Cell Phone context Story

My name is John. I am 47 years old and I would like to tell you about the financial trouble that I got into as a result of having a cell phone.

My girlfriend at the time decided one Christmas to purchase two cell phones, one for her and one for me. Both phones were in her name. It was on the Family Plan. We were tired of not being able to talk to each other during the day. She arranged it so that the bill would come to her house and I would give her the money, for my part of the bill.

We were so happy, because now we could talk to each other when we were out in the community!

As time went on, my girlfriend didn’t want to pay for her part of the bill and I kept getting a higher and higher portion. I didn’t want to argue with her, so I kept quiet not realizing that the bill was getting higher and higher. I had never been told about interest charges.

One day my support worker came to me and said that he had received a call from the provider saying that my bill was over $1000.00 and that it needed to be paid right away! I didn’t have that money, and my girlfriend didn’t either. Both my girlfriend and I were on a disability pension which does not provide a lot of money. Both of our families had to get involved. This made everyone really angry.

My girlfriend and I split up as a result of this. I was very angry at her for a long time. I ended up paying, with my family’s help, my portion of the bill. For a long time I wasn’t able to go on day trips with my friends or buy new things.

My advice to anyone who is getting a cell phone is to take someone with you who can understand how much it is going to cost you. Never buy a cell phone for someone unless you have talked to them about the amount it will cost them.