This is a perennial problem with young teens – and older ones! A contract often seems to be a good idea as you usually get a free phone plus a deal on texts and free minutes. The down side, of course, is that young people inevitably use more than their monthly allocation of texts and calls.
I assume that you pay for her contract and ask her to pay for the extra calls and texts and this comes out of her pocket money. One way of looking at this dilemma is that this is how she chooses to spend her money – she could be wasting it on all sorts of other things. On the other hand surely there are other things she’d like to spend her cash on and you could try discussing this with her.
Depending on which mobile service you are with, you may be able to put a limit on the amount of use you daughter is allowed over and above her contract deal – but let’s face it this is how the mobile companies make their money so they may not be very helpful!
You could try going through your daughter’s bill with her and explaining that although it’s good to keep in touch with her friends some calls/texts may be totally unnecessary.
Most teens don’t take this on board – it’s just the way they communicate. If you don't have long left to run on the contract it may be worth giving her a pay-as-you-go sim card and allow her so much credit per week. She will soon learn to keep within her budget – or she could end up making top-ups herself from her pocket money. However she would be more aware of what she is spending each week which is easier for young minds to contemplate than a monthly account.
This question answered by Anne first apperared in The Scotsman.