Your teen by now is probably looking to have a cell phone. Teen cell phone usage is growing. One third of all teen or tweens are carrying a cell phone. As a parent you need to decide if a cell phone is the right choice. Most teens are out and about, making a cell phone a good choice for you and for them. You can use the phone as a way of keeping curfew. Or, you may choose to receive a picture mail from your teen after they arrive at an event.

Parents are often worried about costly bills coming from teen cell phone usage. All of the following features of plans can cost you: Extra minutes text messages, email, Internet usage, picture mail, and ring tones. There are many choices of plan that may fit into you or your teen’s budget. If overuse is a concern you may consider a TracFone or other types of prepaid wireless plans. Your teen will have all of the features of a standard cell phone, without the costly features. With prepaid plans you will need to help your teen learn how to manage their remaining cell phone minutes. However, your teen should be responsible enough to manger their own cell phone usage. Paying for phones and service is another choice you will need to make. By making your teen responsible for the bill you may be able to help them control their own usage naturally.

Several plans exist that may or may not meet you needs. You can select a Stand Alone Plan where your teen will have their own phone, plan, and bill. You can control the number of minutes they have in this plan, but not prevent them from going over. However, you can view their usage each month on a bill or online, including dialed numbers. Add A Phone Plan consists of adding a phone to your line. In a lot of cases you can do so with little cost and may even get a free cell phone for your teen. Picking free phone for a teen may be a challenge due to cell phone styles. This is where you may decide to allow them to pay for which ever phone they may want. You teen will be using your minutes within your shared plan. This option does not prevent over usage. Prepaid Plans allow you to select a phone that does not require a service contract. These phone come with the same features, but are not tied to an account. To use the cell phone you or you teen must purchase minutes. The minutes may be managed to talk or to use features like email and text messaging. The only downfall to this option is the cost of each purchase minute.

When selecting a plan you will want to keep the following in mind:

What is the basic monthly charge?
How many anytime minutes are included?
How many free night and weekend minutes are included?
What is per minute airtime rate if included minutes are exceeded?
What is the long distance charge? (most now include long distance)
Are there roaming charges when you are outside your local area?
If so, how much per minute?
What are the hours per day for peak versus off-peak minutes?
What is the charge for text messages, email, internet, and picture mail?
What is the length of time for the contract if any?
Can you make changes to the plan during the contract period?
What is the cost of termination during the contract period?
Is insurance available on the phone. (protect your teen cell phone from damage)

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Author: http://MyChildToday.com
From: http://www.mychildtoday.com/Teenager/Advice/Development/Teen-Cell-Phone.asp

Cell phone calls are now placed easier than ever with an expectation of reliability and quality during phone calls. When cell phones were first on the market, the technology available was great for a person to make local phone calls under the right conditions. As time passed, the technology was improved to allow for a person to make cell phone calls that are several miles away from each other. Progression furthered to allow for cell phone calls today to be placed all around the world.

Cellular phone calls are placed without a second thought today. Even with things called ‘roaming’ and other obstacles that make cell phone calls an expensive thing to do don’t keep people from making contact with others when they want to. Cell phone calls are the main means of communication for many and the reliance on cell phones as the main source of communication continues to grow.

Wireless telephone calls are easy, convenient and often inexpensive for local people to place to one another. In fact, some cell phone plans allow for cell phone calls to be made between specific family members of individuals for free. Cell phones calls and the price people pay to make them seem to be on the decline due to the number of cell phone users taking advantage of ‘free talk’ plans and competitive cellular provider rates.

Cellular phone calls are a common thing that most people perform during the course of their day. Placing a cell phone call is just as easy as using a person’s home phone and many cell phones provide the same kind of features including call waiting and caller ID. If cell phone calls are something that seems difficult because of the technology involved, the fact in that making cell phone calls is much like making phone calls in the privacy of your own home.

About The Author: Kevin Lynch is the owner of Going Cellular website, which have tons of resources with a variety of information, news, blogs and more.

If your phone uses realtones, it is very easy to get them for free. A realtone is just a chunk of an mp3. So, basically, it is an mp3. And mp3s are very easy to come by these days. If you can get an mp3 of the ringtone you want, then you can get the ringtone you want as long as your phone uses realtones (or mp3s).

All you need to do is download an mp3 editor, cut out the chunk you want (unless your phone memory can handle the entire mp3), send it to your phone, and set it as your default ringtone. You should be able to accomplish this via email, bluetooth, or ftp.

If you have T-Mobile or another carrier which blocks you from using the full data transfering capabilities of your phone, they can’t stop you from using bluetooth technology to get the ringtones to your phone. This is done by simply buying a bluetooth adapter for your computer and syncronizing it to your phone with the software which comes with the device.

As I mentioned earlier, if you have the memory available, you don’t need to cut up the mp3; just send it to your phone and set it as your default ringtone.

Most people don’t realize how easy its becoming to get free ringtones. Its about time you don’t have to pay for your ringtones.

Article provided by Phone Stop.

Visit Phonestop for resources on how to get free ringtones and more.