<p>I really appreciate all your helpful responses. Right now, we don’t have a family plan. I have a landline and then a cellphone for which I use pre-paid minutes. It is $15 a month. We just use it for the kids to take along when they’re going somewhere, or to have in the car in case of emergencies. </p>
<p>We’re on a budget and are trying to do this as inexpensively as we can. We figure for a college student, a plan with texting is a must. My son doesn’t really like talking on the phone so the minimum minutes of a plan will work just fine for him. The cheapest Verizon family plan with texting is $99.99/month. The cheapest single Verizon plan with texting is $59.99/month so we’d come out ahead choosing that and continuing to pay the $15/month for my phone. It was looking like AT&T would be cheaper, but you have to pay additional fees for messaging. Also, he can’t get a hometown area code with AT&T, so either he calls me or I’d have to pay long distance. With Verizon having good coverage at Yale, it sounds like it would overall be the best bet for us. (And yes, I’m working all this out by typing it here! It helps.)</p>
<p>Now on to the phone selection! I’m going to check out reviews at the mobiledia website and try to pick out something at both the Verizon website and the letstalk website, and see with the discount coupon what works out the best. Phone recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!! He did just get an iPod, so doesn’t need one with a mp3 player. It would be nice if he gets a camera phone. I’m not going to visit campus and would love to get pictures from him.</p>
<p>I’ll be glad when we’re done with this.</p>