How do i stop my son going over his limit!!

surfbabe10

My son is on a Virgin £15.32 a month Blackberry contract (24 months) we are only a year into his contract. He continually goes over his limit, this month we are upto £35 already, some months it is more. The lowest credit limit they will put on it is £50 which isnt much help. Does anyone have any suggestions what I can do apart from take his phone off him or upping his tariff. I wish I had kept him on PAYG. It doesnt help that all the call centres are based abroad.

grumbler

In short, you cannot.
If the tariff includes mobile internet, ask Virgin to disable it.

Keep an eye on the usage online and take the phone off him as soon as he approaches some limit. This will teach him to use the phone responsibly.

kazwookie

1. tell him what his limit is, anything extra he has to work for ie do chores / get apart time job / paper round.

2.take phone off him and give him a Payg with £x per month, any more he has to pay for it.

3. Ask him what he would do if it was the other way round?

duchy

Seems simple -You tell him if he goes over his limit -he loses his phone-and mean it !
Presumably you can check on his progress through the month so check daily and as soon as he goes over-take it off him and replace the sim with a PAYG one (or better still keep the phone and give him a reallyold and uncool one that his mates will laugh at-peer pressure can have its uses !!) Next bill cycle repeat the process until he gets sick of it and moderates his usage.

As long as he thinks you'll just moan at him but not take action -he's not going to change his habits and probably thinks that you won't want to leave him with no phone at all. Maybe it's time to surprise him !!!

surfbabe10

I wish I could change it to PAYG but as its a 24 month contract I dont expect I can. The Virgin site is rubbish, cant get any of the previous calls/texts up the screen is just red, tried to explain this to lady in call centre but she just kept saying my bill hasnt yet been generated, she didnt seem to understand what I meant aaarrrggghhh! He knows his limits but I have a feeling he is also letting his friends use his phone. He is at a horrible stage at the moment doesnt care what you say to him or ask him to do. He is only 12 and has the worst attitude ever!! Rant over!

74jax

What does he get for the £15? Mine is that for a Curve with Vodafone but includes everything. Can you up his payment plan to £20 to include everything?

soolin

surfbabe10 wrote: »

I wish I could change it to PAYG but as its a 24 month contract I dont expect I can. The Virgin site is rubbish, cant get any of the previous calls/texts up the screen is just red, tried to explain this to lady in call centre but she just kept saying my bill hasnt yet been generated, she didnt seem to understand what I meant aaarrrggghhh! He knows his limits but I have a feeling he is also letting his friends use his phone. He is at a horrible stage at the moment doesnt care what you say to him or ask him to do. He is only 12 and has the worst attitude ever!! Rant over!

I agree with the poster above, just take the phone away from him, he will soon learn. If you feel he must have a phone for safety then buy one of the £5 Nokias and out £5 on it as a PAYG and give that to him each time you consficate his phone.

I have three sons and would have been horrified to think I had lost control of them already by the age of 12. At 12 he is a child, so treat him like one, if you let this go on and let him keep winning this argument then you are going to end up with a problem when he gets older.

duchy

You can put a PAYG Sim in his BB tho.

Lovely age isn't it-I call it the High School effect

surfbabe10

74jax wrote: »

What does he get for the £15? Mine is that for a Curve with Vodafone but includes everything. Can you up his payment plan to £20 to include everything?

He gets 500 texts and 100 mins and 1 gb of internet. Really dont want to up his tariff as I think that should be enough for him. I wish there was a lower limit you could put on his account.

Yinster

surfbabe10 wrote: »

He is only 12 and has the worst attitude ever!! Rant over!

He is only 12? Next time there is an attitude just take the phone off him and he doesn't get it for a month. Even if no one uses it for a month you still be saving money as it won't go over the limit. Can anyone in the family use his phone instead eg be near their own contracts? and he switch to a PAYG?

What tariff is he on? See if he uses all the limits up - texting and calling. My guess it is texting so probably see if this can be switched to a higher texting, lower calling tariff.

He needs to learn that you will not be covering any of his surplus charges and if you are he will need to work for them. If he doesn't learn personally I would sell the phone to cover the remaining 12 months and give him a cheap PAYG instead. It may work out cheaper in the end.

surfbabe10

duchy wrote: »

You can put a PAYG Sim in his BB tho.

Lovely age isn't it-I call it the High School effect

Its awful, definately a High School thing, lots of other parents say the same to me about their childs attitude since they started the new school. That and hormones kicking in dont make a great combination. He was grounded most last week for giving parts of his bike away and his attitude!