On Jan 31, 2012, at 8:20 PM, Ellen wrote:
> I don't know what my problem is except the texting was NEVER a problem, but i-message suddenly got me complaints from my sons one who is on an iphone and one who is not on an iphone. And my son on the iphone said he received my messages as email not texts even though I sent them from my text app. I'm not sure what he meant. I text with other people sometimes and I've never seen a problem with that either, but maybe now with this new I-message it will. I guess I'll find out next time I try to text...
If he got it as an email, then check your address book and make sure you have the phone number in the phone number field and not the email field. And that it does not look something like 123-555-1234@txt.att.com.
> Now I am the only one with an unlimited data plan which was grandfathered in so far. But my younger son is constantly going over his plan. So I upped him to the next level which is $25/month. He went thru that in no time So I'll owe more for the next bill I am sure. When he gets home in February I'll have to block his usage after he reaches his limit..of course that will add $5.00 to my bill, but probably less than if he constantly goes over. My daughter when over once or twice, but she has been careful lately. Seems when ever anyone goes out of their city, the data plan goes over. My son thinks it was because he discovered Pandora music. He unfortunately may not always be at a hotspot when he is visiting his siblings.
Pandora uses data, he needs to learn to manage his data usage and Pandora uses data. If he is old enough to live on his own and can not manage to keep under his limit, then he is old enough to pay for his usage.
> My point is why have an iphone if you have to micromanage everything you do on it?
You don't have to micromanage it, you just have to select the correct plan and be willing to pay for it.
> In the beginning it was one price for unlimited which was a little pricey, but only two of us had I phones then. But now for new accounts there is no unlimited choice so then it comes down to micromanaging. My husband rarely goes over his, but he sent me a video he took while he was away... only 6 minutes, but I think he went over the minimum. I used this month so far about 226.4 megabytes of data and 2,726 of messaging. I assume that is sms? not sure since I had imessage on for awhile.
Texting, whether using SMS, MMS or iMessage does not use your cellular data. If you used 2726 text, that is a lot of texts for one person, for a family of 5 it is not bad. Some of the iMessage texts may have been sent as SMS and some not. But all iMessage can do is lower the number of text counted against your text plan, not increase it.
> How does that compare to what you do? I don't watch movies on my phone. I'm usually at home in my wifi area. I often use a map when I am out, but not all that often. Sometimes I go onto the internet when I am out to check on something. I usually don't talk on my phone during the day,
Again, data is separate from texting charges.
> I text quite a bit with some of my children who probably text often. My total bill last month was $291.00 for five of us including texting, 700 minutes of calling time, and all our data plans.
But what is your texting plan? And you would have to call your provider to ask if one family member can have an unlimited data plan, while the rest of the family on a family plan does not. I don't think so, not on a family data plan. If they will even break out the data separately from a family plan. (I'm a confirmed bachelor, so I have not paid attention to that area.)
If I were you, I would look over as many of your old phone bills, make spreadsheet of your voice, data and text usage by month, and get on the phone with your provider and see if there is someplace you can save. Make a list of questions before you call, like about the unlimited data and if some family members can have it while others do not. Can you pool data, but then who is going to monitor the family usage?
If you go into a cellular store, make sure you are in a cellular provider store and not a franchisee store. It does make a difference as to the accuracy of the information, and get it in writing. Plus you don't have to make the change right then. Sleep on it and see if it still makes sense to you a day or two later.
Your calling minutes are low to moderate, but I would think you need high use texting, and possibly more data.
You never said who your provider is, so I would ask them if you can change before the end of the month, if you see you are going over. Verizon used to allow this, but I think they dropped it. I have a feeling you're with AT&T.
> I don't know how that compares to most. Most of my friends tell me that pay a lot more, but they have a lot more minutes than I do.
How would you compare to others. We each have different numbers in the household, and different usage.
I am single, normally use under 100 minutes of voice, even when traveling for work seldom go over 200 minutes of voice. Normally use under 1 GB of data, but occasionally go over 2 GB and am grandfathered into "unlimited" data. I am grandfathered into 200 text for $5, but currently use less than 20 a month since I am no longer traveling for work. I pay about $65/ mo with a company discount and my provider is AT&T.
Brent
