Forum Discussion
Family Allowances seems to be some kind of joke
I'm looking into Family Allowances because I want to restrict my 10yo daughter from using her phone until early hours of the morning. She seems to be addicted. We take it away from her in the eve...
Just so I'm on the same page with you @rglaus, are you looking for something that'll block the devices built-in functions to be blocked? Nuestra Permiso familiar is designed to restrict the phone from using services on the network. Unfortunately, we don't have a feature that we offer if you're trying to block them from accessing the phone's internal features.
I agree that T-Mobile Family Allowances is a joke... I have tried it twice on my son's phone and both times it did not work for what i wanted to do: stop his ability to download data to his phone at specified times or all together stop. Even if one set the data allowance to "0 MB" or "1 MB", the system will tell you that this line is over the limit, but it does not stop the download.
I've also tested the time restrictions on messaging and calls. The interface only allows preset time periods such as 9 am to 2 pm or 4-9 pm or 9-11 pm or 11 pm to 6 am... IN THEORY. In practice, i've found that after i set the limits, my son reported that his phone was not working then it was supposed to work, and sometimes working when it was not supposed to work... Let alone the issue that we'd like to be able to select the times ourselves, rather than having preset times...
Then i also tested the "Always allowed numbers" : phone numbers that would not be blocked such as being able to call your family... It did not work, according to my son. He could not call me, even after the numbers had been set up as "Always allowed".
So twice i had to ask T-Mobile to remove Family Allowances from my account, and get me a refund, which they gladly did with an apology...
What works to restrict kids time on phone is to install an app called " Our Pact"on your phone and your child's phone. See www.OurPact.com. Friends use it, and it does the job nicely... provided your kid lets you install this app on his/her phone. Once it's on, i heard it cannot be removed without parental permission.
¡Buena suerte!
