<p>My mom has an iphone, and is on our plan. Every six months she sends us a check for $180. She gets a family plan for $30/month this way, which she never could never have on her own, it would be far more expensive. Works perfectly for us all.</p>
<p>Our kids are on our cell phone plan. We bought a Sprint plan and all iPhone 5 last Christmas as our Christmas gift to all of us. We pay the $225 every month and it is not a hardship, even though H is retired and we are living on a pension. S could afford to reimburse us but D can’t. We would prefer that neither of them do at this point, but would revisit if finances ever become a problem.</p>
<p>I’m delighted that S pays for all his expenses, including housing, flights, car, insurance, so paying the family cell phone bill is small change in the scheme of things. D doesn’t yet have a job, so we pay all her expenses anyway. They are 24 and 26 years old now. Next Christmas, when the plan expires, we may revisit to see if we want any of the pre-paid plans instead but so far have not had any major issues with Sprint and we all love the included unlimited data.</p>
<p>This is a reminder for me that it is time for S to pay me again. I collect 6 months at a time. We started charging him once he started making enough to fully support himself. We still cover older D’s cell because we can afford it. She lives in an expensive city and is frugal. We will have a similar arrangement with her when she moves to a less expensive location.</p>
<p>We bumped the kids off the plan when they went away to university, but we put them back on due to some family savings. They pay for their portion each month, I have their CC info and go through the bill, paying on the phone company website for each person. If anyone goes over, it’s charged to them. We decided long ago that we would prefer to help other ways that cell phone, that is a bill that we chose to use as one of the responsibility teaching items, we would help in other ways.</p>
<p>I got cut off when I purchased a smartphone after not being satisfied with just the talk and texting on my parents’ family plan. I’ve paid for my own cell phone service since I was a college sophomore.</p>
<p>We don’t have a rule. Older son got off our plan the first year he got a free phone from Google and it was incompatible with the family plan. Younger son is still in college. We’ll keep him on the plan as long as he likes, but once he has a full time job we will probably ask him to pay for it, though dh will probably lobby for making it our gift to him for a while. If he’s overseas next year we may do something entirely different since Skype would be our main form of communication with him.</p>
<p>Maybe when the kids get their jobs settled they can take over by getting a primary plan and let you be the family added on for the $20.00/month.</p>
<p>Our girls are both on our family plan as it is not a hardship for us and really helps them out. Younger d is an actress/singer and really needs her phone to be available during the day to be reached for audition-related news and her various part-time day jobs. Older d is fully employed but given cost of living in NYC, us picking up her cost really helps her out. She just started IRA as well as FSA and we would rather have her use her limited funds for IRA/savings rather than paying us share of cellphone bills. Neither daughter lives with landlines. I guess if/when they marry their significant others we would ease them out into their own plans.</p>
<p>Yes, my niece finally got her own cell phone plan after she got married. She and her H have their own plan. Before that, she was on her folks plan, as are her sisters. Have no idea whether any of them contribute to my sister for their share of the plan. My brother has his 4 kids and wife on one plan. Don’t believe there is any thought of removing any of them or having any contribute, as it’s a fairly reasonable TMobile plan. The oldest is in his 1st year of med school and none of them have jobs yet, tho the 2nd one is graduating college this spring. My brother is on a plan from his work, which is why he isn’t part of the family plan.</p>
<p>Like so many others, 23 year old working D is still on our family plan and pays us $40 a month for her unlimited data and phone line charges. She pays us twice a year. She has a separate cell phone for her job also, but uses that strictly for work.</p>
<p>Thank you - these stories are really helpful to me. After everyone is gainfully employed, we may have “the cell phone talk.” My kids seem to take their cell phone service for granted.</p>
<p>soooo…</p>
<p>I lucked out as the kids had cell phones prior to the smart phone and data package prices.</p>
<p>I never offered to pay for or sign up for a data plan. My 27 yr old who can’t rub two coins together JUST got off our plan to get herself a smart phone and data plan. She did find a plan by shopping around ($25 a month)</p>
<p>The 25 yr old with the good job and ability to afford it has not yet moved over. It cost a total of $17 a month for his phone. I don’t mind paying this at this time and he offered to pay it years ago. This is the kid who has been basically self supporting since 18 yrs old. He will probably get a smart phone this year so he will be off too.</p>
<p>I think the whole future retirement landscape helps to have the talk with the kids that finances will be different and monies not as plentiful as now.</p>
<p>Sax: Where did your D find a plan for $25 a month?</p>
<p>She uses Ting. She and bf on same plan that is $50 month total and they split the bill. It is not unlimited but she has set the phone up to use wifi at home, work, our house and friends homes so it doesn’t count towards her use.</p>
<p>Ting piggybacks on Sprint towers</p>
<p>check it out on wiki and ting.com</p>
<p>I’m still on my family cellphone plan with my parents and sister. I just send them 1/4 of the cost of the plan each month (because there’s 4 of us). It’s cheaper than getting my own individual plan.</p>
<p>Thanks, sax. I’ll pass along the info to S and FDIL who are looking for a plan.</p>
<p>[One</a> Year on Ting: Review of my Experience with Ting Wireless](<a href=“http://www.rethinkingthedream.com/889/one-year-on-ting-review-of-my-experience-with-ting-wireless/]One”>One Year on Ting: Review of my Experience with Ting Wireless)</p>
<p>here are some reviews on Ting. I know my D bought a cheap used Samsung galaxy 3 …maybe $80?</p>
<p>Anyway, she lives with very tech savvy crew with little money :)</p>
<p>Getting DD off our plan was pretty easy after she started working full-time. Her company pays a portion of her cell phone bill ($100) every month. She came off our plan within a few months of starting this job. We will keep DS on the plan while he is in college. Once he graduates and begins working we will re-evaluate. At the very least he will be required to pay us a portion of the bill monthly.</p>
<p>I have two of mine and my brother on our plan. It’s unlimited due to grandfathered provisions, and can’t top it anywhere. That’s why my brother joined us. He just gives me a check for the estimated annual charge. I’ll hit the kids up when they are out of school and gainfully employed.</p>
<p>My oldest has his two brothers on his plan that is subsidized due to where he works. The three of them take turns paying the bill, but the arrangement is loose and fast, from what I can see and one is not pulling his weight but for now, the other two don’t care.</p>
<p>I’ve transitioned both Ss from Verizon Wireless to no-contract Virgin Mobile. Once the oldest graduates and gets a “real” job, I plan to spin off his cell phone and car insurance to his name. I do plan to let him stay on our health insurance for as long as he can and have him put the money toward his student loans.</p>