Outragous Cell Phone Bill

so many people get caught out this way.put a ban on the phone so he cant call out and contact the cell phone company tell them what has happened and work out a deal so you can pay if off over a longer period

You can always try calling your phone company. Sometimes they will work with you. They probably won't remove the charges altogether, but they may reduce the bill or give you more time to pay it.

Really all you can do is cry ..I have a bill similar to that..do to a call that was misdialed..and then they put on 175 or 200 more if you cancel your account..Cell phone companies put alot of folks in debt..I only use prepaid now..:(+

There isn't much you can do. You might call and make arrangements for the bill. I can't believe it was that high, how long was he on the phone? Hard lesson learned. Wow!!!

Did you know that he was calling out of the country? Did he ask you if it was okay? Wow! That is a huge bill! I would first call the cell phone service provider and talk to them about if there is anything that you can do. If it is possible to reduce the charges. Tell them that you simpley can not afford to pay such a bill. If they refuse to drop the charges or reduce it, then they will need to take payment arrangements. I would say if your teen is working age, get him to get a job at McDonald's to pay it off himself. Even if he only earned a hundred bucks a week, that means he could pay it off in six weeks. That would really teach him the cost and to take care of what he should be responsible for. Please let us know what happened! My heart goes out to you hun!

I do not belive that the phonecompany will actually care about the fact that he wasn´t aware of the cost, but maybe they can atleast divide the cost for you so that u will not have to pay it straight away. My parents got this chock from my brother as well one time, but it was made from their phone at home. they had to pay, but they divided it up for a few months!

You should make him pay for the bill. I would either make him get a job or return all of his Christmas presents and use the money to pay for the bill. I understand that he doesn't understand how much it would cost, but he needs to learn his lesson.

I would make him work to pay you back on that. Did he ask for permission first to call out of the country? And why do it on the cell phone? It probably would have been cheaper on the regular phone by quite a bit. :(

My son was out of the country last Christmas and the new year and he thought if would be nice to phone home and wish all of us and his friends a Happy Chrismas and New Year. Well, it would have been a lot happier if I hadn't seen the bill that came in for his mobile phone. It was 1700 euros! You could have knocked me over with a feather. I loaned him the money to pay it, but I made him pay every cent of it back to me. I am pleased to say that he has paid it back and also learned to text people when he goes on holiday.

if you call the phone company and explain, they may make you pay for a smaller amount if you are willing to also pay a small amount to have international calls and 900 numbers blocked on your phone. It may be the difference between having to pay the whole bill and cry, or just pay $50 and an extra $2/month for the blocking

I highly doubt the cell phone company is going to care, as far as thier concerned, they did not do anything wrong and will put the blame on yourself and your son. The best thing to do, take the cell away, or,have your son go on pay-as-you-go. Then he won't waste the time every month.

Tell your son to get a job and pay for some of it. Time to take the phone away. I never understood why people let their kids have a cell phone. If they can't pay for it they shouldn't have one. Ya know, they do have these phones where the parent programs a few numbers in and it has a 911 option and that's it.

You really can't do anything. The company will just keep telling you to pay the bill. When you signed the contract with the company, in the fine print somewhere, it probably talked about this.

Call the cellphone company, have them put a limit on his phone. Once it reaches that limit his phone will be shut off until the bill is paid.

They might give you a payment plan but they won't discount your bill. They will say it's your child so you are responsible for anything they do if they are a minor. Now if your child is over 18 and you really want to drive home a point, you could make them pay for it.

Well you can get the new pay as you go plan from cingular so you wont have to worry about stuff like that.........

cell company wont care how old is your son if he doesnt know calling into another country will cost alot? and what was he doing calling another country? Why not gte him prepaid or get him to do house work to pay it off he should really pay for it as he ran it up dont let him get away with him. I hope you took it off him straight away

i work in customer service so i guess i have a little experience on this. companies will always have workarounds for their customers. i suggest you try to call them and ask to speak to a manager and see if you can work on a payment plan. of course, companies may have options for you but they will stick to their policy, if they need to disrupt service then they will. this is because they don't want other customers to think that they can make overdue payments and still enjoy the service that is provided. still, a payment plan is an option. as punishment to your son, why don't you make him help you make the payments? if you can - split it in hal f- $300 for you and $300 for him. it's only fair. ignorance is never an excuse. why not make him work for it or take it out of his allowancem, at least? that way, you can pay your bill and make your son learn his lesson. ... hope i didn't sound too harsh, though. :o) i experienced the same thing when i was younger and boy, my mom sure made me work my way into paying the phone bill. my boyfriend pitched in too...

Yes call and complain. You can even say this was authorize calls. Hopefully they can give you a reduction on the price. Also if your phone has this feature you can disable international calling on your phone. You might want to get your son typing on mylot to get the money up to pay for the cell phone bill. This would definitely teach him responsibility, he will think twice next time.

First of all, put a block on what can and can bot be called. Does your son have a job? He needs to be the one held responsible for pay off. Even if he has to pay you back. Call the phone company and ask them if you can pay it in smaller increments. Most of the time, large companies will do what it akes to work with you. Good luck and I am sorry this happened!