Teen Shocks Mother With 5 Grand Cell Phone Bill

As if life isn’t already expensive enough these days, a mom in California was hit with sticker shock when her latest cell phone bill arrived. Instead of the regular monthly charges of $385 she was expecting, she saw a total of $5,185 was due, and assumed it was a billing error. But the mother was shocked to find out that was the actual amount she owed thanks to her daughter making some international calls.

It turns out, the teenager met someone while playing Roblox online and they wanted to chat. What the teen didn’t know is that she was calling an international phone number and all those minutes of talking were adding up fast. Her mom turned to Reddit’s personal finance community to vent, sharing in her post that she doesn’t even have $5-thousand in savings, and feels “so defeated.”

Redditors have her back, filling the comments section with advice and sympathy.

• Some were surprised by the regular bill amount, not just the 5-grand in new charges. “The usual $385 seems too expensive, much less the $5,185,” one writes. “You need to shop around.”
• Another asks, “Have you called the phone company and asked if they would make a one-time exception?”
• A third suggests, “You could put international blocks on all of your phones.”
• “If the phone company won’t work with you, contact your local news outlets, especially if they have a consumer protection feature,” another Redditor recommends. “Embarrassment works well.”
• The mom shares that she’d already reached out to her provider, but “the best they could offer was split payments and blocking international calls.”

Source: Newsweek