<p>Hello everyone,
We knew this day would arrive, but nobody thought it would happen this quickly. Our first-born is going to college at the end of the summer and we are going to miss her something awful. To make it even more difficult, she will be attending a school nearly three hundred miles away from our home we live in Rochester, NY and shell be a freshman at Oberlin, despite my best efforts to sell her on a school somewhere in the state. Obviously, well want to make the transition very seamless, which means that communicating with each other is a top priority. We want to find a reasonable long distance calling plan. Her school will probably offer its own phone plan, but I have been cautioned by other mothers with kids at out-of-state school that these plans are often quite overpriced. Her cell phone bill could potentially become a bit frightening. What have any of you done about it?</p>
<p>mamazwart:
I don’t know anything about the phone problem…But we live in Rochester too and my son is off to Denison in the fall. It seems like he will be REALLY far away. Will your daughter fly home (through Cleveland?) or drive?</p>
<p>With my kids, the college provided a landline phone with unlimited local service. It was not advised to get a long distance service if there are roommates and easy access to the room by a number of kids. Better just to buy a cheap phone card at Costco’s and write down the needed numbers in a few places, wallet, backpack, pocket of a favorite jacket–keep the card at home. I have a family plan for my cell phone and each of my older kids has one. I have spun off my son from the plan at this point and will be doing the same for my daughter soon. Our plan is free for talking with each other and other customers of the service. My only abuser has been S2 who has had his priviliges curtailed by us.</p>
<p>Your best bet will probably be a family cellphone plan with unlimited minutes for an All-America plan.</p>
<p>Well, I am on a T-mobile cell phone family plan. We have 800 free minutes, and it includes free long-distance. (I’m going to school outside of Philly, and I’m from MD, so there is some distance involved there.) Mainly, we stick to using cell phones 9pm and after (weekdays) or on the weekends, which is included as free in our plan. I still shall hafta discuss text messenging with the parentals.</p>
<p>Cell phones are pretty common amongst us teenagers. They might cost a lot, but if you plan to talk a lot, that might be something to think about. A quick glance at the plans probably wouldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>“Will your daughter fly home (through Cleveland?) or drive?”</p>
<p>If you’re considering flying, be sure to also check flights in/out of the Akron/Canton airport. It would be closer for Denison. It’s a bit further but $$$ savings can be significant. And the ease of using an airport with only 8 gates is wonderful!</p>
<p>I would check out Verizon national plan - with free nights and weekends and no roaming charges even in extended network - then no worry - bill will always be the same each month.</p>
<p>AND if you do go Verizon - I would recommend a TRI-MODE phone - works in places that ALL DIGITAL ones don’t !!!- YUP some places do NOT have digital service!!! - so again - no extra charges on bill.</p>
<p>Our college kiddo is 800 miles away and we have NO problems staying in touch or worrying about the cell phone costs - they never go over the allowed minutes. Originally had T-mobile - but they are ALL DIGITAL - so there were too many limitations.</p>
<p>We have Sprint with 1200 minutes/month to share between 4 phones PLUS unlimited free calls 24/7 to any Sprint phones (the ones on our plan PLUS anyone outside our plan who uses Sprint) - we even have Grandma on our plan, so kids can stay in touch with her as well.</p>
<p>I have never heard of people recommending any school’s long distance phone plan - they all seem set up to be moneymakers for the schools only.</p>
<p>mamaz, get on the Oberlin threads (or here) with a new thread and ask which company has the best service. You may find some that don’t work well and some that are just great. We went with the cell phone with a local (to us) area code. Most of D’s friends have their own cells or just call her land line in the dorm room.</p>
<p>Do what Jeepmom said. That’s what we did, daughter calls all over the country, and we’ve never had an extra charge. The tri-mode thing is important too. We have also found that we communicate most frequently and easily with her using AOL Instant Messenger. And the away messages she leaves are very informative as to what’s going on in her life.</p>
<ol>
<li>Instant Messenger</li>
<li>Cell phone</li>
<li>Discuss with your child what he/she feels about you initiating contact to chat. (although, when I asked my S, he just said to call whenever I felt like it, but I’m sure some kids feel differently)</li>
</ol>
<p>We ALL have Verizon - so calls between us are included and FREE!!! Just found that alot of the local cell companies had soooo many limitations - so went with a national one to make things easier.</p>
<p>Dorm phone service - the service is usually just local calls - and will accept calls from outside the area - one plus tho is that usually they have a way for each student in the room to have a message mail thing - so each can have like an answering machine type thing - BUT the long distance service is provided by a local phone company and is NO bargain - especially now with most students having cell phones - special deals by the local land line companies have gone by the way side - it is MUCH cheaper to just use the given local service thru the school for what it is - and to use a cell phone service for everything else - Now adays - if you have the right cell service - no call is long distance and it does not matter where your service is established - we all have local area code cell service and none of our calls are considered long distance - so national cell service is the best way to go - ya never know where your kiddo may be landing - haha - ours goes to school in NC - has been to Idaho and FLA as a student - and no problems at all keeping in touch.</p>
<p>Email and IM are also a great way to stay in touch - probably good idea to chat about the Im thing tho - cuz sometimes they feel it is a bit of an invasion if every time they are online mom and dad hit the send button - we just kinda play it by ear - and if one of us really doesn’t want to chat we gently let the other know - works for us.</p>
<p>We also use text message at times too - either from phone to phone or thru AOL or thru Verizon itself - very cheap or included in cell phone service - just depends</p>
<p>JeepMom–Tri modes are becoming outdated, tried to replace one recently and couldn’t find one for Verizon. The good news is digital towers are going up all over and coverage is great. </p>
<p>Before getting on any phone plan I would advise talking to the locals to see the best coverage around campus. while visiting our 2nd’s school my H was getting all calls direct to voicemail, his phone never rang. He is not on the same provider as our family plan. His phone is issued by his company. We had everyong sharing minutes but then had to get the chatty one a separate block to prevent overages. Now this child keeps track of own minutes and the clock. But out cell to cell calls are still free so I can call whenever!</p>
<p>mominva - we just had to replace a tri-mode and had absolutely NO problems at all - they are are still making them and offering them in newer phones also - and until the whole country is digital - tri-mode will be our best optiion - especially cuz where our DD is - plain all digital is NOT the best option - down the line I am sure that will change - but til then…</p>
<p>We had that discussion with Verizon recently - very pushy salesman was trying to convince us that things are now all digital - hahahaha - he has no clue what is outside of New England - where Verizon service is very good - but in NC - uuummmmmmm different story - we tend to work things thru NE and then NC to confirm things - but our tri-modes will continue for a while longer - actually - will be replacing them in a couple of months with same. </p>
<p>What you just described above sounds like all digital service - for your DH - I know where my DD is there are like 20 different phone services that students use - but… cuz of the travel we all do - and our student also - we have still found that a national company service covers all the bases - some of the local smaller companies only have regional service - go out of that and you are in roam - so we have found that service that includes ALL possibilities is the cheapest and easiest to manage - and don’t have to constantly worry about what the bill looks like at the end of the month. But - to each his own.</p>
<p>When we check the localservice where our DD goes to school - the ‘good’ one - was a regional service only - everything would have been long distance charge for her if she went that route. We called Verizon in NC and talked to them directly and they really helped us out alot - since the NE reps had no clue about the area.</p>
<p>Yes towers are going up fast - but in some places it is still going to take quite a while - for all digital - so in the mean time - go with what works</p>
<p>my s. will be a freshman at oberlin this fall, and i have the same concerns.</p>
<p>We have Sprint service that has unlimited free calling after 7 p.m. and on weekends – and it works just fine from the campus. (used it when i went there with s. for admitted students weekend) instant messaging is also a great free way to keep in touch.</p>
<p>JeepMom–Thanks for the clarification. I just assumed that since Verizon was a national provider that all their phones would be the same. Now I’ll know to check other regions for a tri-mode when we need to replace. Fortunately the one we replaced was for our HS soph who will probably be getting a new one before leaving for college!</p>
<p>Both my college kids use Verizon and neither has a landline where they live (off-campus now) but only one school provided a phone in the dorm. </p>
<p>How naive I was looking at that first bill when first one was away at school in PA (we are in VA) and seeing calls to Montana, Indiana, Mass. CT. Couldn’t imagine who that child knew in those places.
Turned out those were her new peers with cell phones from their own home area codes!!</p>
<p>We have Verizon, all 3 phones are tri-mode, I just got the LG VX6100 6 months ago which is a tri mode. With my plan all calls to other Verizon phones are free nationwide. As a rule Verizon usually has superior service, you just need to check your specific locations before deciding on a cell provider.</p>
<p>Since many companies now pay for cell phones, blackberry’s etc, check with your compnay to see if they get a discount on the cell phone service providor. My company gives a 23% discount on sprint and verizon service. Although D gets free long distance and local calling through her school, she shares her phone line with 3 other girls (needless to say some one is on the phone all of the time). I like also knowing that when I call her on her cell it is a local call.</p>
<p>Seems I got to this party late, but Ill put in my idea anyway. A cell phone plan with free night and weekend minutes sounds like your best bet, but if your child is anything like the two of mine, those are the least likely times to expect to hear from her. However, there are service plans that will give you unlimited calls between phones using the same service, and you can make a call at any time of day. I think someone on this thread all ready mentioned Sprint. I travel for business fairly often, and the family plan we use means that Im accessible regardless of where in the country I am.
My wife also periodically sends our son care packages containing OneSuite phone cards. She began this practice because the S has a tendency to lose his cell phone, as well as turn it off when he goes camping or snowboarding. He can use them in the event we go over the minutes on our phones (not a regular occurrence, but a possibility), or he cant make it to his phone and needs to call to avoid the Moms wrath.</p>
<p>my son and I have at&t, which is now cingular, with early evenings, 7pm, and 800 minutes for rather cheap, and since we are the same company, we talk for free. we also use instant messenger very much, that is moreso how we talk.</p>