Why is texting so expensive? (1 Viewer)

[CRyan]

And you know I just dont think I can do touch only texting. I just text too much without having to look at my phone. I wonder if apple will ever come out with a super thin clamshell design.

 

[Philip Hamm]

No.

 

[Steve_Tk]

With auto complete on the phones I don't have to use the 2nite and garbage like. For me, texting is just like learning to type on a keyboard. At first it's slow, then you are extremely fast. I use texting a lot because it cuts down on having to call someone. When I'm at work I can send my girlfriend a quick text that she can check easily while working because she can't stop teaching to listen to a voicemail. It has a lot of uses like that. I find msyelf in a group of people a lot and instead of excusing myself to use the phone i can send a text to someone instead, like "meet at the gym at 445 instead of 415".

 

[Jerry Almeida]

I'm not ashamed to admit, that's one of the main reasons why I love texting.

 

[Bryan X]

You might like "Sly Dial" then. It lets you go straight to a cell phone's voicemail and it's free* too!

267-SLYDIAL and enter the person's cell number you are calling and it will connect you directly to their voicemail.

*If you opt to use it for free you have to listen to a short ad.

 

[Jerry Almeida]

SLYDIAL is pretty cool. I'll definitely find some use for that. Not exactly free, since you have to pay the long distance charge to call Pennsylvania, but worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Bryan X]

Does anyone even pay for domestic long distance with cell phones anymore? I haven't paid for domestic long distance in many years and I even have the most basic plan.

 

[DaveF]

Only those with grossly outdated cellphone plan or a landline.

 

[Lucia Duran]

I've only texted a total of three times in my life. When we recently got my daughter a cellphone, she wanted texting. I told her no. She than came to us with the reasons why she wanted it and offered to pay for it herself. we decided that she could have it and the money comes from her. She pays $5 a month for 400 messages. Her and her best friend send eachother texts and a few times when needed her aunt did. One rule was we are allowed access to her messages if we ever need to. She agreed.

 

[Jerry Almeida]

I made my first "test" call from a land line, which is why I brought up the long distance charge.

 

[Buzz Foster]

I have unlimited text on my phone. I love texting. It allows me to have briefer conversations. Some people can be time vampires without knowing it. A quick text conversation can cut that down considerably.

 

[DaveF]

Having a newer phone must help; it takes me 10 minutes to type a simple "where are you?" message on my phone. I'm constantly using the arrow keys to fiddle with its (incorrect) guesses of what I'm typing.

I do like texting for sending important notes in noisy areas: like a "I'm here" note in a busy airport baggage check.

 

[Will_B]

Leaving a voice mail is problematic because of that 30 second spiel "To leave a message, begin speaking after the tone. For delivery options, press pound, for additional options press star, blah blah blah".

I think half the reason why that B.S. operator message still exists on most every service (Sprint has it, TMobile has it, others?) is to drive people to use text messages instead.

 

[drobbins]

Yea, but with out those instructions, I wouldn't know that I should hang up after I leave my message. :rolleyes

 

[McPaul]

Try sending a txt from Canada to the US. No free incoming. No unlimited plans, just $.50 per message.

Thank god for my iPhone, email is free!

 

[Bryan X]

Yikes!

Well, I buckled and got texting for my son's phone. It was pretty comical really. I got him the 300 per month plan thinking that should be enough. Ha. Not more than a week later, still in the same billing cycle, I'm calling up Sprint to upgrade to the 1000 per month plan so as to not get whacked with expensive overage fees since he's clearly going to go over the 300. Not much more than a week later (same billing cycle still) and I'm calling Sprint again to upgrade to the Unlimited because he's over the 1000 count. This month he's pushing 7,000 texts. *shakes head*

I almost feel like a sucker. I mean, I can control how many texts my son sends. He would obey the limit if I asked him, but I can't control how many texts are coming in from his friends, and there lies the problem. Once you activate a text plan, which Sprint, there is NO WAY to temporarily turn off texting if you see you are getting close to the limit. I felt like my hands were tied- either tell him no texting or go all out with Unlimited.

He's a good kid and a straight A student, so I caved.

 

[Matt Stryker]

does anyone here have a Peek? supposedly email and text are a flat $19.99 a month, and the device is only $79.99 or ~$50 at Target.

 

[Michelle Schmid]

And that is exactly why my two kids do not have texting at all. We also have Sprint and they are both responsible enough that neither would go over if I limited them (they have never gone over on phone minutes on our shared plan either), but you pay for outgoing AND incoming messages. Do you know how often a teenage girl can send the same message if she doesn't get a response in 30 seconds? The mind boggles.

 

[Will_B]

"This month he's pushing 7,000 texts. *shakes head*"

Sounds like he's using texts to chat back and forth with someone. A data plan might be cheaper, if his classrooms (or wherever he is texting) has wifi. He could use a chat program instead of dozens of back and forth texts every minute.

Or make him pay for it, that might work.