My brother is under house arrest, quite possibly for the next decade. Options

[*Libertie*]

So my brother, 18, has been using the phone a LOT lately. Last night I found out that he's actually been calling some girl in Australia. I didn't know about this or I'd have said something, but he told my mom that he was just using regular anytime minutes. When I found out about this, I flipped out and showed them the Cingular site where it had the rates listed (upwards of $3 per minute!). This prompted my mom to check out her phone bill. The grand total is so unbelievable that it needs to sit on its own line:

SIX. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

My mom's credit is already bad enough, so this is a nightmare. I'm gonna have to go with her and take out a loan so she can pay the bill, and I honestly don't know what's gonna happen to my brother. This is insane.

[Retrogressive]

Holy crap, Dani!! Six thousand dollars!? I can’t imagine running up a bill that high. The highest I ever ran mine up was a few hundred over for calls to Boston. If I were your parents I’d make him get a job and pay for it all. He’d also being doing every chore I could imagine AND have no phone privileges for a very, very long time. I wouldn’t ever be able to do that to my mom, she works so hard to pay bills. Your brother, although I’m sure he’s a swell guy, needs a crash course in responsibility.

[*Intercourse.*]

Woahh. Stroak of Genius on his part.

I hope everything works out well though. You need to tell your brother to go get a job and pay you guys back every last dollar. How old is your brother?

[iDecay]

WOW. The most I've had for a bill was $400. I checked my T-Mobile bill today.. $239.64. Obviously, there is something wrong since I have free texting and haven't gone over my minutes...


I know a lot of people on house arrest. Wait, that's kinda irrelevant.

How old is your brother?

So my brother, 18,

OH. And hasn;t your brother heard of Skype?

[Stefanny]

Oh shit. I'd kill your brother if I was your mom.
I always call people within my network, Cingular.
I tend to check my minutes every now and then, just to make sure I don't go way over.

Btw, good luck with your problem.

[*Uronacid*]

Man, that's absolutely incredible... xD

[Jeng]

OMG IS HE CRAZY, HE SHOULD PAY IT HIMSELF. OMG. I'd die if that ever happened, so sorry Dani.

[Smoogrish]

SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS?!

Ohmygod. I don't think our electricity and gas bills are even that high. Does he have a job that he can pay your mom back with? Knowing his mom credit problems, he really shouldn't have been calling some girl in Australia. I really hope everything works out.

[HakunaMatata]

My brother would have to lock himself in his room to protect himself from our mom and I'd have to sneak in food five times a day.

As for your family, I actually feel most sorry for your mother. That's a terrible thing that he did to her and she's really the one suffering.

[Jane Doe.]

And here I thought my 150$ overage fee was bad..

[*Libertie*]

As for your family, I actually feel most sorry for your mother. That's a terrible thing that he did to her and she's really the one suffering.

Oh, no kidding. She's been breaking down at random intervals ever since we found out. I feel horrible for her. And my youngest brother is scared for Danny Ray (the one who's in trouble), and I'm basically just sitting here thinking about how we're gonna handle the financial troubles.

[*mishyerr*]

O_O


My mom would slaughter me if I did that.

[minioligo]

HOLY. he didn't think about getting a phonecard or anything?

my mother would disown me. does your brother have a job? make him pay it all back.

[*Libertie*]

^He has a part time job at DQ, it's not nearly enough.. He's seriously dense enough to have thought all this time that it was only using anytime minutes. =\

[multifaceted]

Wow. Okay. And I thought running up a bill of 1500 dollars was a lot.

He should pay at least some of it back. He's 18. He can get a part-time job.

I don't even use up a lot of my minutes. I have 600 minutes I can use for every two years. That was when I went to public school and my mom and dad made me call them to make sure I was okay when I got off the bus.

Now that I have online schooling, I only use it like once every week for less than a minute. I still have 600 minutes because that is the cheapest and lowest number of minutes for the plan. The rest of the minutes I can use on other things.

I am not allowed to text because my dad yelled at me for running up my bill to $40. And that is a lot less than $6000

[bat19]

The only thing I can recommend is to not keep it over his head for very long. I'm sure he feels very guilty. If he doesn't, your mom should tell him he has to leave for a month. That would teach him some sort of responsibility andshow him how precious a skill money-conservation really is. Also, obviously, never ever give him another cell phone, or make him get a prepaid tracphone. I honestly feel for you. My brothers a fuckup too.

[aubbob]

crap thats like a year of college tuition for me in hawaii...
damn good luck with that dani. hopefully the girl was worth it.
speaking of australian girls.. 'rose' ahem anyway... lol
i hope everything works out for you love.

[*Libertie*]

Aubrey - Speaking of Rose, where did you get all those pictures of this girl? Jeez XD

But yeah, that's MORE than a year's tuition for me right now. It's more than what my car cost. To say that this is a large sum of money would be an understatement.

[*slammin shelby*]

Ohh that tops me

My most was 2,000.

[michellerrific]

Six THOUSAND? You gotta be kidding me...
I spend the most minutes in the entire household and never have I ran up the bills, except for texting.

Six thousand dollars could feed tons of poor people in poor countries....

[*kryogenix*]

Woahh. Stroak of Genius on his part.

I hope everything works out well though. You need to tell your brother to go get a job and pay you guys back every last dollar. How old is your brother?

lol

Damn, he shoulda called collect.

[*StanleyThePanda*]

LIBI, It is so good to see you posting again!!!!!#$%&^%$#@ [/offtopic]

Anyways, $6,000!??!?!?! That is... insane, for lack of better words.
The highest I've gone over was like... $73 or so.
Gah, I know I'd be dead if I went over that much....

[SarahxJoy]

Daaaamn.

[pandamonium]

omg something like this happened to my best friend. she didnt know she was getting charged with every text message cause she thought she was on an unlimited plan. so she texted away and she ran the bull to 900 dollars.

i feel bad for you guys cause thats a freaking whole lot. but you know you should try calling your phone company and asked them if they can investigate the calls, sometimes they will lower the bill down. my friend posed as her mother and got the bill to go down from 900 to 680 dollars. so try to talk to the company and tell them you didnt know it was three dollars a minute.

but for your brother he deserves it. lol ahah. sorry i feel bad for you guys i hope you guys get out of this fine.

[*stephinika*]

$6000!??! And I thought a phone bill over $150 was bad...oh man...thats actually quite...insane. I wish your brother luck. =p

[*Duchess of Dork*]

Get a rope.

I'd have a total nervous breakdown. I so feel for your mom.

[judylicious]

umm now that is just ridiculous!! if you want to talk to someone far away, fine do the long distance thing but not on a phone making a bill 6k!! That is just crazyyy. He should have used IM and a microphone or something. Well I guess we know he is going to be in some big trouble.

[HakunaMatata]

Dani, how old is your brother? Does he have a job? Is he planning on helping to pay it back at all?

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

That IS crazy. But I also find it strange that your brother is on your mom's phone plan. I've been forking my own phone bill since I was 14. And he's 18... he's an adult. He shouldn't mooch off your mom's phone.

[*mona lisa*]

Wow. I feel terrible for your mom. :( And brother as well. If he didn't realize what he was doing, he's probably feeling very guilty right now.

Lol, if I had done that, I'd be paying for the whole thing.

[moorepocket]

OMG! dani. I feel for you.

why was he calling austrailia, and why doesn't he know international phone calls are expensive?

[Evony]

Honestly, try working out something with your provider because most of the time they'll reduce the bill.. if you explain your side of the story and how it was a misunderstanding or how your brother might have been mislead

[Kontroll]

So my brother, 18, has been using the phone a LOT lately. Last night I found out that he's actually been calling some girl in Australia. I didn't know about this or I'd have said something, but he told my mom that he was just using regular anytime minutes. When I found out about this, I flipped out and showed them the Cingular site where it had the rates listed (upwards of $3 per minute!). This prompted my mom to check out her phone bill. The grand total is so unbelievable that it needs to sit on its own line:

SIX. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

My mom's credit is already bad enough, so this is a nightmare. I'm gonna have to go with her and take out a loan so she can pay the bill, and I honestly don't know what's gonna happen to my brother. This is insane.

Holy bujebadub. That's crazy. Dude. SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS!?!?!?! Daaayyyaaaaammmm. Well, I hope the best for all of you.

[EddieV]

Phone cards are really handy these days...

[x_curse_of_the_c...]

The highest I have ever had mine was one thousand and I can't have a cell phone for like another year and that was a year and a couple of months ago. I would hate to be your brother right about now.

[KissMe2408]

6,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


holy crap
gahhh. . . your brother is crazy!
i can't believe it. wow.
yeah, i forgot how much it costs from here to scotland,
but it was close to $3 a minute,
and i use them sparingly, lol cuz i know the bill can go crazy,

i thought my friends bill was ridiculous cuz it was a thousand in text messages.
but this one kinda . . . wow. . .

I feel so bad for your mom,
your brother needs a job,
so he can pay her back.
every. single. penny.

gah


guess that girl and him won't be talking anytime soon on the phone.

[hannahxbaby]

o_o
holy cow.
i have virgin mobile which has always bummed me out,
but... now i know why my mom makes me have it.
one: i have to pay to top it up
and two: i guess she knows how outrageous those bills could get.

im very sorry your brother was that pigheaded not to think that its AUSTRALIA for goodness sakes. every call outside the US is practically expensive.

*Sigh* you guys will get through it. i have faith. =]