Cell phone bills for grown kids

I struggle with this too, because it's so much cheaper to have the family plan than cut off two of the accounts.

Right now, though, a still-active dot-edu email account is saving money on music streaming, so we decided we're waiting until we become grandparents.

"Kid, now that you're a working adult you need to cover your own cell phone bill. Please set up an automatic payment of $30/month to me."

Basically you need to figure out what their portion of the bill is and ask them to pay you that (monthly, annually, whatever). It is advantageous for all involved to share a family plan but they're no longer a dependent and should have no issue paying the bill.

I am your kid in this situation. Have been meaning to call Verizon for over a year to get off my parents plan. Feel guilty about being on the plan and the only reason I haven’t is laziness. If my parents had mentioned it even once I would have been off years ago. Just bring it up to your kids. I’m sure they aren’t actually looking for the handout, likely just laziness as it is in my situation

Got my own plan at 25 or so. Before then, my parents had been make me pay them since when I left college at 23. I got tired of being asked for money and they got tired of asking.

What really prompted me to leave their plan was when my phone broke over a long weekend and I was texting this girl I had met. My Dad dragged his feet on reaching out to Verizon which he had to do as plan administrator and I went phoneless for several days and lost my shot with this girl.

I also was the kid. It was the last thing remaining for complete independence as I also had been sticking around for the savings but grew tired of feeling like I was being taken care of. I got a new phone and new number and informed my parents they could drop me. It was probably 3ish years after college so age 25 or so.

I've literally always paid it, but it may be a bit different as when I got pay as you go you didn't have to be 18, you could buy one at any age. Also don't think family plans exist here or if they do they're not very common!

My parents probably would have let me stay on their plan forever if I wanted, but I wanted to be independent. It's more expensive than just paying my share of the family plan, but I didn't care.

Once a kid has a full time job, they need to be independent. They're not independent if their parents still pay for things.

So it'll be an uncomfortable conversation, but let your kids know it's time for them to be independent and get their own phone plans. And even say you'll take them off your plan by the end of next week. That way they get it taken care of asap.

Same thing goes for insurance if you pay for their insurance. You need to completely cut them off financially. They need to be completely financially independent of you. They're ready. They can handle it.

My parents paid my plan through college (2002-2006), once I graduated and got a job in 2006 I immediately went off my parents plan, there weren’t many/if any family plans at this time… fast forward 15 years, and now both my husband and I are back on my parents plan because it was cheaper for all of us to combine and get a family plan. We spilt the bill in half and then pay my parents annually for the bill.

going this route as actually saved both my parents and us money each month and was the better financial option. It may be cheaper for you to do the same, keep your child on your phone plan but have them pay their share.

This is the beginning of the end of you not being part of their lives anymore

Soon they will stop showing up for Christmas.

Then you will see them probably once every few years.

And then never again.

Cherish them on your phone plan as long as possible.

Can’t believe I am reading this. Cut them off now. Seriously, why would you pay for your adult offspring? You are an enabler of bad decisions and poor judgment.

This is what my family does as well. My siblings and I (all post-college 20-somethings) have monthly automatic payments to our dad's account to cover the cost of our phone lines.

We've asked our dad if he wants us to get separate phone plans, but he doesn't see the point, as the grandfathered family plan we're on is cheaper for everyone involved than whatever new plans we could find. Some people may disagree with this choice because it doesn't demonstrate "independence," but my parents have always been pretty financially pragmatic people; they don't think the symbolic "independence" is worth the extra cost.

My 35 year old daughter (has two kids, makes plenty of money) is still on my cell plan. Her husband is on his parents. It is f'ing weird. My only consolation is that I do scam her Netflix, and Amazon Prime accounts.

We had everyone on the family plan and still do. I have a kid still in school and one that graduated last year. We still have the graduate on our plan and she just venmos the money to us each month. When our youngest graduates next year I imagine we’ll do the same.

Since we’ve had our plan so long and we are grandfathered and have a pretty small bill for good service, I imagine we’ll just keep them on our plan as long as they pay their own share. It would end up costing them a lot more if they had to go on their own plan.

This is bizarre. I paid for my phone service from the moment I graduated high school. A "home phone" at the time was something like 70 monthly without long distance, and 120 or so with long distance calling. The "calling card" era saved a few bucks a month but you still had to pay to allow your phone to dial more than 7 digits in most places.

And anyone on this thread who doesn't realize you can buy a phone NOT at your cell phone store proves to me how ignorant most people are.