Both “kids” (25 and 27) still on my family plan. One gets the monthly payment as his Christmas present (he doesn’t want any presents from us, but this is OK, so it works), and the other pays his share each month. RE: insurance, I kept older kid on car insurance until he was 25 and 3 years out from tickets/accident. Younger gave up his car and lives in the city, so it wasn’t an issue. I pay health insurance til 26 - then they need to be on their own policy.
Neither of our kids are on our plan any more. We never asked them to get off and figured they were more likely to call if they weren’t trying to save money on plans. I’m not sure why the oldest got off, the youngest switched when he joined the military. The youngest uses our Netflix. We all laughed when he put his girlfriend on it years ago, they are married now, but I figure you are pretty much part of the family if you get put on your future in-laws Netflix plan!
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There are MVNOs that resell airtime from the main mobile phone companies, often at much more attractive pricing for some types of use patterns.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/personal-finance/best-mvno-plans
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We cut the phone cord when our son went to the academy as he had a small salary while he was a cadet there, and we figured it was time for him to start paying his own bills. He’s been on his own for all his obligations since then though he gets excellent rates and coverage through the military.
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We still have our daughters, 28 and 30, on our Verizon plan. It’s cheaper for them, there’s always a phone upgrade available, we get discounts on our 2 jet packs because of the # of phones. All phones are on unlimited data and they run ~$40/mth.
Right now we’re semi-supporting #1D as she’s back in school full-time and can’t contribute otherwise to the rent & expenses on her/fiancés apartment. Once she’s employed this summer she’ll set up the transfer to our checking (again) to pay for her share. Now that #2D is employed, I expect her to do the same after she’s out of the house and fully self-supporting. They can stay on the plan forever as far as I’m concerned.
We use #1Ds HBOMax and Amazon Prime, they both use our Netflix and whatever other streaming we (or they) may have.
Car insurance is sticky. We signed one car over & she investigated insurance then the full-time school, inability to work, kicked in. This summer she’ll pay. #2D will pick up her car and insurance around then as well.
We can afford it, they do a lot for us, and we consider it a fair trade.
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My 29 year old S is still on our plan. It costs him a lot less than being on his own plan. D’s plan has been paid for by her employer for the past 10 years, so she’s been off our plan since she was 22. When SIL switched off his parents’ plan because Sprint didn’t work where he lived, we offered to put him on our Verizon plan. He felt weird about doing that, so he’s on his own plan.
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@one_two, we had the same roundtable!
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Our kids stayed a short while on our Verizon plan after college graduation, cheaper for them (and they reimbursed us). But they were eager to cut the cord from us, not get nagged if they accidentally overused data. That’s good for us because we can have a low-data plan for ourselves. One (or maybe both) have Google Fi now.
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I have 5 kids on my plan, two in their late teens and three in their 70s. I have become resigned that I will pay for the family cell phone plan for the rest of my adult life, along with netflix, amazon prime, disney plus, etc. As long as we can I guess we do!
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Although my S is on our plan, he does pay his share. He pays me the annual amount once a year.
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Have your kid take a look at Google Fi and Cricket. I use Cricket personally, it’s really the ATT network since they own Cricket. With autopay its $30/mos with 2GB data. I think the Google Fi price is similar, they also offer international roaming at a low rate (Cricket doesn’t work abroad)
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TMo 55+ Magenta and Max plans currently allow up to 4 lines. D17 is still on ours. Anything she would pay us would just return as an inheritance later, so we don’t bother.
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I’ll never take my DD off unless she wants to go give the cell phone company more money. It doesn’t make sense financially.
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Older kid has never been on our plan. When he went to college, he got his first cell phone. He needed local coverage there…and this was before National plans…so…he got a plan where his college was located…and has kept that number all these years.
Younger kid…I would have left her on our plan, but DH said she needed to get her own. Luckily she gets a very very preferred rate through her employer and so does her husband. So, they now have their own plan. And I wish I could get their rate!
We are contemplating switching cell vendors…but that is DH’s thing…and it hasn’t happened…yet.
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Max. 2 lines.
He a VERY well employed engineer. He can handle it. 
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We used to have a 6 GB plan that 4 (and then 5) of us shared and we actually saved money by going to an unlimited plan on Verizon. I don’t know your circumstances, but it’s not always more to have unlimited.
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My s’s are married with families. They, but not their spouses, are still on our plan. We don’t let them repay us. For the last few years we switched to a business plan b/c there was such a great incentive at the time to move it , but one s casually mentioned a few months ago that he’d accidentally left his ipad (which was in the phone plan) on a plane. Long story short… when I called to remove that line from the plan I inquired about what other deals might be available, and ended up switching the whole thing back to a family plan with DH’s military discount, and its saving us $100/mo! So I am not too upset about the lost ipad, but I am not replacing it either.
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I have a 55+ TMobile plan and I share it with my 30+ D. H has a 55+ plan that he shares with our 30+ S. S pays for his and H’s phone plan. I pay for D’s and mine. It’s only $60/month.
None of us have any incentive to change—the plan is working fine for all of us and quite reasonable.
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Huh?
55+ customers can add up to four lines, up from two.
D is also a well-paid engineer who can afford it. But we’re not going to actively make an effort to switch plans to spend extra money.
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Our kids are on and there is no possibility we will switch or charge them. I have several iPads on our plan as I use them all the time using cell service outside the house, so no over 55 plan would work. As for charging them, no. That’s not just not something I’d ever be interested in doing. We don’t let our kids pay us back for anything just like our parents didn’t let us. Many years ago my in-laws picked up some furniture we’d ordered from a store and my husband gave his dad a check. No. Said his dad. That’s not how it works. The money flows one way. You do it for your kids someday.