Teens & Texting: How do you manage your cell phone bill?

(DIGTRIAD) Greensboro, NC - Today's kids are more in tune with technology then we ever were and the price of being tech-savvy is starting to show in some cell phone bills.

We hear about parents who get stuck paying their kids outrageous thousand dollar phone bills; but how do you prevent that from happening to you?

Texting can be addictive and if you get into the language it texting can turn out rather interesting.

Take this sentence: "I wdr y txtg is xlnt 4 peeps?"

Any guesses?

In text language it means: "I wonder why texting is excellent for people."

Who knew right?

But no matter what you're writing in these messages it can get expensive.

If you don't have the right plan for your family sending a text message here and one there can really add up.

WFMY News 2's Tracey McCain spoke with a family of texters, the Levesques from Greensboro.

Their teenage son sent over 12,000 text messages last month. But his parents aren't worried because they're able to keep their children's cell phone use in line.

"We text," confessed mom Terri Levesque. "We have unlimited texting so we text in the morning, we text in the afternoon and we text at night."

Ty, her teenage son averages messages in the tens of thousands. But he's not as bad as some of his friends. "I have some friends that text over 23,000," said Ty.

"It's just mostly the 4-1-1. What's going on with everybody and how everybody's doing," said Terri's daughter Hannah about her text messaging.

It's clear the whole family does it. "My son especially he texts a lot," said Terri.

"My brother texts too much sometimes," said Hannah. "I don't text that much," she said about her average 1,000 text messages.

"She texts me when she's like two feet away from me which is pointless," said Ty about his mother.

The Levesques type as swiftly as they come. Their styles vary, but the phone bill always stays the same.

"Our cell phone bill is great. Our carrier has blocks on everything so they can't do three way calling, they can't download things from the internet, they can't go on the internet," explained Terri.

The Levesques enrolled their children in a family plan. Unlimited text messages and a cap on minutes keeps her within the family's budget.

"My main goal was to have the same phone bill every month so I can budget. I didn't want to get one of those surprise phone bills that was $600 because they went over their minutes, or they downloaded something they weren't supposed to," said Levesque.

Terri is doing everything right. She set a budget, she knows her cell phone plan, and she sets rules.

"If I disobey her or I don't do something she wants me to do she'll probably take it away," said Hannah.

"As long as they do their chores and their grades are good, they can keep their phones. If their grades start to slip then we'll have issues," said Terri.

The family uses their texting as a means of keeping track of each other. The reason why it works for them is because they've mastered how to stay within their budget. They know their plan and the family sets rules for the children.

Those guidelines are the top three ways experts say you'll be able to mange your kids cell phone use.

Source: WFMY News 2

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