Both of our kids finished college/grad school and are earning decent to good livings. Our D left our plan soon after she got married. Our S is still on our plan as it would just be handing more money to the cellphone company if he were to go on his own. He offers to pay us back but we don’t accept – but we do share his password for a streaming service we wouldn’t pay for on our own so it all kind of evens out!!
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Most people I know just stay on the family plan and then split the bill up, that way each person pays their piece. I did leave my families plan many years ago because my mom was bugging me about my usage and it wasn’t her business. Lol. (how can ONE person send 800 texts in a month!!! who are you talking t all day? aren’t you getting any work done? mind you, this was right when unlimited texting became a thing and my then bf and I would message back and forth all day… and now that I think about it… if there are 30 days in a month, that 800 texts was really only like 25 a day-ish. hardly anything when you look back on it - lol) It cost me 2x more to go on my own and it was money well spent at the time. My parents have themselves as well as my 33/yo sister on their plan plus my grandfather as well. They each pay their portion.
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Until this spring we still had all the kids on the family plan. When one moved to a new area her husband added her to his plan because our carrier had poor service in her new home. We pay and don’t ask for reimbursement unless they go over our data amount. We used to have them pay us but it’s not worth the trouble. This usually only happens during football season when my son is watching games on multiple devices. They all pay for any new phone and if they have insurance.
Our D is off our plan, she moved off it when she got a job and started supporting herself. She uses way more data then we do, so it makes sense to have her pay for her own now. When she was on our plan, we paid for what the plan covered and if she used more data, she had to pay for that. Our son is still on our plan, he’s in college, and we have the same arrangement. If he uses more data then what is on the plan, he has to pay for the extra data, texts, calls, etc.
Yes, we could do unlimited, but we don’t want to pay for that and I think it teaches our kids that money doesn’t grow on trees.
We use Ting. It doesn’t cost much and we’ve been really happy with it.
Going unlimited was one of the best things (and biggest relief) we ever did. Everyone would freak out when we’d get that text “you have used 90% of your data and you have ___ days left in your billing cycle”.
At the time not everyone’s work place had WIFI. Or hotels and such. It’s one convenience to me well worth paying for. In the end it was not that much more $$.
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Yes I love having unlimited data.
I have resisted the unlimited data because they (Verizon) push so hard to switch, I figure something must be wrong with it. I know it used to be the speeds would throttle down after 20GB were used. We technically pay for 16GB but get 16GB “free for life.” We have never been over 32 but are always over 20. If I had to listen to moaning and groaning for a week each month about slow service, it wouldn’t be worth it.
I remember being on the UCLA campus when that email came and being told to “stop sending pictures, we’re going to go over!”.
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We have T-Mobile—unlimited data & everything for $30/line including taxes & fees. Using phone as hotspot is allowed as well! We have had sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile bu5 ended up sticking with T-Mobile because it’s the cheapest and meets our needs. Love free international texting too.
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It’s only 2 of us, both retired. Since we are usually at home with wi-fi, we use almost no data. Each month we have a lot of carryover from our 2GB.
TMobile (& AT&T and just about every other carrier) doesn’t work where our second home is located. Fortunately, we have Verizon. SIL and BIL complain every time they go over that they can’t get calls 
. Internet is unavailable any way other than with a jet pack. Verizon changed up their jet pack plans, so we get 150gb/month for each one, which covers the security system and pretty much everything else possible. They give a discount for each unlimited data plan, so we’ve come out ahead.
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