<p>Not everyone needs texting - know your kid. We don't have texting on our family plan and almost the only texts we get are spam. We got our family plan just before son headed off for college. We checked the company maps and also the CC boards to find out what cell phones work. We also wanted a phone that works where we have a summer cabin.</p>
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My oldest drove me crazy with little overages & calling information etc
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<p>Here's a tip - do you know about Google's 411 service? It's free, and it works pretty well. You call 1-800-GOOG411 to reach it. It's automated, so you're talking to a voice recognition system. </p>
<p>I assume Google is providing this service as the cheapest way to collect a huge amount of voice data from people of all ages and accents, which they will use for their own product development. But meanwhile it's useful to have around.</p>
<p>We're on the modified Curmudgeon Cell Phone plan. AT&T with us in one state and one kidlet on the opposite coast. The second kidlet would be on our plan...but when HE got his first cell phone, most plans were not regional and he felt (and we agreed) that his cell phone should be local to his college so that folks would not be making toll calls to him (professors and job contacts for example). Of course, not that doesn't matter a lick...but since he has a different area code AT and T won't let us put him on our family plan.</p>
<p>Now...if they would just give free unlimited texting to DD.</p>
<p>We found that the only really sure way to know about service is to use the phone to call back home from all parts of the campus when you visit. Even though some services say they have good coverage, it isn't always the case. So when you go to visit campuses to check out schools initially, try your phone from dorms and other areas of campus. And I agree with unlimited text messages. All three of mine use it, and now I do too!</p>
<p>Make sure you bulk up your minutes. DD doesn't text but we got a surprise phone bill with overage charges based on how much she speaks with her friends.</p>
<p>We have unlimited texting for all 5 phones on our family plan for $30 from AT&T. Since the charge for unlimited texting on one line is $20 it is a great deal. Our five phones are scattered about the state and country.
My two youngest plus my spouse all text a ton. My 14 yr old with her new blackberry is the text queen. I think her friends must just sit around all day and text people since the phone is always making noises. They don't use that many actual phone minutes.
I find texting is a great way to reach my kids. Often they won't answer but will text. My youngest will often text me "Isn't it time for me to come home?" when she is with a friend and is tired of the company. She would not be able to say it out loud in a call.</p>
<p>We have Verizon and it has worked well for us. When the first bill came in and S1 had 3000 text messages, thank goodness we had unlimited text messaging. S1 doesn't call often, but likes to text message (obviously). S2 prefers to talk. </p>
<p>We would also send each other a lot of pictures. They sent us spontaneous pictures of bonfires, basketball games, etc. and we sent them pictures of the dog --- lots of pictures of the dog.</p>
<p>I'm still on verizon with my parents here in grad school. We're from eastern Pennsylvania, and I had great service while in Pittsburgh, and am still doing fine while here in Los Angeles. Since we're in network, I can call their cell phones whenever I want for toll free, which is nice since we're still pretty close and talk for an hour or so two or three times a week.</p>
<p>I don't ever use text messages, and a few of my friends here are the same way, but my brother texts like a fiend. I don't ride in the car with him driving anymore, since he'll just start tapping away in the middle of the highway!</p>
<p>An alternative you can always look into for calling home if you don't wind up on the same plan is an internet setup like Vonage or Skype. I use Skype's free computer-computer connection to stay in touch with my girlfriend since she's interning at a company about eight hours away this summer. If you've got webcams you can hook those up too.</p>
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We would also send each other a lot of pictures. They sent us spontaneous pictures of bonfires, basketball games, etc. and we sent them pictures of the dog --- lots of pictures of the dog.
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<p>It's funny, I don't miss my parents so much, because I can talk to them whenever I want, but I sure as heck miss our dogs. My mom's laid off sending me pictures of them the past year or so, and I'm actually pretty sad about it. :(</p>
<p>We have AT&T, with the $9.99/month for the kids' phones. We have nationwide calling, and I pay $30/month for all of us to have unlimited texting. We are in MA, son goes to college in PA. Phone works fine there and doesn't cost me any more than when he's home. Now that he's home he calls/texts with college friends from PA, NJ, NY, etc. Still no extra charges.</p>
<p>D still lives at home, she has 2 friends who moved here from out of state. Both have cell phones with area codes from their original home states. They seem to work fine, and it doesn't cost us anything for D to call or text either of them.</p>
<p>As long as you have nationwide calling and there's adequate coverage with your network at the college, you shouldn't have to do anything.</p>
<p>3000 text messages??!!!! That's a an average of 100 per day...his thumbs must be really sore.</p>
<p>With an Internet plan, you don't really need texting (at least to contact others with email or IM) as you can IM and email for free right from your phone. Our son never used texting other than in rare situations (like when on business in another country and it was far cheaper to text than voice call) and now just communicates with people via voice, IM, and email (all of which he can do from his phone). He pays $30/month for the Internet plan on his phone (so $10 more than he'd pay for just texting), but he can do so much more with the Internet (and GPS on the phone) that it's certainly worth the extra $10/month (or extra $30/month over what he paid before this month, when we had nothing but a basic family plan).</p>
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<p>Sprint has the widest</a> coverage of any cell phone company in the United States, because Sprint roams</a> on to Verizon, US Cellular, and other providers for free. </p>
<p>True, you're not allowed to spend the majority of your minutes roaming, but if they cancel you for excessive roaming, you don't pay an early termination fee.</p>
<p>People being idiots about their cell phone plans aggravate me. Do an iota of research before complaining that a cell phone company is "screwing you over with early termination fees".</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure: I'm a happy Sprint customer who pays $30 a month ($34 after taxes) for 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights that start at 7pm and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited texting, and unlimited data/Internet access.</p>
<p>I didn't see anyone here complaining about being screwed over with early termination fees. The quote you provide says they did not have to pay cancellation fees. </p>
<p>We also have AT&T; our 3 kids pay us their portion $9.95 month and unlimited texting for our family for $30 which we split equally. On our college visit to Philly last spring, we checked our reception, but still need to see how good it is in the dorm. If it's fine, we're keeping him on the plan.</p>
<p>There is so much texting going on with our family that our last bill was 121 pages (double sided, though)!! I may have to request no more paper copies of the bill; I feel bad about how that much paper and the postage.</p>
<p>We're with AT&T and have the family plan. However to get the nationwide "free" long distance, we had to pay way more than $9.95 for the first line, but the ones after that are cheaper.</p>
<p>Two key learnings:
1. Best advice I can give: Do confirm, as others have said, which carriers work best in the specific area your kid will be living. We found out after the fact that D's phone didn't work in her dorm room, hallway, bathroom or even the lounge.Only worked on the front porch of the dorm building. After a few chilly phone conversations, we had to switch carriers.</p>
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<li> Also learned the hard way about texting. Our 2 kids, a D and S, use it all the time. We aren't paying for any extra data plans with web, so it's either voice calls or texting. S uses way more texting and less voice--D just the opposite. However, after one month with significant overages, we added the unlimited text option.</li>
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<p>It's true that much depends on how your student will use the phone and the type of phone she/he has. If it's a new Iphone with all the web/data capabilities, it will be a very different plan than the basic cell phone.</p>
<p>Re post #32</p>
<p>Although I've never considered switching to Sprint... and probably still won't.... the plan you describe for $30/month certainly caught my attention.</p>
<p>But I can't find anything like it on the Sprint website. Can you link to a currently available plan with those features for that price? The only thing I find for $29.99 is 200 anytime minutes and no Internet access/texting.</p>
<p>The plan I found doesn't seem to allow adding additional Share lines, either. Which of course is what most of us on this particular thread use.</p>
<p>S has Verizon service,nationwide coverage.Thats always worked best for our family as theres lots of travel and coverage issues with other carriers.H's work cellphone originally was Sprint with horrible national coverage, recently changed to AT&T which is somewhat better.Verizon we never seem to have to worry no matter where anyone is.
Since S started college (entering junior year) we've been able to drop his minutes down to minimum plan and pay extra for texting.Texting use, at least by him, has soared.He now upgraded to a Blackberry(he paid for the phone) and will pay me the extra charges per month for the Internet service.</p>
<p>We DIDN'T have to pay a cancellation fee. And I didn't get any service. Sprint argued with us for a bit, saying they did provide service, but the fact that my phone was "Searching for Service" as soon as we left Portland (ME) and would not give me any roaming service at all rendered my cell phone unusable. So therefore, I switched plans. I may switch back this year as Sprint is in the process of building new towers.</p>
<p>As for texting, I really only text when someone texts me. When I had a boyfriend that texted often, I sent 1500 texts one month (and we DON'T have unlimited texting). But we pay for 300 a month on my plan and usually? I only use 50-60. The 300 is just a cushion in case I lose my head again. Know your kid.</p>
<p>We got rid of Sprint because we couldn't make phone calls from our house - which is not exactly in the middle of nowhere - and certainly not it a dead spot, it didn't work in Vermont, AND it didn't work overseas.</p>
<p>We had to switch from TMobile because there was spotty coverage from MN to Iowa when D was on the road to and from school. We now have Verizon family plan with unlimited texting for all four of us...$30 dollars a month. Both girls get their portion($120 per yr) as a Christmas gift and are happy to get it! The last $10 is picked up by hubby's work for his Blackberry. </p>
<p>Had to laugh about the above comment about using IM and emails. I just said something about IMing the other day and my then 16 yr old looked at me with disbelief and said that was old fashioned and not in use anymore. Then we had a talk with a coach and he was saying how the girls on the team said emailing is for old people. sigh...just when I get current with something! ;)</p>
<p>AZKMom - my daughter is in Philly and we got her service through ATT - most of the kids have it so it works well there - and there's a lot of texting going on!</p>