Help my DD ran up a £240 mobile phone bill

FabuLass

What we are doing with her so far is.....making her copy the itemised bill from online ( wasn't going to waste my ink printing it out!) there are 28 pages of it so it will take some considerable time!! We have asked her to write the name beside each number so we can see who she was talking to and when...though she has said it was mostly her boyfriend..

We have confiscated the phone for now, but haven't yet decided for how long (possibly a week...possibly more...we will decide tonight and tell her then) ....but she has spent the whole day crying and I'm sure if we give her it back and say text only....no calls she will stick to that. The phone will be taken off her at bedtime too.

We are going to ask her to sell the phone to claw back a lump of cash and she is fortunate that there are a few spare phones in the house.

Her pocket money will be the same ( all my children work around the house after school every day to earn that) but we will ask her to pay at least £5 back off her debt and we will give her a re-payment card as suggested.

I will knock a pound or two off the debt as well for other jobs she can help me with like ironing etc..

She really is not a bad or a spoiled child...none of mine are....in fact the first thing her twin brother did was to count out his savings and offer then to me. She's just a typical teenager (14 for those who missed it), a bit thoughtless perhaps but she wouldn't intentionally do anything to hurt us.

We will work out what to do contract wise in April and will possibly go PAYG....funny thing is the o2 operator told me we were now platinum customers because we had spent so much...lol....like that was any comfort. Unfortunately they can't put a limit on the account.

That's it for now...I'm feeling emotionally drained with it all, hopefully it'll all look a bit better in the morning,

thanks to all, ffd x

nm123_2

Sounds like a fair deal to me...

FeeFeeDee wrote: »

....in fact the first thing her twin brother did was to count out his savings and offer then to me.

Oh BLESS him

juliescot

FeeFeeDee wrote: »

What we are doing with her so far is.....making her copy the itemised bill from online ( wasn't going to waste my ink printing it out!) there are 28 pages of it so it will take some considerable time!! We have asked her to write the name beside each number so we can see who she was talking to and when...though she has said it was mostly her boyfriend..

We have confiscated the phone for now, but haven't yet decided for how long (possibly a week...possibly more...we will decide tonight and tell her then) ....but she has spent the whole day crying and I'm sure if we give her it back and say text only....no calls she will stick to that. The phone will be taken off her at bedtime too.

We are going to ask her to sell the phone to claw back a lump of cash and she is fortunate that there are a few spare phones in the house.

Her pocket money will be the same ( all my children work around the house after school every day to earn that) but we will ask her to pay at least £5 back off her debt and we will give her a re-payment card as suggested.

I will knock a pound or two off the debt as well for other jobs she can help me with like ironing etc..

She really is not a bad or a spoiled child...none of mine are....in fact the first thing her twin brother did was to count out his savings and offer then to me. She's just a typical teenager (14 for those who missed it), a bit thoughtless perhaps but she wouldn't intentionally do anything to hurt us.

We will work out what to do contract wise in April and will possibly go PAYG....funny thing is the o2 operator told me we were now platinum customers because we had spent so much...lol....like that was any comfort. Unfortunately they can't put a limit on the account.

That's it for now...I'm feeling emotionally drained with it all, hopefully it'll all look a bit better in the morning,

thanks to all, ffd x

Sounds like a well thought out considered response to the situation.

Hope it all works out - all the best

boopydoo

A friend of mine had this problem as well- her daughter ran up a huge bill that she was left with. To make sure it doesn't happen again you should ring them up and ask them to set the credit limit on the account to zero. This means once the inclusive texts and minutes have been used up for the month, the phone cannot send texts or make calls. Not sure if all the networks offer this but that was with 3 and I did it for my brother on 02. Not a solution to the problem at the minute but you can make sure it won't happen again.

As for paying the money back I would suggest you half any money you give her at the minute and put it towards paying it back.
Give her a list of chores to do every week that she will get credit for
Encourage her to get out and do something- babysit, wash cars whatever!

But definitely ring up and get credit set to zero ASAP

red_devil

Alikay wrote: »

In fact, he WAS harmed by his cold upbringing and the fact that his parents refused to meet any but his most basic needs. Yes, he could buy himself a Scalextric and a bike now, but they'd have brought him a lot of pleasure when he was 9, not mid 40's. j

so what !!!! happens deal with it! Some kids go through far worse. Some dont even survive their childhood.

Alikay

red_devil wrote: »

so what !!!! happens deal with it! Some kids go through far worse. Some dont even survive their childhood.

Strewth!! What crawled up you and died!!!:rotfl::rotfl:

(I thanked you again to try and brighten your day, pet xx)

red_devil

gwhizz75 wrote: »

Red Devil - So what? If people have the money and want to spend it on their kids then why on earth shouldn't they?


because alot of them cant afford it. One pair of trainers at £75 is a lot of money on most peoples family budget. Parents dont feel they can say no and then get into debt or have to go without something so their kids can have the latest this and that!

GSXRCarlos

OP - i also suggest that you reccomend that your daughter goes round to grandad's and offers to help out around their house, she could either do them as good deeds (thanks for bailing mum and dad out) or arrange to be paid for them. ie helping with the washing, washing their car, hoovering the house etc

MERFE

Sounds like you are doing the right thing and she is going to learn from this. If mine ever get a contrct phone (they'd be lucky) when their older and do this I would confiscate the phone for a week or 2 then they could have it back during the day and repay the bill. Once the bill was repaid I'd leave the phone with them on the understanding if it ever happened again they would lose the phone and have to get their own payg and top it up themselves out their pocket money. Mobile phones are not essential, they are a luxury and so if a child can not be trusted with one they lose that luxury imo.

Blackpool_Saver

Bethankim wrote: »

every time he cleaned the loo he was thinking thats another £2 i have paid

Nearly had to clean the screen............:rotfl::rotfl: