<p>DS is out on his own but doesn’t have a smart phone, so it is only $10/month, out of a $230+ monthly bill. Until he wants a smart phone it makes no sense to kick him off, $10 is not even noticeable.</p>
<p>DD is still in college, she has a smartphone and is on our plan for now. $40/month for her… once she graduates we’ll figure something out.</p>
<p>We need to have the EZpass discussion at some point too.</p>
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Depending on your plan and his employer’s plan (if he gets one) it may be cheaper overall for him to get his own and drop him off your policy.</p>
<p>DS just got off our plan… his employer has a much better plan than mine, and his plan is extremely cheap for a young single person.</p>
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<p>I noticed that for myself as well, and showed my dad. Not only is my personal insurance far cheaper, it’s better. He’s just signed up for the Obamacare exchange insurance now, and it’s extremely expensive. Though the company will not their family insurance insure my sister and parents.</p>
<p>For my son, staying on our health insurance is free since we have other kids, and so we have a family plan. Doesn’t cost anything more for any more kids.</p>
<p>At 21 I had my DD establish her own account. Until she graduates, her bill arrives at our house and we pay it, but that will stop when she graduates. It would be cheaper to have a family plan but I am just so anxious to untangle her expenses with ours.</p>
<p>Maybe never? DD is graduated and has a job, so she pushes $50/month to us to cover most of her share of cellphone bill. That makes it much less expensive than smartphone plan on her own.</p>
<p>D has big loans to pay back, so we continue to pay for her phone and car insurance. S, still in college, will be on our plan for quite some time… My brother has our mom on his family plan. My sister added her new son-in-law to their family plan, but both her Ds and her SIL pay their share monthly. I plan to be on D’s plan some day. ;)</p>
<p>Good point about the health insurance costs. I work for our state and we have very good insurance, but single coverage somewhere else might be better.</p>
<p>Like others, our DS went off our family plan when he wanted an iphone.
We are a dumb phone family.
He had a real job and the 80ish a month is not a problem for him.
It would be for me!
With an employer discount, I pay 78 per month for 3 dumb phones…</p>
<p>bump… sorting through options at this house since DD’s smartphone is ailing. She is considering a scheme whre she pays/forgoes last 4 months of Verizon plan and switches to ATT on her own. I’ve warned her that may bump up her cost from $50/month to us to $100 month. </p>
<p>She sees a $65 ATT plan (unlimited text)…that sounds optimistic… how much is typical bill once you pay tax etc? </p>
<p>She should check the data plan. They are really limiting them now.</p>
<p>DS#2 called Australia and talked for an hr (business call) before remembering he’d forgotten to turn on the international feature. That call cost almost $200. Got it adjusted to the price it should have been with the international feature *(about $10) but geez!!</p>
<p>We are interested in this also. Our current monthly bill for 3 Verizon phones, 2 GB shared data plan, is $178. We hope we could reduce the monthly bill when our contract expires in half a year. Only our child will use data. We could live without using any data as we could use WIFI only.</p>
<p>If you keep your current phones, you could do three users on verizon with unlimited talk and text and a 10 Gb shared data plan for $145.</p>
<p>Check out these ideas under the phone heading in this article.
<a href=“http://www.howtosavemoney.com/7-things-you-can-stop-paying-for-without-feeling-deprived/#.U-a6Zcu9KK0”>http://www.howtosavemoney.com/7-things-you-can-stop-paying-for-without-feeling-deprived/#.U-a6Zcu9KK0</a></p>
<p>My d and her boyfriend are still happy with their ting plan for about $50 a month for 2 phones / data plan.</p>
<p>DS is on his own plan (25 and working at a well-paying job). DD is on her own plan (in grad school, but fully funded and frugal). DH and I pay $27.xx per month each for enough talk minutes and unlimited text w/ AT&T go phones. Dumb phones, but so glad to have the cost so low!</p>
<p>We still have our professional daughter on our plan,and she reimburses us once a year for her share of the cost. Works for me, because we get a 25% discount on our Verizon bill (cells, land phone and cable) through her employer. I would qualify for that through my religious denomination but since I have a tiny congregation I get paid on a “normal” check and not a payroll check, and Verizon refuses to accept that as proof of employment. So the daughter stays.</p>
<p>AT&T actually reduced costs recently, with a family data share plan. After 2 year contracts are up, will be even cheaper, unless you go for another new phone. They seem to be working away from the free or subsidized phones. Most of us have Iphones, but the D that has not yet moved onto a professional wage bought her own semi smart phone for $70, can access our data plan, and has no contract. My kids are all on my plan, pay me monthly via direct deposit, and I finally don’t feel impoverished by the communication bill. </p>
<p>The lines are blurring between smart and dumb phones these days. With tie in to wireless, most recent phones can access data. I knew a young man with an AT&T GO phone, who after a time stopped paying for minutes. All his communication was via email or FB messaging, and his day was spent tied in to wireless, between home, work and school. Which meant calling or texting last minute was impossible, but he was satisfied. </p>
<p>Hadn’t heard that about AT&T rates, but we won’t change our plan. They have been trying to get people with unlimited data off those plans. No way. And I am waiting til sept 7 for the iPhone 6. Guess we’ll be in another contract. But we still get the corp discount gem DH’s former employer. Decent discount.
I think the “kids” should reimburse us for their phone use. DH doesn’t. It’s really not a big deal. </p>
<p>Our older son dropped our family plan one year when Google was giving phones out for Christmas and he wanted a different deal than what came with the family plan. Younger son (who just graduated is still on the plan), when he self-sufficient we’ll either ask him to reimburse us or he’ll get his own plan. He’s about to embark on an unpayed internship. As long as he’s being productive and making sensible moves towards his career path we are happy to support him with the phone.</p>
<p>Kids are still on our plan but I’m not convinced it’s any cheaper that way. I also hadn’t heard that about AT & T and I was just in the store yesterday investigating options. The guy said the only way to get a lower rate is to purchase a new device on a payment plan. It’s for new customers only which you apparently are if you buy something new. Or do the U-Verse thing which is not happening.</p>