5 Ways to Minimize Your Child's Cell Phone Bill

If you have a child who is running up their cell phone bills to the maximum then you need to find ways to quickly minimize their spending. In this article I will talk about 5 ways in which you can do that simply by taking a few steps and implementing them.

- Deduct half or the full amount of the bill from their allowance
This can easily be a solution for many parents who are giving their children allowances. If you let your child know that you will be deducting some of the payment due from their allowance they are sure to not want to spend a lot on their cell phone bills. They will surely start being careful or they will find alternative ways to communicate with their friends that will not risk her/his allowance at any time.

- Teach them how to send SMS messages through the computer
If what makes your child's cell phone bill really high is their overuse of SMS messaging then there is also an easy solution to this. There are many free SMS applications out there on the internet that you can start getting them to use if they are going to be texting for a long time and especially if they are home while they do it. If your kids have instant messengers they can simply enter the mobile numbers of their friends into the message and they can chat through there possibly.

- Get them Skype and encourage them to tell their friends about it
If your kids haven't yet heard of Skype then it's time that they do. Skype is an internet program that allows anyone to talk for free through the computer using a headset. If your kids and their friends get this, then they will spend more time using it than being on their cell phones. Note: You can get Skype at www.skype.com.

- Give them limits per call
Telling your kids that they're not allowed to spend more minutes than they have is the best thing you can do. Help them divide their monthly minutes into 30 days and then let them know they are only allowed to use more than what's allowed per day. Teaching your kids to manage their minutes can be the cure to high cell phone bills.

- Lost Privileges
Let them know that they may loose their privilege of having a cell phone if they break the limits that you have helped them set. This will be the easiest way for you to get your kids to not spend a lot on their cell phones; if they are afraid that you might take their phone away they are sure to be more careful after knowing that.