And if it is about communications at a personal level, from anywhere to anywhere, even then this object is of mighty value. Yes, the cell phone. Not only gadget lovers are paying huge amounts on better features, but even a basic simple cell phone requires recurring expenditure in the form of service bills. While you may know how to limit your usage within a certain amount, your teenage kid’s cell phone bill may come up to shock you at the end of the month. Here are top 6 ways to save money on your teen’s mobile phone bills :
Curfew usage : after the day’s activities, generally it is at night that teens have enough time to make calls for leisure, during the day they are just texts or urgent calls serving some immediate purpose. While at day you will not be able to screen your teen’s phone usage, during the night you can always fix a call curfew time for his or her mobile phone. Past which, the mobile phone has to be kept switched off. Say 10Pm or 10:30Pm is a good curfew time. This will also help to maintain a daily healthy sleep habit.
Compare rates : there are many service providers with several data, calls, texts tariff plans. Compare and settle for best rates.
Be tech smart : find out the most lasting affordable mobile phone models. Because you do not want to keep buying phones every 6 months. Make sure they are packed with some entertainment feature. If it is okay, when you get a new phone, pass on the old one, if functioning well, to your teen
Financial responsibilities : discuss weekly budgets with your teen so that automatically he or she feels active in the family’s financial decision making. So when you get an affordable bill at the end of the month, praise you teen telling him he is becoming more responsible. This boosts confidence and urges him to keep up the good work.
Paying options : let your teen know that you will pay only a fixed amount for his mobile phone bill as you estimate fit. If it goes higher than that, he or she will have to earn the excess amount by him or herself. Also point out that any part time job that messes with his academic life will not be supported by you. This way one will have to lessen mobile phone usage and/or look for suitable part time job.
Software : go online and look for free/affordable software that can discreetly help to keep a tab on data usage, location, outbound calls/texts from your teen’s mobile phone.
With rising costs of living around the world, and the gradual fall of value of money due to inflation, one has to find ways to lessen the daily , and in connections to it, monthly and annual, expenditures.
About the Author:
The above article is written by Jenni who is associated with Page Once. She excels in writing articles related to personal finance, online payments, credit related etc. She refers sears payment online for all the web transactions.
Category: Family Finances, Saving Money
Great list! We have done many of these items with our teens. They have a curfew from the phone and we check the make sure it is being followed. We also make them pay for their additional line on our family account. It comes to about $13 per month. The key is to make sure that they are held accountable for whatever system your family picks. If you forget to make your child pay for several months, chances are they are not going to walk up & hand you the money. We added a feature to MoneyTrail that helps keep track of expenses that are handled between parents and teens. It really helps keep the teens accountable.
Pam, the curfew is important because they will be up all night. My daughter has her nose in the phone all the time. They never get bored because with the apps, texting, etc. they never get tired of it.