Cell Phone Plans for A School

[Will'sMom]

Hello all,
I have heard/read that the recruits can have cell phones at A school. My question is with the future they have ahead of them...school, then being assigned to a fleet -- what type of phone plan works best for them? How do they pay their bills when they are off on a ship? Something I just never gave any thought to up until now. Would love to hear whatever info anyone has to share. Thanks.

Melanie

[Wini]

Well it is a problem. Jake is 22 and we thought (silly Mom) that he had learned how to use a cell phone. We put him on our family plan for $10 a month. The only problem was my son went talk crazy and used up all the minutes and then some. He paid the bill and is now out on deployment. We did not park the account because it will expire when he is at sea and he can get his own when he gets back. Basically he used the phone from August till January. The air card for internet access is a whole problem in itself. It worked great in GL not so well in San Diego. The prepaid phones were so expensive for the minutes they got. If they want their own account most of the cell phone companys want a big deposit. My son has zero credit no debts (except student loan)and they wanted $400 deposit. They are encouraged to give a family member a power of attorney to take care of things when they are on deployment. My son has me on his checking account and I pay his student loan bill. That is the only bill he has at sea.

[KYmom]

Cingular has a plan that when they are out to sea, they will put his service on temporary hold and they give a military discount.

I haven't tried this yet, but that's just what I've heard.

Pengilum282 is on our family account and has been for 9 months now for $10 a month. so far so good and no problems. We are debating on if he should get his own account after BC or stay on ours since we have sooo many minutes built up. I better not say too much he might read this and think he can talk more if he knows we have some extra rollover minutes.

[Will'sMom]

I don't think I want to put him back on our family plan, as I am having a little trouble keeping up with my teenage daughter's downloads and extras which makes my monthly bill a nightmare to decipher!! A cell phone would be nice for him to have, so that we could call him as well; however, maybe we'll just stick with the phone card for now. If anyone else has any experience with cell phones please let me hear back from you. Oh, if Cingular freezes their account -- I take it, they still have to pay a monthly fee? You would think their would be a good plan for the military being deployed and all???

Melanie

[KYmom]

For the military discount it has to be in his name.
I would go with the same company that you all use due to the mobile to mobile factor. It cuts down on costs. Also make sure you get it from you home area that way his calls to there won't be out of area.

If B get his own after boot camp , he will have to come back here to get it, or purchase online with our home address.
I had the the company turn off the download capibilty for his phone.
He can't do any of that long a he is on our plan. They don't like to tell you that they can do that, but they can.

[Scott Hays]

We have a family plan through Verizon. The nice thing is, is that my son can call us at any time, and not use any minutes, as long as he calls us on our Verizon cell phone. The other nice thing is that all of his friends happen to be on Verizon also, so he doesn't use any minutes calling them either. For other people, if he's calling during the week, he just waits till after 9pm, but most of the time, he just waits until the weekend when it's free calling.

Although we haven't had to worry about deployments, what we're going to do, is take his portion of the cell bill, and cut it in half while he's gone, and pick up the other half. Then when he gets back, we'll just have him pick up his full portion again. The account is under my name, and I take his portion out of his checking account every month.

It's worked great so far, and no overages. Good plan.

Scott

[KYmom]

We have a family plan through Verizon. The nice thing is, is that my son can call us at any time, and not use any minutes, as long as he calls us on our Verizon cell phone. The other nice thing is that all of his friends happen to be on Verizon also, so he doesn't use any minutes calling them either. For other people, if he's calling during the week, he just waits till after 9pm, but most of the time, he just waits until the weekend when it's free calling.

Although we haven't had to worry about deployments, what we're going to do, is take his portion of the cell bill, and cut it in half while he's gone, and pick up the other half. Then when he gets back, we'll just have him pick up his full portion again. The account is under my name, and I take his portion out of his checking account every month.

It's worked great so far, and no overages. Good plan.

Scott



That's what we do with the Cingular.. Go with what ever the most people that you call use. That way you get the most usage for you $., or the most usage that don't cost you $$$.

[Robkindamom]

Ah cell phones....thank goodness for them....we have US Cellular all calls incoming FREE, all calls after 7pm at night FREE and from7pm Friday to 7am Monday morning all calls free! This is a local plan. You may want to get a phone from where ever they are in school because if you have a local plan on your phone and they are part of that you may get socked with longdistance if their stationed out of your area.
Our daughter had a cell phone in her name since she was 18 and the deal was I'll pay for it as long as you don't go over on the basic bill the first time you go over I stop paying. We never had to stop paying.
When she moved to GC she got a line with her boyfriend (her sailor) and there was a 200.00 deposit but it is refundable after 12 months. He also just has an auto payment taken out of his checking.
I would also say go with the best phone you can afford it does make a huge difference as far as reception goes.
They have All Tel in GC and they are able to program in 10 phone numbers that they can call as much as they want. So we talk at least 3x's a day for free....well I say for free it is for what we each pay for our service.
When I think back to when I was at home and my DH was n
the Navy and our phone bills would be several hundred dollars a month....back in the late 1970's that was a lot of money.
Ok so I dont' have my Dr's degree in cell phones but hope my rambling on has helped.
Best of luck and if you want to pm me that is ok.
Robyn

[Pengilum282]

You dont have to get a phone IN the area you want the number from. I work at Radio shack, we can give you a number in some Alaskan Village if you know the area code.

[mom2five]

Sprint! They gave Jon an account....no deposit, he had very little credit, just a little credit card and his student loan. He used it in San Antonio, San Diego, home on leave, then when he went to Bahrain he put it on military suspension. No charge for this, and they activated it the second he called them when he was back in the states for a few weeks in January, then it goes back on suspension....up to 24 mos! No activation charge, they are great. He only uses phone cards in Bahrain when he calls the states, way cheaper than a cell phone. He has one to use there locally, but it's a pay as you go one, working out great.

[FC3Campbellswife]

We have found that Cingular is pretty awesome about this stuff. If your sailor doesnt have any credit, the down payment is usually $100-$150. I know this for a fact, because I was 18 when I got mine, and only had car insurance in my name. After you kept the plan for 1 year tho, they gave the deposit back. We have found that Cingular works just about anywhere, even those small towns in the midwest with 1000 ppl (thats where we are from) and they offer free incomming, free mobile to mobile, free after 9pm (or you can get free after 7pm for just $7 more) and free weekends. They do have a program that lets you place your phone on hold if you get deployed, or you could switch it to international (its prolly best to place the number on park tho).You can also set it up on auto deduct from a credit/debit account, so you dont worry about it, or just pay over the phone. I hope this helps. Sprint is another okay one, but we had trouble with it when we went back home. Any time we got off the main highway we lost service. Definatly not good for those cross country trips. Dont wanna be out in New Mexico and not have service if we break down.

[ILNavyMom]

We have cingular and my son is on our plan. When he was in boot camp we put his phone # on a military suspension - didn't have to pay the monthly charge and he keeps same phone #. The phone is in my husbands name and we have 5 on the family plan. The highest priced one is receiving the military discount even though it is not in my son's name. It is either a 10 or 15 percent discount - I don't remember. THe military suspension thing is real easy - just give them a call to start it and give them a call to turn it back on - was on in about 30 minutes of calling them.

[Retired Navy Chief]

Bear in mind that some phones will not work overseas without purchasing a country specific SIM card. Some phone companies will jack the rate sky-high for calls originating overseas.

My advice would be for them to purchase phone cards for until they have had a chance to talk with their LPO's or Chief's about what works best out there. ATT and MCI used to have some good deals on-base. You can send phone cards in your care packages too !! Some people choose not to have cell phones on deployment at all. I always lost reception when we reached the open water anyway.

There are going to be a few "wolves" that are lined up outside the base waiting to sign them up with some of the worst plans imaginable ... your sailors chain-of-command has a vested interest in helping their sailors make the best choice. (**** This goes for buying cars, payday loans & tattoo shops among other things but I will save that for a later post.)

I remember how mad my wife got when she got our phone bill from calls I made home from Panama :shakeheadno: .

Cheers,
PISTOL

[Kyle'smom]

We have Cincullar (now AT&T) and we have four phones. We have unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited mobile to mobile, and unlimited long distance. Because we have the nationwide and unlimited mobile to mobile, I was able to send my son his phone to Groton, CT and he is able to use it with no extra cost other than his $10 a month. Now over seas is another issue. We didn't put his on military suspension - we now pay about $6 a month for international roaming and $2.49 a minute for him if he calls us. It has been great; however, HIS first portion of the bill (for the international calls was around $250. He paid it. This way he can call me when whenever he hits a port (can't call underwater as he is on a sub). He has called from many places and the reception has been very well.

[Pengilum282]

Yea, we hear them harping almost everyday about not going out and getting sucked and....... you can imagine. By all the surronding car lots that want to finance us, here in Norfolk.

[Smith009]

I like your topic About Cell Phone Plans for School. According to me i think it is not good for student. If every one have mobile in school then they can not study properly and may be they can misuse of the cell phone, so I think that it is better that student come at school without cell phone.