Kajeet Featured on The Early Show on CBS!
August 11, 2010
Parents – are you ready to kick off the school year?
Because there are plenty of ways you can proactively make this easier for your kid – and for yourself! Parenting expert Shannon Eis recently shared tips on ways to make the transition from summer to fall on CBS’s The Early Show. And one of her recommendations for staying safe and in touch was a cell phone from kajeet. You can read more about why she picked kajeet here.
Does your back to school supply list include a cell phone? Let us know!
Parenting Picks Kajeet!
August 5, 2010
Feeling frustrated when it comes to deciding the right time to give your kid a cell phone?
You’re not alone. It’s a challenge that parents in today’s world can’t seem to avoid. It’s also the reason that Parenting gathered a panel of experts together to develop their Guide to Tech Gear for Kids, a list of selected products ideal for easing kids (and their parents) into the digital age. And one of the services highlighted is kajeet!
The Parenting panel liked how kajeet’s family-focused parental controls allow moms and dads to set limits on calls, texts and times when the phone can be used. They also liked the built-in GPS Phone Locator service (free for the first month for new accounts!) and kajeet’s low priced plans. We’re excited to be acknowledged by this panel of experts!
Access kajeet on Facebook!
June 22, 2010
Exciting news for kajeet customers!
We’re making it even easier for you to access your kid’s phone usage – right from Facebook — with our brand-new, free kajeet application! The new kajeet app allows you to:
- Check plan balances. See how many calls or texts are left on your kid’s current plan.
- Access detailed account activity. Look at your kid’s phone usage, including when calls and texts are being made, to whom and at what time.
- Review daily usage. A brand-new feature for kajeet! Get a summary view of how many calls and text messages your kid made or received from the previous day.
You can get started by logging into your Facebook account and clicking here. Then, tell us what you think on the kajeet Facebook page or comment here!
A Cool New Feature
June 7, 2010
With kajeet, you can now send a text to a landline, where the text is converted to speech and read out loud to the recipient. If the recipient chooses, they can respond by voice to the original sender of the text. Very cool.
This could be particularly handy for sending quick messages to someone who is not proficient with texting, or who may be hearing impaired.
If you’d like to learn more, you can do that here.
Let us know what you think!
The Money Issue
April 9, 2010
by Daniel Neal
We take great pride at kajeet in having created the best, safest cell phone service for kids™. Normally, we point out that we have free, unlimited parental controls and monitoring, kid-appropriate content, 4 awards from parent organizations, our GPS Phone Locator service…that sort of thing.
But we’ve kept some other things in mind, too. The high cost of living. The high cost of cell phones. The high cost of having kids (I have 2).
The average cost of a contract-based cell phone service in the U.S. is more than $56.00/month. And data-intensive smartphones cost significantly more. That so-called extra “family plan” line you’re considering adding? Analysis done by iGR Research found that the average cost of a “family plan” line is over $44.00/month, and the additional cost of an extra line for a child is over $35.00/month when all costs are considered.
Oh, and with that “family plan,” you can’t turn off the bills when your child goes to camp for the summer… (yes, you can do that with a contract-free kajeet phone).
But money is tight. And the strain on American household budgets is why many people are turning to prepaid (or “contract-free”) cell phone services. You can find an article from ABC News about that trend here.
We’ve been hearing from parents about the need to spend less on cell phones for their children for a long time. So here’s how we’ve responded. Kajeet offers contract-free plans that have:
- No contract
- No activation fee
- No termination fee
- FREE unlimited parental controls and monitoring capability (I know, I already said that)
Allow me to crow a bit about my favorite kajeet contract-free plan: $14.99/month for unlimited text and 60 minutes of voice. This is what I bought for each of my own 2 kids (I also subscribe to our GPS Phone Locator for $9.99/month, but that’s optional).
Here’s what I get: affordable service, no surprises and very happy kids.
So long as I have the ability to keep them from texting at school and during bedtime (using my FREE parental controls!), they can text to their heart’s content. That’s what kids do. The 60 minutes of talk are more than enough for the few phone calls they make to tell me they’re ready to get picked up and for me to call and check in. They just don’t talk much. They text. And guess who texts a lot more now? Yup – Mr. Old School.
That $14.99/month plan strikes me as a pretty sweet deal. How sweet? It’s a savings of $240 per year per kid over that so-called “family plan” add-a-line.
Oh, and did I mention that we are keeping the phone costs down by offering refurbished phones that look and work great? Check out our selection of cell phones here.
And for those parents who just want to have a safety phone in their child’s backpack? We have a $4.99/month plan. You can see our other no-contract plans here.
Finally – lest you wonder about our coverage and network reliability – kajeet uses the terrific Sprint National Digital Network.
Thanks.
kajeet Supports Debit Cards & Gift Cards
March 18, 2010
by Daniel Neal
Did you know that as of June 30, 2009, more people in the U.S. had Visa® Debit Cards (352 million) than Visa® Credit Cards (309 million)? (Source: Visa.com) And a recent survey cited by CBS said that 28 percent of consumers planned to increase their use of debit cards while decreasing the amount of purchases they make with their credit cards.
Gift cards have also become extremely popular – US consumers purchased 87 Billion dollars of gift cards last year! However, according to the Tower Group, many consumers are giving more general purpose prepaid gift (debit) cards rather than store-specific gift cards because of their greater utility – they can be used for the basics – gas & phone – as well as in a variety of stores.
Many kajeet customers use their credit cards to pay for their (contract-free!) kajeet plans – but are surprised to learn that debit cards, prepaid cards, and gift cards can also be used. We wanted to highlight this as debit cards can be popular with teens (many of whom pay for their own phone service) – and with those that don’t like to be tied down to things like contracts.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please call our Care Team at 1-866.4kajeet (1-866-452-5338), 9 am – 6 pm ET Mon.-Fri., and 9 am – 3 pm ET on Saturday.
New Parent Dashboard!
February 2, 2010
by Carol Politi
Login to your kajeet account to see the all new Parent Dashboard!
We have revised the Account Details and Parental Controls pages to make it easier for you to manage your child’s account including monitoring Account Activity, purchasing and changing plans, and controlling the time, features, and spending for each phone on the account.
Please comment here to let us know what you think!
7 Hours and 38 Minutes of Media Per Day?
January 22, 2010
by Carol Politi
Wow. Even those of us focused on kids and media were surprised with the recent Kaiser Family Foundation Study on kids and media use. The study, called “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds“, indicates that kids spend more than 53 hours a week consuming media (counting a blend of TV, computers, gaming devices, cell phones, etc.). And that count does not include multitasking – which brings the media use count up to 10 hours and 45 minutes per day.
Much of the increase is driven by the accessibility of media on mobile devices – ipods and cell phones (though the increase in social media use is also a factor). Note that text messaging is not considered media use in this study – and that “7th-12th graders report spending an average of 1:35 a day sending or receiving texts”!
Clearly, media consumption is a fact of life. So what’s wrong with this picture?
1. Kids that are heavy media users report getting lower grades.
2. Kids that are heavy media users report being less personally content.
What’s the upside here? One bit of upside is that parents can have an impact! The study indicates that “When parents set limits, children spend less time with media. Those young people who say their parents have some rules about their media use are exposed to an average of nearly three hours (2:52) less media content per day than those who say they don’t have rules.”
Most parents get cell phones for their kids for safety reasons. But doing so can put more media – and another device with which to multi-task – in the hands of kids. kajeet customers can set limits – on both the type of content/service used on the cell phone and the time spent using the cell phone. This includes limiting access at night, during school, and during home work time. To set these up simply login at kajeet.com or call kajeet customer care (1-866-452-5338).
Please comment here to let us know what you think of the Kaiser Family Foundation study and how you manage media access and use in your household. We could all benefit from some good ideas!
New Mobile Web Sites!
January 11, 2010
by Carol Politi
We have been keeping our eyes open for mobile web sites that are appropriate for kids and have made available additional sites in the “Other Great Mobile Sites” category on the handset. As our mobileweb users know, the service supports four categories of sites:
- Category 1: Free sites
- Category 2: Other “kid appropriate” mobile sites
- Category 3: Social Networking and IM Sites
- Category 4: Open Internet
We have opened access to number of new sites in Category 2 – including sports, style, several magazines, Thesaurus, etc.
Enjoy! Please let us know if there are other mobile sites we should include in this category.
Activating Your New kajeet Phone
December 22, 2009
by Carol Politi
If you got someone a kajeet phone for Christmas, or if you received one, the first thing you need to do is to activate your phone. You can do this entirely online!
Both new kajeet customers activating a new kajeet phone and existing customers that are “swapping” or swapping or upgrading to a new kajeet phone can do this online.
What is “activation”?
Prior to use, each kajeet account needs to be set up with parent (or guardian) information and assigned a phone number. Once you activate you will automatically be enrolled in the rate plan you chose when the phone was purchased. If you did not select a rate plan at the time of purchase, simply login kajeet.com from your PC and select a plan.
What is the best way to activate my phone?
Online activation is your best option. New customers can activate online here at kajeet.com. Existing kajeet customers that have purchased a new phone and want to upgrade to it (and keep their phone number) can login to kajeet.com and upgrade their phone (see my recent blog post describing how to do this).
What if I am moving/porting my existing number to kajeet?
You will need to contact kajeet customer care if you are porting (moving) a number from another cell phone service provider to kajeet. Have a copy of your bill and/or account login information with you when you contact kajeet customer care. While we are working to make this process as fast as possible, it can take up to 3-4 days to port a number. (We are dependent upon other telecommunications companies and they are all busy at this time of year).
How can you reach care and what are the kajeet Holiday Care Hours?
Our care department can be reached at 1-866-452-5338 or care@kajeet.com. kajeet Customer Care is closed on Christmas Day to give our hardworking care personnel from Canton, Ohio the day off with their families.
Our Holiday Care Hours are as follows
- December 21st – Dec. 24th: 9:00am – 10:00pm
- Christmas (December 25th) – Closed
- December 26th – 8:00am – 10:00pm
- December 27th – 9:00am – 5:00pm
- December 28th – 30th – 9:00am – 8:00pm
- December 31st – 9:00am – 6:00pm
- January 1 – Closed
Care is already busy and we do expect them to continue to be busy after the holidays. Avoid the wait and activate online!
Thanks!
If you decided to give a kajeet phone as a gift this holiday, we thank you! Have a happy holiday!
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