Teen slammed with $2,000 phone bill thanks to iPhone’s Wi-Fi Assist

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If you’re an iPhone user who lives in a house with lots of Wi-Fi dead zones, you should really think about turning off the Wi-Fi Assist feature that automatically switches your data over to your carrier’s LTE network if your Wi-Fi signal isn’t strong. CBS News reports that a teenager in San Francisco recently got a phone bill for more than $2,000 after using 144GB of monthly data on his iPhone that had Wi-Fi Assist enabled.

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Wow, it is crazy that 144GB of data for LTE cost $2000, and the Teen used 144GB of data on an iPhone unless he is streaming a lot of HD videos on YouTube, and Netflix everyday, or uploads a lot of video to YouTube on his iPhone.

But, I feel a laptop, desktop computer, game console, or settop box like Roku and Apple TV would be better for HD video streaming.
 
His own fault for not setting limits in place (I can set alerts if I near my bandwidth limit) and making sure his settings were configured correctly.
 
His own fault for not setting limits in place (I can set alerts if I near my bandwidth limit) and making sure his settings were configured correctly.

Maybe the teen is 13 years old, and not very tech savvy, and not very knowledgeable on what is Wi-Fi and LTE Data, and the price of each connection. I feel the teen's parents should of check his data settings, turn off Wi-Fi assist, and warn the teen that Wi-Fi assist can turn on LTE Data which can cost a lot of money once going over the limit.

The parents can monitor their kids data usage by logging into their cell phone service account website unless their kids have a job, and pay for their own cell phone service bill.
 
That must suck for his parents, cause I assume that he doesn't have the money to pay for it.

The teen doesn't pay the bill, according to CBS, the bill his parents usually pay is $250 a month instead of $2000.

But the San Francisco teen was shocked when he received a phone bill totaling $2,021.07.

"I thought my dad was going to kill me," he told CBS News.

"It's usually $250 a month -- and this was over $2,000," the teen's father, Jeff Finegold, said.
 
I think a prepaid smartphone is better for teens since they are less likely to automatically spend a lot of money on data, phone calls, and text unless they connect their bank account or credit card to their prepaid cell phone service account.
 
I assume that he kid won't have internet access for a while as punishment for this...

Yes, I think he won't have internet access as punishment, and may have to look for a job or other way to make money to pay back his parents for the huge bill.

I'm guessing he won't be getting any birthday gifts, and allowance/spending money if he gets spending money for free or doing house work from his parents.
 
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When 75% of the data has been used up, I get a text message on my phone telling me that I am nearing the limit of data usage for the month. In the message, it also tells me which line is using the most of that data. I wonder why the parents never had that.....or did they just not pay attention to the message or forgot about it?

Anyway, the parents should be allowed to have limits on their kids phones so they don't have to worry about getting a bill like that. Or they just need to not give the cell phone to their kid in the first place.
 
It is strange that the cell phone company does not put a cash limit of like $400 on how much money people can be automatically charged for data overage fees since these News stories are damaging the reputation of the cell phone service provider in the article, and the entire cell service industry when there are news report which say you can be charged automatically charged $2000 dollars for 144GB of data which is ridiculous to most average people since a 512GB SD Card cost $450, a 500GB hard drive cost $40, and a regular internet connection from Comcast with a 300GB bandwidth limit cost $40 or more a month.

I also, bet, most people with a huge bill will go to their local News station or newspaper company to complain about the bill, and try to lower their expensive bill to a more affordable price by using the media to create bad publicity/news about greedy cell phone service providers who try to charge thousands of dollars for data which may be worth a few dollars to hundreds of dollars or less in reality.
 
I get a text message when I use 80% and all of my data. Also have my phone turn off data when it gets to the limit I have setup
 
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