Friday, October 31, 2008

Texting

A few months ago, Jason and I combined our cell phone plans into a shared family plan in an effort to save money. We have saved some money, so we are pleased with that. However, the text messaging charges are adding up and costing us some money. I called our cell phone provider to inquire about adding the unlimited text messaging to our plan. I was expecting to only pay around $9 a month. I would be fine with that because we are paying more than that on our current bill anyways. However, I was quite shocked to hear that it would be an extra $19.95 a month! We don't text that much, so I said a quick thanks and hung up the phone.

We get charged $.20 a text, but we don't text $19.95 worth each month. So here is my question, should we just carefully limit our texting (which we have been doing for the past little bit), or do we just call and disable the text messaging feature from our phones? I know that it sounds petty, but that little bit keeps adding up and I'm tired of paying extra for something that I just really don't care that much about. I'm open to suggestions. What works for you and yours?

8 comments:

Jamey said...

Does your plan offer an in between? We have cingular (I guess AT&T), and we have the 200 messages for $5. That's just right for us.

For the longest, we never texted because of the extra charges. It got to the point where we were having to pay because other people kept texting us, so we caved. I have noticed I like the convenience though.

Unknown said...

As old fashioned as it sounds...Tori and I don't text either. On my old phone I had them completely shut off the incoming texting feature. Sure, it's frustrating when someone sends you a text and they think you are just ignoring them, but so is paying .20 for a message that says, "What's up?" or "C U L8R" or my all time favorite... "OMG!"

I'm with you. It would be nice to have, but it's certainly not a necessity...and since it's not a pillow or a balm i'm guessing from your last post it's not a necessity for you either, huh? :)

Stacy said...

I got a 1500 text package over a year ago--8.99/mo. Jon once got a bill where his text charges were over $50, just from receiving texts, so we decided that if we were gonna text we might as well pay a regular fee! Jon got a 400 pkg for 9/mo. We used almost 900 texts between the 2 of us this past month!!

I text him while he's at work and doesn't have time to take a call. I text his mom several times a day. I text the girls in the youth group. I text when I can't get on the phone. I text myself things when i'm out and need to remember something and can't write it down!! He texts people at work. It's worth it for me!!! BTW...our overages are 10 cents per text.

TARA said...

Are the people you text the most ones you could call and leave a message for free airtime minutes? Our family can call each other airtime free anytime. But to text each other - we'd be charged. We were forced to go the unlimited route after Ethan racked up hundreds of dollars in text messaging on our bill. He, of course, had to pay us back.

So my point is, get rid of the text messaging if you could call someone and leave a message if they can't answer.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the texting plan costs that much. We have one for each of our phones but it is not that expensive. I don't text very much so I have a small plan. Not sure about how much we pay for Corey's? Good luck with the decision.

Stefanie said...

Danny and I have the shared plan but our plan came with unlimited text and pix messages. So that saves us money, our plan is kind of expensive but we also have to use ours a lot for work, so we need the text on our phone. I think if it cost that much on our plan, I just wouldn't text.

Unknown said...

Ugg--I know I'm supposed to be part of the "texting" generation--but I'll confess right now that I really hate it!

We get sooo many texts here b/c many of our Chinese friends feel more confident about sending a message instead of trying to speak/decipher each other's oral english. But even in America--it's out of control!

I mean, I don't mind using texts to send short and sweet messages--"runnin late, b there in 15min"--that's helpful. But ppl use it instead of ACTUAL conversations--so you spend 20 minutes texting back and forth when it would take 2 minutes to just call! Blah! Ok--that's my rant! Thanks for letting me use your blog for it!! :) I love you!!!

Sunny said...

Thanks for all of your help! I think that we are leaning towards disabling the texting feature on our phones. We aren't the ones with the problem. We get so many texts in a month from other people (some are even from our cell phone provider!). I might try and give them another call just to make sure that it really would cost $19.95 a month.

If we cut off the texting, I will let everyone know so that they won't think that we don't love them! :)