<p>We have a very nice discount program with Verizon. My current prepaid phone is with AT&T.</p>
<p>My workplace plan for Verizon lets me apply the 22% discount to the first line in our family plan. Works fine for us.</p>
<p>We are still on the family plan. D just completed medical school and S is still in college. She has very little money and big loans to pay. Maybe some day we’ll be on her family plan. 
S has very little money. I guess we’ll be staying on the family plan. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>My understanding is that customers on the family plan are grandfathered in to the family plan. Everyone new is on the shared plan. The shared plan doesn’t get the discount.</p>
<p>Both S1, a grad student, and S2, a recent college grad, are still on our family plan, but pay for their shares. They couldn’t get an individual plan that’s as cheap for them as being on our family plan. Neither of them abuses minutes/texting, so we don’t mind. DH and I would probably be better off with a prepaid plan just for the two of us, but that’ll have to wait until my kids can better afford being on their own plans.</p>
<p>Some of my friends are still on a plan with their adult, completely self sufficient children, simply because that is the most cost effective way to go. They’ve looked at other plans, and it always comes back to the status quo from years ago. The thing that buged my friend is that she has a non local area code, but since she’s now had this number for years, it’s non issue. My son switched off a couple of years ago and took two of his brothers with him and they share the expenses of a family plan.</p>
<p>My oldest is a year out of college, has a job, lives on his own in an apartment, pays his own rent, food, car insurance… the only way he is still financially tied to us is his cell phone, which is still on our plan. And why shouldn’t he be? On our family plan, his line costs $10/month, plus $30/month for his data plan. He sends me $40/month to pay for it. I figure he’ll be on our plan until he gets married, because it would cost him at least twice as much to go out on his own.</p>
<p>I know people who have their elderly parents on their family plan, because it’s so much cheaper than getting their own line.</p>
<p>DS got his own plan as a college freshman back in what seems like the dark ages. We didn’t HAVE a family plan. DH and I shared one cell phone. Plus…when DS was a college freshman, all of the plans were not nationwide…and he wanted a phone with a local area code in his college town. He still has that account but has upgraded to a smart phone.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we now have a family plan. DD doesn’t have a cell phone on our plan right now. When she returns to the U. S., we will look at the costs. If it is more economical for her to be on our family plan, we will do that for her and she will pay us.</p>
<p>My S1 is 27, married, and his smartphone is still on our family plan. Our DIL is still on her family’s family plan.</p>
<p>No reason for us to take him off, and it would be weird for him to send us a check every month. We’ve never even considered asking him to get his own plan or to pay us for his share…it’s just not that much money. </p>
<p>S2 and S3 are still on our plan too. And will probably stay on it as well.</p>
<p>As long as I get the every-so-often call or text or pic, I’m a happy camper.</p>
<p>Every family is different in its own way.</p>
<p>Our family just went through this because we were out of contract with ATT on our family plan. The service in NYC has become truly horrible-older d’s phone died, younger d’s phone stopped texting- both felt they they needed to upgrade to smart phones with data plans… so we switched to new family plan with Verizon, two smart phones and two basic phones. It was actually cheaper to do that than to get them individual plans- I did a lot of research with all the options trying to get the most for the least monthly cost. Older d is a an artist and adjunct faculty so does not make a lot of money, younger d is an aspiring actress/singer and makes money as a nanny… but not ready to pick up that kind of monthly expense. Having a smart phone makes sense for both of them and saves younger d from hauling her laptop around the city in her backpack all day. She does need to be connected during the day to check her email about time and location changes for auditions and rehearsals.</p>
<p>I don’t believe it! I am the original poster. My son lost his phone today(!!!) in his college’s fitness center. He has never lost a phone (or had one stolen) ever since he first got one in middle school. He was using it as a timer in the gym and it disappeared. Well, whoever took it won’t be happy, because it was not very reliable and has a cracked screen. So I am sending him an old phone we had in a drawer. Since he is 18, T-Mobile told me I can add him as an authorized user, and he can walk into a T-Mobile store and get a new phone and contract from T-Mobile, but still stay on the family plan. His contract would be independent of the others on the plan. I thought that was interesting.</p>
<p>I think, though, he is going to just use the old phone I will send him and only get a new SIM card from T-Mobile. He still dreams of that iPhone someday! Of course, the theft may give him pause when it comes to getting something too fancy.</p>
<p>LB- that’s how ours works too (I’m on T-Mobile family plan… some kind of grandfathered-in unlimited plan). </p>
<p>I stay on my parent’s plan because it’s SO much cheaper than going on my own. They let my sister stay on for as long as she want (until she didn’t tell them that she cancelled her contract, slamming them with a huge cancellation fee). It just makes sense to stay on even if kid pays his/her part.</p>
<p>DH and I live overseas - and I will happily continue to pay for our kids’ cell phones until we move back to the US.</p>