<p>So I'm going off to be a freshman in college and I was wondering would it be better and cheaper if I stayed on my family's plan or if I broke off and considered taking part in the Share Everything plan? I get a student discount at Verizon and with the Share Everything plan, I can pay anywhere from $72 to $104 bucks? Is this too much to pay for a college student? What's the average amount of money a college student pays for his cell phone bill? (FYI, the Share Everything plan includes unlimited texting, messaging, and your choice of the amount of GBs of data, plus mobile hotspot). It seems like a great deal for me. :)</p>
<p>I think it would be better to stay on your parent’s plan. I know I have Verizon and for unlimited texting and 2,000 minutes (without any data) it costs about 25 dollars for just my phone. I think it would be fair to figure out your share and pay your parents your portion of your phone. That is what I do!</p>
<p>Who would seriously think that $74+ a month would be cheaper than staying on the parent plan.</p>
<p>Well, I was wondering that I could pay half and my parents pay half if I chose to break off.</p>
<p>It’s better to stay on a family plan.
With each smartphone, we pay about $40 each including all the city, state, federal, neighborhood, household, township,village,barrio,hut,estate,ranch,…taxes.
;)</p>
<p>I think it makes more sense to just pay them your part. It is cheaper that way.</p>
<p>The only reason for the OP to want his/her own plan is so that the parents don’t see details in the bill about who is called or calling, who is texting, at what times, and how much data is used and at what times.</p>
<p>$30 a month from VIrgin for unlimited in a lot of things and a smart phone to boot for $100. That’s what my kids have.</p>
<p>Did I mention I had Federal Work Study and maybe some money left over in my credit card?</p>
<p>It certainly does not cost $100 to be on your family’s plan and I am sure you can find something better to spend work study money on.</p>
<p>What would be better about being on your own plan other than your parents can’t look at your usage?</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t you take that money and start to pay off your credit card? Or save it for college or books.</p>
<p>Stay on your parents plan and pay them if you feel obligated. It costs me $40 a month for each of my kids to have a data plan with unlimited texting and sharing 1400 minutes/month with Verizon. My daughter has unlimited data and my son has a 2 GB limit with his iPhone. He pays me the $30/month for his data and I pay his $10/month line charge.</p>
<p>There is no plan that is going to be cheaper on your own. </p>
<p>And $72+ from just work study will leave you with not a ton left over. You don’t want to be making credit card payments, too. Work study gives you very little spending money after books and other expenses. </p>
<p>Just stay with your family.</p>
<p>When I mean credit card, I meant debit card. Sorry! :)</p>
<p>… save that money. No need to waste it.</p>
<p>OP, there is no plan you can do on your own that is even close to cheaper than being on your parents plan. </p>
<p>If you want to hide your usage from your parents you will need to pay more and waste money for the privilege.</p>
<p>I think you need to take a Finance class…and pronto…and maybe a simple math class.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a math issue. I think it’s a “hide what I’m doing from parents” issue. :)</p>
<p>What more advice could be out there? </p>
<p>It would be financially an unwise decision to have a separate plan from the family plan. Your plan with your parents probably costs them about $40 a month. A separate plan would cost $75 a month. What else is left to say? </p>
<p>You may think that you won’t mind forking over $30+ a month extra to have your own plan (assuming your parents will pay the other half), but college students rarely have an extra $30 a month leftover EACH and EVERY month that can just go for nothing…which is what you’d be doing. You’d be essentially burning $30 a month for nothing that you don’t already have thru your parents plan. </p>
<p>Is it because Verizon offers some phone that you want that you can’t get on your parents’ plan? What is this REALLY about? You asked if it would be “cheaper and better” and it OBVIOUSLY is NOT cheaper to have a separate plan (did you really have to ask that???)</p>
<p>It can be cheaper than a family plan, strongly dependent upon what features are needed/used.</p>
<p>Page Plus uses the Verizon network of towers (although it’s not Verizon). It’s prepaid, $29.95 (no taxes or fees) for the Talk and Text 1200 which includes something like 1200 voice minutes, 2000 text, and 100mb of data. Extra data can be purchased for 10 cents per megabyte. </p>
<p>That can be much cheaper in some cases, especially if you have to buy the extra data plans with the big names.</p>