How to Stop your Child’s Mobile Over-Spending Habits

You’ve planned a wonderful birthday gift for your child’s twelfth birthday? Incredible, so what is it? Wow!! A brand new iPhone sounds fascinating!! But will it not create a real big hole in your pocket and turn down your monthly budget? What did you say; you have specially earmarked the amount for buying the phone? Well, then there’s a slight confusion, it is not buying the phone which generally creates chapter-11 situation in our monthly budgets but the over-spending habits of our kids who miss not a chance to buy any interesting looking thing they spot out online.

Wondering how can it happen? Your kid doesn’t have a credit card nor have you given your credit card details to him, right? Well, there are certain things which your child can buy online through the cell phone and the cost of it simply gets added to your cell phone bill

– Simple —
– But –

What things are these by the way?

Your Child’s Over Indulgence in Entertainment

Well, these are the hundreds of funny but meaningless mobile applications and hundreds of addictive games available online and sometimes it is your child’s favorite music on the music download sites, or as big a thing like a whole movie, you may never know if your child plans to watch an entire movie on the cell phone!!

Once you buy your child a cell phone with a service that brings you a monthly bill, your child has a magical little device to get everything he wants to get. If your child is a gaming freak, he’ll put every possible effort to break the score records and cross the levels. But once he crosses all the levels available for free or at minimum charges, there comes the higher level awaiting him but only for a higher price to pay!

And if your child is a typical audiophile, he’ll miss not a chance to get his latest favorite number on his phone. In fact, sometimes he may even think of downloading the entire album! Apart from games, audio and video files to shop on the phone, there are hundreds of interesting applications with great features waiting for your child to download but only at great prices!

In-App Purchases (though accidentally)

Now, if your child is a tech savvier kind and doesn’t simply tap on the “ok” or “buy” sign without thinking about the consequences, this won’t be happening. But recently, there have been an epidemic rise in the accidental purchases through the smart phones and tablets, especially across the U.K. that cost the parents something similar to a fortune (now if not exactly that much, it’s still a lot much!)and in most of the cases 8 year olds were the culprits! (You’re a safe case, your child’s turning twelve soon!)

Whether it is because of your child’s own choice to buy cool stuffs online or an accidental purchase, it’ll be you who will have a tough time at the end of the month with aTyrannosaurus Rex like huge bill waiting for you!

Is There a Remedy? Not a Quick Fix one but a Real One.

Yes, there is! Simply follow the Tips given below and you’ll be done!!

Get a Bit Tech Savvier before giving your Child a High Tech Cell Phone

This is where some parents go wrong; they buy tech savvier gadgets for their kids without learning much about them. This then proves troublesome in two ways: first, they are not able to guide their kids well and kids have to learn using the device on their own (now kids are pretty smart in doing this!). Second, this gives a better chance to the kids to do what they want as they know parent won’t be able to make out what they are doing. Thus, you need you learn every bit about the gadget before giving it to your child.

So, where to learn and what to learn? Simply check out the user manual of the phone you buy to know the basics but more important to learn is -- how do kids use their cellphone (the mischievous part actually). Internet can prove helpful in it.

Monitor your Child’s Cell Phone Activities

When you know what your child does with the phone, you can easily take the necessary action to stop the unwanted things that your child partakes in! The best way to know your child’s cell phone activities is to install parental monitoring software on your child’s cell phone that will keep the details of every single thing that your child does on the phone.

So, you’ll know what games your child is playing, what scores he’s making and if he’s buying the next level of the game after crossing all the ones available for free. (This is the most important part of the entire scene!)

In the similar way you’ll get to know about the apps that your child purchases creating those big holes in your budget. And since most of the mobile monitoring apps let you block downloading activity, you can stop your child from indulging into unwanted downloading activities and stay safe from unnecessary cash flow making your budget get topsy-turvy!!