With school just around the corner, it is important to keep in touch with your family. Coordinating schedules, extra curricular activities, and just figuring out who is where can be a daunting task. With T-Mobile’s new Family Allowances plan, it will be easier to stay in touch while managing the family’s phone service.
Family Allowances is currently available from T-Mobile and is designed for parents to easily manage when and how their family members use their T-Mobile® phones and service.
Parents can give their children an upfront monthly wireless allowance that
works on all the phones offered by T-Mobile. It is thought that this will help eliminate the concern about surprise overages. Parents can set and change limits for minutes, messages and downloads (e.g., games, ring tones and wallpaper) using an online tool.
Once the allowance is reached, the feature shuts off service for that specific element and parents receive a notification. Parents can stay in contact with their family members by setting up “Always AllowedSM” numbers that will continue to connect, even after allowances have been spent. Additional controls are available so parents can also choose to set allowances on features such as unlimited calling.
With Family Allowances, parents can choose to establish additional limits on the time of day a phone may be used, set allowances to zero to prohibit the use of minutes, messages or downloads (other than to “Always Allowed” numbers), and establish numbers that are blocked from calling or sending messages to any phone on their family plan.
“Parents across the country want their teens to have a mobile phone to stay in contact, but also want that phone to be used responsibly,” said Lisa Brown, director, marketing at T-Mobile USA. “With Family Allowances, parents get peace of mind knowing they can reach their sons and daughters, without having to worry about surprise bills. They can also reward their teens for responsible phone use by increasing their allowance.”
T-Mobile believes that Family Allowances is beneficial to all family members because it eliminates the surprise of unexpected monthly bills and can teach responsible phone use. T-Mobile will continue to offer Web Guard, a free-of-charge feature that restricts access to certain adult-themed (18 and over) web sites.
Family Allowances is now available in the coming weeks at select T-Mobile retail stores and online. Parents can manage all lines within their T-Mobile family plan for the introductory rate of $2 per month.
So what do you think??? Is this something that you might be interested in for your family? Do you see it being helpful as your children head back to school?
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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Hi, I think this “Family Allowances”
plan by T-Mobile is marvelous idea.
It will help with the phone bill and teach responsible use by the child. When you have a limit, you will be careful about who you call and the minutes your use. Thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
This is a great idea for the parents. the kids probably won’t like it too much.:)
I really like this idea a lot. I want to get a phone for my daughter going into middle school really bad. I love the idea of giving a minute allowance, that would really help with understanding how money works, keeping grades up, etc.
I think the Family Allowances plan is a great idea. I like the idea of being able to set limits separately on the different items (minutes, messages, etc.) I’m sure when are kids are old enough we’ll do something like this.
I do think that the Family allowances would be helpful for school time. It’d be good to know that the kid could call to be picked up or if anything happened but also to know that he isn’t racking up a huge bill
mitanari@yahoo.com
That’s a really interesting idea. And not only would it limit usage, but it would (hopefully) teach kids about budgeting.
Great idea! I agree, parents may like it but kids will haaate it. I think while I am footing the bill, though, I get to decide the limits.
I think it’s on the right track. I’m much more likely to put a cell phone in the hands of my child if I know I have control over it. Being able to block out services and times is awesome. I would love to be able to say “Between the hours of x and y, you may only place calls to me, your dad or our emergency contact.”
as a parent i love it! Kids probably wouldnt like it but they’d get over it especially if they are getting a phone 🙂