Prepaid Cell Phone, Pt. II

I've been thinking about this prepaid cell phone thing. While initially I was opposed to it, I've been wavering.

After my daughter ran up my wife's cell phone bill with her incessant instant messaging, I was livid. Nevertheless, I kept my cool. That absurd $150 charge will buy us a whole lot of laundry service.

But as I wrote, T-Mobile was no help. In a month (when the contract is up), that cell phone will be no more. It's quite amazing, seeing how hard the cell phone providers fight for customers, that they wouldn't make any effort, whatsoever.

I heard from one kind reader, who shared a similar tale of woe. His story ended on an upbeat note, however, as Verizon played a happy tune and slashed his overage charges. T-Mobile, on the other hand, plays a cheezy whaa whaaaa whaaaaa whaaaaaa monophonic ringtone.

So while a prepaid cell phone might not work for me, I'm hoping that it works for my daughter. Most importantly, I'm hoping that it teaches her the value of money. If she's completely responsible for paying for airtime, she'll pay attention to the river of cash that's flowing out of her pocketbook.

Or so we can hope ... :)