Help my DD ran up a £240 mobile phone bill

Lunar_Eclipse

red_devil wrote: »

Paul McCartney had pots of money but he didnt go overboard on his kids. Wanted to teach them the value of money!

I would imagine that it's all relative. I doubt they survived childhood on hand me-downs and Tesco value food.

I'm actually quite interested to know how even the most pragmatic multi-millionaires start teaching their kids about the value of money whilst clearly living a life of luxury. A fine line between spoiling and potential resentment issues I suspect, both of which could impact their future attitudes to money.

Lunar_Eclipse

red_devil wrote: »

Can you imagine a child being satisfied with a satsuma in their stocking these days!

No, but I wouldn't expect them to be since thankfully, we are not (generally) living in poverty and starving.

If your children would appreciate such gifts, that is great and worth providing them. I don't see it as a measure of today's doom and gloom.

littlemissmoney

Do you know who she is phoning? Has she just got a boyfriend? Have you met him? I'd be more worried about that than the money. I would want an itemised phone bill and would want to know who all the numbers belonged too. Is she upset because she is worried you are now going to find out about "him"? Is her making phone calls during the night not affecting her sleep and subsequently her school work?

dieselhead

I think the writing out of the phone bill is a brilliant inspired punishment

The rest sounds fine, it sounds like she is really upset and knows she has done wrong, and it sounds like she will be more careful in future, I do think that the phone should be confiscated for a good period of time though, a month at least.

elisebutt65

Both my boys (9 and 14) have PAYG phones and I put a tenner on each of them every month. We're all on Orange so we are all our own Magic Numbers so that means 20p for an hour if we call each other (apart from me cos I get them free on contract) Ds1(14) has 6.5 left from August and DS2(9) still has £35 as it's built up - not going to put any on now until Xmas so he can run it down a bit but he gets free texts at the mo - he has a phone so he can call his dad and vice versa without his dad having to talk to me (and have me in a bad mood for the rest of the day (RAFLMAO)

Recently DS1 has been nagging for a contract but I've just said NO cos I really don't want to be responsible for a lack of teen conscience/fit of forgetfulness and a huuuuge bill! He does have a paper round which gets him £17 a week so he can afford more top ups if he needs it. Perhaps the OIP's daughter could look into getting one to help paying off her bill? When DS wants something big I usually front up the dough and then he's pays me back out his money every week - so it's like he's buying it on credit and gets him used to it.

Spendless

Is it def the OP's daughter who has rang the numbers? I ask cos my friend had a similar problem with her teenager, and it turned out all his mates who had PAYG when they ran out of credit then rang on their friends who had a contract instead, with no thought to going over the limit.

Oldernotwiser

weezl74 wrote: »

Feefeedee, I don't think I'd look at it as giving a punishment. In the grown up world, you spend= you pay. I'd be tempted not to express it as a punishment, merely as a natural consequence.

If you said, quite pleasantly but firmly, 'what ideas do you have about how you're going to pay your phone bill' I'd be interested to hear what she comes up with. I genuinely think this is closest to how it is in the real world, and therefore a valuable lesson for her. And it doesn't make you into the horrible punishing mum!

What on earth is wrong in punishing her for deceit and lying? What's wrong with being seen as a parent with strong ideas on discipline?

Savvy_Sue

Pee wrote: »

Just a thought - and I sound like a salesman for Orange now, but Orange PAYG has "magic numbers" of other Orange phones you can call for 20p for up to an hour and I'm sure other networks have similiar schemes.

I have a couple of magic numbers, but I can only add another one every 6 months, AFAIK.

Dinah93 wrote: »

I would take it off her for a month, and draw up a list of chores and how much each one is 'worth' to help her pay it off. For example washing the car £3, ironing a piece of clothing 20p, cleaning the loo £2, filling the dishwasher £1 etc.

I think that's FAR too much for the loo and FAR FAR too much for the dishwasher, TBH. :rotfl:

How long do those jobs actually take? I could probably empty one faster than I could iron a shirt ...

BitterAndTwisted

I wouldn't "pay" a child to work off a debt like that, they should be making a contribution to the household chores anyway, especially if both parent work, no matter the age of the kids. Even a five year-old can take out the rubbish or straighten their own bedclothes.

I quite liked the suggestion that daughter physically gives the repayments to Grandad herself. Smart.

kidcat

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I wouldn't "pay" a child to work off a debt like that, they should be making a contribution to the household chores anyway, especially if both parent work, no matter the age of the kids. Even a five year-old can take out the rubbish or straighten their own bedclothes.

I quite liked the suggestion that daughter physically gives the repayments to Grandad herself. Smart.

Have to say I agree with that tbh, I expect all my kids to do chores and would be very wary of paying them to do it to pay off the debt, what happens when the money is paid off will they still want paying?