Scary -- wife gave permission to grandkid

[Sepisllib]

to upgrade her phone to smart phone with "hotspot" capability.

We have been supplying grandchild with cell phone for couple years now - but lately she has been pressuring wife to let her upgrade so she could do "homework" with a hotspot. At her home she has no WiFi availability --- so wife felt sorry especially since we are away for couple weeks.

But - in spite of my disagreement wife gave go ahead (since the phone was in her name) and now I worry that the $20 extra monthly charge for that 1 Gig of "monthly" data will blossom to a much bigger monthly bill.....

I KNOW grandchild wants to watch movies, she has a friend who gives her the code for NetFlex and now I worry that is all she is going to do...

What kind of bill should I expect for a few movies a week now????

PS - This is through Verizon.

Thoughts??

God Bless

Color me "worried" about the bills.

Bill

[Ragingbull]

It depends. How old is your grandchild? Has or does she often show common sense and responsibility? Finally your DW should be able to place a cap on the amount of data sent/received.

[Bdhicks]

TROUBLE! 1gig to a child is nothing, they will burn through that in no time. Sounds like a grandma that loves her g-baby though. You might want to see how much itis for additional g's after grandchild goes over and consider how much extra gigs are above the 20 bucks. Like 2gig for 25 or 5gig for 30 will save you money in the end. Remember wireless company don't care after you go over...it's pay up, you should have watched it closer. Good luck and hope it works out for you P.S. sounds like you are awesome grandparents!

[CorLynn]

I believe 1 quality movie would take over 1 gig.

[ghoststories]

With Verizon, which is what we use, you should be able to check out the usage online, I would keep a close eye on it, doesn't take long to go over your usage plan if you don't keep an eye on it.

[LSC9901]

You can definitely monitor it on line. I believe you may also be able to cancel it on line if you feel it has gotten out of control. I know there are several items that I can change by just going to Verizon.com.

If you haven't already you'll need to go in and set up a user name and password.

[wa8yxm]

Depending on your cell provider they may be able to set a "Cut off" so when darling Grandchild hits that 1 gig "Wall" the data flows not. (And the overage charges also flow not) Not all providers can do this.


Example: You know all the yammer about the very dangerous practice of texting while driving.. Well if I'm ever so charged I have the pefect defense.. I call in a rep of my cell provider who says "NO, Your honor. that account does not have texting ability, it was blocked at the account holder's (ME) Request back in 2009". and walk out a free man.

[Sepisllib]

Scary!

But I think I will let my wife learn her lesson here - she has her own pension income and I don't interfere with he much on that end of things. I pay most of the bills and she buys groceries and then has plenty to spend on grandkids and "kids" up to a point.

I have tried to explain the bandwidth to them both and they are totally ignorant of the limits.

I used to have Hughesnet satellite internet - that was until grandkid (granddaughter age 17) begin watching those netflex movies and in one day totalled me out and I had to buy the extra.

I switched to Mediacom internet and that has been good ---but this is something different.

Up to now the phone was a phone and she could do some browsing and an e-mail. This move granddaughter made was because she was told that a mobile hotspot would allow her all the movies she wanted.

Guess I have to bit my tongue and let wife learn.

God Bless

Bill

[Midniteoyl]

2 hours of streaming music to your cellphone every day would generate 9 GB of data downloads, according to the Verizon Wireless online data use calculator.

[JC2]

Expanding on the previous post, this link will give you and idea on what things use what amount of bandwidth. As you can see, doesn't take long for it to toal up.

What does 5GB (Gigabytes) Get Me? : EVDOinfo.com

[DrivinMyHome]

I have Sprints supposedly unlimited plan. I use this as my only source of internet and am always streaming movies and music. I watch Youtube, stream Pandora, Netflix, you name it.

Sprint called me last month as a courtesy to tell me that the Mobile Hotspot feature that I have been paying extra for was no longer included in the unlimited price (love it when they can change the contract, but you can't!?!). It would be limited to 5 gigs per month. If I didn't cancel it immediately, I would be charged $.05/meg for any hotspot usage over 5gigs. I checked my account and saw over 185 gigs of data transfer (not even my biggest month!!). Subtracting the 5 gigs, I would have had a bill of over $9000 for ONE MONTH!!!

Needless to say, I cancelled the hotspot function. The phone is still unlimited data and I used over 15 gigs in the first week (via the phone) after dropping hotspot, so my usage was not ALL hotspot.

My point: BE VERY CAREFUL!!! That 1 gig would be gone in less than 1 day in my house, And I don't have any teenagers (yet).

[chuckinthebus]

"Hot Spot" will allow her to long on with computer along with several of her friends, and that will chew through your data plan in no time.

[dons2346]

You're gonna be sorry

[Arch Hoagland]

I remember as a kid going from a party line to a private line.

Our phone number was 7505.

My how times have changed although I remember my grandparents complaining that the private line cost a lot more than the party line.