The gift of gab
By Brandy Nance (Contact)
Originally published 01:17 p.m., December 18, 2007
Updated 01:17 p.m., December 18, 2007
Photo by Maizie Main
Jenna Fugate sits and text messages on her cell phone. Cell phones are a popular gift this year for Christmas.
With a week to go before Christmas, many parents are scrambling for ideas to fill those stockings. At the top of some kids’ wish lists is a cell phone.
Cell phones for kids can get costly, but the family of Trade and Sherri Hileman know how to keep costs down. They have five phones on a family plan with their three children, Adam, 18, Hali, 20 and Lexi, 16. The Hileman family has service through U.S. Cellular.
Trade Hileman said his family has had cell phones for two years now. The family shares 1,400 minutes among the five phones.
“If they go over they have to pay,” Hileman said. “We teach them to respect everybody else. Because if one goes over, the rest of us go over, too.”
Other features, such as texting, can get expensive on cell phones, but for the Hileman family it actually saves them minutes. The family buys an unlimited texting plan to hold costs down.
“The kids don’t talk much anymore,” he said. “They text. We do have 7,000 texts a month on one phone. But the texting saves in the long run.”
Photo by Maizie Main
A student texts while sitting in class at Emporia High School. Many parents are buying cell phones for their children for Christmas.
Hileman said when the cell phone bill comes due each person knows exactly how much they owe. This includes any overages or anything extra that might have been purchased the previous month.
Hileman said he and his wife Sherri try to teach their kids financial responsibility.
“If they want to do the downloads, they come to us,” he said. “If they want to spend the extra $4.95 or whatever they pay for it. We try to make sure they don’t spend their money foolishly.”
Roberta Winger, director of sales for U.S. Cellular, said cell phones are still one of the best Christmas gifts to give. She suggests parents bring their kids into the store, walk through a phone’s features with them and find out what the kid would most like to use the phone for.
“Are they going to talk or are they going to text more?” Winger said. “What time of day will they be using the phone?”
Winger suggested taking the kid to pick out the cell phone and having a sales representative walk through phone features with them.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to know what you want when you don’t know all the features,” Winger said.
Winger said it’s very important to talk to kids about data and messaging — especially the difference between text messaging and premium text messaging. Television shows often come under premium text messaging, which carries a charge per text that will be automatically added to phone bills.
“When you text in to vote for something those are premium messages,” she said.
Other tips:
F Holiday breaks likely will mean an increase in cell phone use during daytime hours — review how children use the phone.
F Talking to teens and tweens is the best way to know what they need and will help parents reasonably estimate cell phone expenses.
F Consider an unlimited text plan and encourage teens to text more if voice minutes are causing overages.
F Prepaid wireless is a good tool for budgeting or teaching youth how to manage the time and money spent on wireless phones.
F Explain the concept of wireless minutes on the phone, appropriate uses of the phone and the importance of saving minutes for emergency situations.
Tips courtesy of U.S. Cellular.
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