Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, a Message at a Time

Chaz Albert, a freshman at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., is a passionate "texter," someone who loves to send and receive pithy text messages via cellphone. He does it at home, at school and at work. He often prefers texting over talking on his cellphone.

Last month, though, Mr. Albert's habit caught up with him. Only $80 of his $400 cellphone charges were his father's, and most of his own, he said, were for text-messaging.

"I was shocked, but I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "I didn't realize that I got charged for reading text messages. My dad was just like: 'Hey, it's your problem. Pay it.' "

In the last two years, text messages - which cell carriers generally limit to 160 characters - have become a rage among teenagers, who embrace the technology as yet another way to escape a boring class or stay in touch with friends.

But text-messaging, or texting for short, has a downside. It can be expensive. Although phone companies offer relatively inexpensive packages - like Verizon Wireless's $9.99 for 1,000 messages a month - industry experts say that carriers sometimes fail to draw customers' attention to the cost-saving deals, and that customers themselves, especially young people, often exceed the number of messages allowed. In those cases, sending a text message usually costs 10 cents; the cost of receiving one ranges from 2 to 10 cents.

The sticker shock is reminiscent of the early days of cellphones, when users often were surprised by how much they were charged for going over their allotted minutes or for phoning someone outside their calling areas.

Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging's pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills when they get involved in keypad conversations that involve hundreds, even thousands, of messages a month. The results are angry confrontations with parents, long-term payment plans and the loss of cellphone privileges.

"It's relatively addictive, and it's only when that first massive bill comes in that you realize that a dime a throw can run up a large bill," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit group that studies the social impacts of the Internet.

Sometimes, the only way a cellphone customer can learn the cost of text messaging is to ask, according to industry experts. "They basically just hand you the phone and say, 'Here, have a good day,' " said Allen Nogee, the principal analyst for the wireless technology group at Instat, a market research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Karina Gonzalez, a sophomore at Newtown High School in Queens and a regular sender of instant messages by computer, had her phone confiscated by her mother after her text messages resulted in a $150 phone bill, triple the usual amount. "I cried," she said. "I felt like I lost a piece of me. You can send a million instant messages a day, and it won't cost you anything. If you send one text message, it can cost you like a phone call."

Her friend Denise Lucero, 15, who has never owned a cellphone, surreptitiously used her father's phone for a while, she said, to text-message her friends. One month, those messages pushed his bill to $300.

Then her father started to hide his phone: on top of the refrigerator, under the sofa, behind the television set, in his pillow.

Both girls said their inability to text message made them feel left out of the action. "It's about feeling part of a little group with cellphones," Denise said. "You want to learn what is going on."

Text-messaging has flourished for years in Europe and Asia, where it is immensely popular among young people. In the United States, activity was limited until 2002, when a breakthrough in the wireless market allowed short text messages to be sent among customers of the major cellular carriers. Previously, customers could send messages only to those who used the same carrier.

The service, known as S.M.S. (for Short Message Service), has since taken off. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, a company in Cambridge, Mass., that specializes in technology, Americans sent 2.5 billion text messages a month in mid-2004, triple the number sent in mid-2002.

Teenagers are clearly driving the trend. "Younger people do text messaging a lot more than older folks," said Mr. Nogee of Instat. "They're more used to it from instant messaging on the computer, from growing up with it. Older people would rather call up and talk."

According to a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 38 percent of all teenagers who use the Internet have sent a text message using a cellphone. "Text messaging is a way to take instant messaging on the road," said Amanda Lenhart, a Pew research specialist. "It's definitely growing."

Verizon Wireless, with 42 million customers, reported a fivefold increase in the number of text messages sent and received monthly, to almost one billion in the fall from 200 million in early 2003. A Verizon spokesman, Howard Waterman, said that people aged 16 to 24 represented the "leading customer segment." (He said he could not break out exact figures, for "competitive reasons.")

Even some young sophisticates who scoffed at the text-messaging craze have caught the bug - and been stung. "Before I started using it, it seemed like a really ridiculous way to communicate," said Emily Seife, a junior at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. "But then it became a way to send a funny one-liner to a friend."

Ms. Seife is on the family's cellular plan, and two months ago, her father did a double take when the bill arrived. The text-messaging feature had jacked it up - Ms. Seife would not say how much - and she was asked to contribute $100 and told to either curb her text-messaging enthusiasm or get a different plan. "I knew it was 10 cents a message," she said, "but I didn't really realize how much that would add up."

Some parents are sympathetic, saying young people are simply taking their cues from grown-ups. "It's hard to be critical, because of the way we use e-mail and BlackBerries and Palm Pilots," said Karen Engelemann, a freelance book designer and mother in Dobbs Ferry.

"I would have loved it when I was her age, so I have to put myself in that situation," Ms. Engelmann said, referring to the enthusiasm that her 12-year-old daughter, Lilly Ulfers, developed for text messaging.

But that did not stop Ms. Engelmann from reprimanding Lilly when a recent cellphone bill arrived with a $40 text-messaging charge.

High schools and colleges have struggled with cellphone use in general and text messaging in particular, with many insisting that phones be stowed away during class or banned altogether. But students manage to send text messages anyway, pressing buttons discreetly (or not so) behind books and under desks. "Everyone does it in class," said Meredith Negri, 18, a freshman at the University of Hartford.

School officials also know firsthand the widespread financial duress caused by cellphones. At Mission High School in San Francisco, where three-quarters of the 975 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, the principal, Kevin Truitt, says that many students were blindsided by costs associated with text-messaging and other features, like customized ring tones.

"It's causing family fights; the kids are broke, and a lot are graduating with debt because of cellphones," he said. "The carriers just seem to be adding new features that cost more and more and more. The students are not reading the fine print. No one understands the contract until they get the first bill and it's $800."

Clay Owen, a spokesman for Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest carrier with 46 million customers, said that "in an ideal world" the sales staff would explain the text-messaging feature and its cost. "They are trained to go through the packages with the customers," he said. "Does it happen every time? Obviously, with various salespeople and depending on the situation, there could be times it does not happen."

Mr. Waterman of Verizon Wireless advised young people to explore cost-effective packages and to track their messaging activity during the billing cycle by reviewing accounts online. The company also has a new service that allows customers to dial their cellphones for an up-to-date tally - delivered by a free text message.

Cingular customers can monitor how many phone minutes they have used in the middle of a billing period, but cannot track their text messages, Mr. Owen said.

For some young people, the cellphone ordeals, though painful, have proved valuable. What is left, it seems, after the bills are paid and the family tensions subside is the emergence of a new maturity when it comes to money.

Brian Colas, a student at City as School in Brooklyn, said he reined in his habit after his mother stopped paying his bill. "When you start paying, then you don't have money to spend on other things," he said. Mr. Albert's stepbrother, Judan Lynk, a junior at Mercy College, decided to cancel his text-messaging service after receiving a $400 bill in August. (His monthly plan, before taxes and surcharges, was $50, and he had no text-messaging package.) He paid the bill in installments, working extra hours as a sales clerk at Restoration Hardware. "At the end of this month, I'll be cut off," he said with a swish of his hand.

But there was still time to check his phone for the latest text message. It was from a friend in Ohio, telling him to answer his cellphone.

"Anyone who can afford to pay for a cell phone should not be getting free lunches."

Actually, these days, cell phones have become an alternative to real phones due to their competative pricing, (40$ per month) special features like long distance North American phone calls, 3 way, caller ID and call waiting, plus the portability factor plus the free phone vs 40 dollars for a land line that has call waiting and 3 way, but has zero portability and none of the features of a cell phone. And then there's that pesky uncaring monopoly problem.

I abandonned my land line after it was costing me around 120 dollars for the same features and the pleasure of dealing with an uncaring monopoly that wanted to charge us for a phone line that doesn't work in our house, which they were supposed to fix for free.

And we're not the richest family in the world, let me tell you.

I know what you mean. Not only is trying to get clear explanations of how the additional services work, as well as the pricing, it seems that these additional services are pretty much mandatory, given the new telephones.

I recently needed to buy a new telephone, because the batteries in my 3 year old phone weren't holding charges anymore. The cost of new batteries was really out of site, so I decided to go with a new telephone. Trying to buy a cell phone that's nothing more than a telephone is like finding hens' teeth! You just can't find them anymore.

I wound up getting the brand I wanted (LG, which I've had excellent luck with, as opposed to Motorola), but it's got alot of features I'll never use, like text messaging, and even Internet access! I've got everything I can have disabled on the phone, but I'm still worried that I'm going to wind up getting spammed with text messages.

Mark

Well, that is capitalism at its best.

They are overcharging for an UNNECESSARY luxury on an nonessential apparatus.

You have a problem with capitalism? No one has a .44 at this young man's head.

While I didn't post the message you're responding to here, I'd just like to say that I'm all for it! I think that his quote is perfect! "Overcharging for an unnecessary luxury on a non-essential ..." I love it! Hey, the guy who came up with the concept of the "Pet Rock" has always been one of my heros!

Mark

I work for Nokia in an R&D recovery lab. I don't have a cell phone. I don't want one.

Ironic, isn't it?

I work on computers, and have installed networks in a number of banks. I still don't use ATMs or electronic banking! (Don't trust computers!)

But I don't think that I'd want to lose my cell phone. I had my home phone turned off two years ago, and have never missed it. I typically use my cell phone for less than 100 minutes a month!

Mark

If I walk into the Sprint store & try to get a problem resolved, they tell me they have no customer service & that I have to call up to get that. As much as I am against government regulation, I think we need a way to fight back.

I believe that it was Clark Howard who coined the phrase "Customer No-Service," or "Customer Dis-Service" when dealing with cell phone companies.

It's reminiscent of the old Laugh-In TV show with the operator... "We're the phone company... We don't have to care!"

Mark

Actually you can port your land line phone number to another carrier. I just faxed over the LOA to my new carrier this morning and my home phone number will be transferred to my Voice over IP phone number. For $25/mo. we get unlimited local and long distance phone calls (including international calls to some countries!), caller ID, call waiting, etc.

We're going through these folks: VoIP2Save who are basically retailers for RNKVoIP. (I'm not affiliated with either company, just a customer) You need a broadband internet connection since the VoIP uses approximately 72kbps in either direction. You could also check out Vonage.

When I see some of these people with a cell phone permanantly affixed to their ears I really am tempted to ask sarcastically them how it is that they ever survived without it. I made it through the first 30 years of my life without any need for a cell phone and to this day, I wouldn't know how to send or receive a text message on one.

It IS amazing, isn't it? They NEED, don't they?
I especially love it when you see some girl walking down the street, yakking on the phone....and she;s walking with another girl, totally ignoring the person she is WITH, blabbing with someone else.
Boggles the mind.

Well, that is capitalism at its best. They are overcharging for an UNNECESSARY luxury on an nonessential apparatus.
1. You have a problem with capitalism?
2. No one has a .44 at this young man's head.

1. Did I say that I did? Why do you ask? Do YOU assume that I do? What a strange question. It seems rather snide of you, but then that's just an opinon. I might be wrong.

2. That's the obvious, isn't it? You seemed to have completely missed my point.
No matter. I don't really care. I simply threw up an opinion. Didn't expect such angst. Lol.

Did I say that I did?

That was the open-ended inference you left.

Why do you ask?

Because as a rule, those on the Right don't criticize capitalism.

Do YOU assume that I do?

I made no assumptions. Your comment begged the question.

What a strange question. It seems rather snide of you, but then that's just an opinon. I might be wrong.

You're flat wrong.

That was the open-ended inference you left.
That, of course, is YOUR opinion.

Because as a rule, those on the Right don't criticize capitalism.
Well, first of all, you assumed that my comment was a criticism. That is an incorrect assumption on YOUR part. It was, if you couldn't tell, partly sarcastic and partly factual. Sarcasm IS allowed on this site, at last reckoning. So are facts.
Also, what is wrong with cricizing captialism anyway? I wasn't, but what makes it such a sin to criticize our system? It ISN'T perfect. Are you the thought police? Do YOU decide that, along with incorrect assumptions, you are the arbiter of what I ought and ought not criticize?

I made no assumptions. Your comment begged the question.
Yes, you did. You assumed that I was criticizing captialism.
Perhaps my comment begged the question to YOU but it didn't to anyone else. Perhaps your skin is a bit thin. Or you got up on the wrong side of bed.

What a strange question. It seems rather snide of you, but then that's just an opinon. I might be wrong.
You're flat wrong.
Well that's nice. I'm glad you weren't being snide. You were just making an incorrect assumption about what I said/meant and criticizing what you THOUGHT I was saying.
Failure to communicate. Of course, I wasn't communicating with YOU originally, but no matter. I think you get my point. Lol. Maybe not. You didn't before, so I am not sure you will now.

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