When did you stop paying for your kid’s cell phone?

[Anonymous]

I’ll pay DS’ phone until he graduates college. Will only continue if he goes for Masters.

Car insurance until he’s gainfully employed (I paid for it all with a crap paying job after college so he’ll be able to handle it). He has his eyes set on a city with amazing public transportation so may be a moot point if he ends up with no car.

I’m not paying rent etc once he starts working.

[Anonymous]

LOL. He is an independent soul, makes more money and is still on our family phone plan and we all like it that way. Not only is it cheaper but it's great on family vacation to easily use the "find" feature. It's how he locates us when we've gotten either somewhat lost or the Ubers are trying to follow each other. Plus we have family pics shared on the same cloud!

[Anonymous]

My kid basically failed out of college, and her portion of the cell phone bill is one of the things I plan to ask of her.

Plus she will be helping with her portion of car insurance.

[Anonymous]

Early in college, our 2 kids were off our plan. They each had their own (and I know much more expensive this way) which I paid for them until they graduated college. I just didn't like/want their decisions/wants re: cell phones to be part of the budget, for DH and I. We are much less tech dependent or interested, and our kids would want the newest and best. That's on them. Has been now for decades.

[Anonymous]

According to the law they are kids till they are 26. Kinda Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know, I know, a family plan is much cheaper but we didn't want to be enmeshed. When kids went to college, they got their own plan. We paid their bill while they were in college. Yes, I know it was more expensive but that was ok.

What about having a family phone plan is "enmeshed"? I don't look at my kid's phone calls/texts/etc. I just pay the bill. Why pay more?

Hint: one kid is out of college and a fully functioning adult. Even if their cell phone is still on our "family plan"

I'm 40, married with 2 kids and still on my parents plan.

Omg

My kids are free to stay on our plan as long as they wish. It is much cheaper to add people to our plan (their SO if desired) than for our kids to get their own plan. So just like we added users to Netflix and other streaming apps because that's cheaper than them getting their own, we will keep cell phones combined. Right now it saves about $30-35/month having them each on our plan. Why would I make them pay $350-400 more per year for the same thing? If you want, feel free to charge them their portion monthly (or yearly), but why make them pay more?

[Anonymous]

DC27 is on our plan but writes us a check every January for his share. He's done this for a few years.

DC24 is also on our plan and we cover it. He is in grad school and we are happy to help this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We currently pay for car insurance, cell phone and health insurance.

No clue when we will stop.. Not an issue for us.

Goodness. How are they able to establish credit?? This is bizarre to me.

I pay for my 25 yo car insurance, they are on our cell phone and also our plan (as secondary, they have their own thru work that is primary). They have excellent credit, they were able to rent their place upon graduation very easily. They got credit thru an apartment rental in college and putting the electrical bill in their name in the college apartment.
And at 22/college graduation/strating first job, they were able to get their own credit card.

What's bizarre is you thinking they need to pay their own cell phone as a way to establish credit.
Btw, my kid establishes credit with their auto insurance, they just charge it to a joint credit card. So it's as if they are paying it, nobody knows any different

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We currently pay for car insurance, cell phone and health insurance.

No clue when we will stop.. Not an issue for us.

Goodness. How are they able to establish credit?? This is bizarre to me.

You can establish credit by getting a credit card. Discover has a college credit card for kids that is no fee.

The problem is how cell plans are structured. Ours is $100 for the first two lines and then $10 for each additional line. It makes no sense to go out and get your own cell plan based on these economics.

+100

Ours is slightly different, but yes, it is ~$40/month cheaper if everyone stays on our plan. Why would they waste $$ just to have it in their own name

[Anonymous]

I’m 32 and I pay my mother monthly to be on her family plan. It’s cheaper for both of us.

I have peers whose parents still pay for their phones.

[Anonymous]

I’m 45 and my parents paid until I got married at 30. But I was a phd student with barely any income.

[Anonymous]

I pay for cell and AAA because it's cheaper. DS also still has our EZPass . That I would like to end but he does not travel much

[Anonymous]

Unlimited everything is $25 a month, so why even talk about it from when it comes to money. Convenience or needs? Only you would know that.

[Anonymous]

I’m in my 40s and still on the family plan. Same with my sibling and their spouse. All of us can totally afford our own plans, but it’s been like this for over 20 years and nobody feels like changing it. My DH is on his own plan with one of our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's cheaper to keep them on it and just venmo the money each month

4 of my adult kids are on my family plan and they venmo me $ each month.

This would drive me crazy. I’m either paying for it or not. I’m not going to monitor reimbursements. With all the new plans, it’s not cheaper.