Hockey player who makes three million a year still on his Moms cell phone plan. LOL

New hires are facing the ultimate team icebreaker: Who pays your cellphone bill?

Millions of workers have quit old jobs for new ones in the past year, and caller ID is outing young professionals—and some not-so-young professionals—for being on their parents’ family plans.

When Nicole McCauley, 35 years old, started her new job, executives at the firm initially screened her calls. Ms. McCauley, who changed her last name after she got married, said her managers didn’t recognize the name Roger Batchelor—which was what showed up when she rang. Mr. Batchelor is her father.

The first time it happened, she made a joke. The second time felt worse.

“This is getting slightly embarrassing,” she recalled thinking.

Ms. McCauley’s parents had to go to the Verizon store to change the caller ID for her line, she said. Then she practiced calling her 95-year-old grandmother, whom she knew had caller ID on a landline, to make sure her managers would see her name when she phoned.


Nicole McCauley with her husband, Michael McCauley. They are both on their respective parents’ phone plans.


Now she wonders whether it’s time to make a new family mobile plan with her husband. He is on his parents’ plan, too.

During the first part of the pandemic, moving business calls to personal devices was no big deal. Workers already had colleagues’ mobile numbers saved in their contacts. But as Americans looked for new positions, cold-calls with recruiters, new bosses and business contacts opened up awkward conversations about who is footing the bill and when it is time to cut the cord on the family cellphone plan. Some carriers set an account’s billing name as the default caller ID name.

Hybrid return-to-office plans have also meant that employees are calling desk lines equipped with caller ID from their mobile devices. Some cellphone users have caller ID on those devices, too, widening the potential for embarrassment.

Dima Maddah, 34, who works in digital marketing, is using caller-ID mix-ups to her advantage by getting out of professional calls she doesn’t want to take. She started a new job in the fall and believes her personal cellphone number—and her father’s name attached to it—were added to a sales database soon after.

Sparked by her new role, sales reps began calling her and asking for her dad. Their mistake has been a good excuse to say “wrong number” and hang up, she said. The influx of calls was the first time she realized that using her personal cellphone revealed she was on her family’s plan. Ms. Maddah typically doesn’t dial up colleagues or friends.

“I usually text people,” she said.

That realization came publicly for Derek Forbort, a 30-year-old hockey player for the Boston Bruins, when he was on the Boston sports radio show Zolak & Bertrand.

“Is there a female on the line?” host Scott Zolak asked when Mr. Forbort called in November. Another host, Marc Bertrand, asked who Mary was, referring to the name that popped up on caller ID.

Derek Forbort of the Boston Bruins didn’t realize caller ID ‘was still a thing’ when he called into a sports radio show and revealed he was on his mom’s plan.


“Um, no comment on that,” Mr. Forbort said. After more pressing, he copped to being on the family plan—Mary is his mom—but said he pays his portion of the bill. After he hung up, the hosts razzed him, wondering if Mr. Forbort, who makes $3 million a year playing defense, still got gas money from his folks.

Mr. Forbort said later the radio show caught him off guard, and he didn’t realize caller ID “was still a thing.” In his 20s, when he played in the minor leagues, Mr. Forbort said he would have to ask his mom to add international data when he traveled for games in Canada.

So how long does he plan to stay on the parent party line? “I’m going to ride it out as long as they let me,” he said, adding that he’s the keeper of the family’s Netflix and Showtime accounts. “I chalk it up to loyalty, being a very loyal son.”

It isn’t that uncommon for 20- and 30-somethings to be on their parents’ plans, and people are using the group deals to save money as inflation takes off. Twelve percent of millennials, ages 25 to 40, have parents pay their phone bills, according to an October survey of more than 2,000 adults by MagnifyMoney, a personal-finance site. Others are on their parents’ plans but finance at least part of the bill, according to a survey by WhistleOut, a website that compares wireless plans.

It isn’t just professional calls that lead to caller ID confusion. Donye Tweedie, 22, was at a Los Angeles restaurant in February when she met a man, also in his 20s, and gave him her number. When he called, a woman’s name popped up on her cellphone’s caller ID. Ms. Tweedie, who has paid her own phone bill since she turned 18, doesn’t know whether her prospect was on a former girlfriend’s plan or his mother’s. And she doesn’t care.

“I wasn’t interested anymore,” she said.


Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller: still on his parents’ phone plan.


Stephen Miller, 36, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, attempted to block a subpoena for his phone records from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot by arguing in a court filing last month that they should be off limits because he is on his parents’ plan. Several family-plan members are attorneys who use their mobile devices for privileged calls and texts with clients that need to be protected, the court filing said. Mr. Miller didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Jeremy Coles, a 36-year-old professor who took a new job in Ohio and was caught on caller ID with a different name—his dad’s—started sending Venmo payments to his father last year for his share of the family plan, including a recent $63.69 toward the bill. Like many who stay on their parents’ plans, Dr. Coles said the group option costs less per-line than it would to create a new plan.

Still, when he goes to buy a new phone, things get weird. Dr. Coles says there is always an awkward moment when he has to phone his father for the plan information before an associate can upgrade his device—especially when the bearded professor has his own kids with him.

“I don’t look very young anymore,” he said.

LINK: https://www.wsj.com/articles/c...-plan-11649173430?mo

Who came out with this-the phone companies trying to generate more money? Granted when you have your own family, it would be easier/cheaper to start your own plan,depending on how many people you have in your family. For some, maybe the children pay the phone bill for their older parents, so it is cheaper for them depending on when they signed up and what plan they need. I have my mother and mother-in-law on my plan in addition to my family, as it is much cheaper for them.

That’s a pretty silly thing to care about IMO. My ex wife was on her parents plan almost our entire marriage and still is. My kids are on it too. They got the plan way back when it was free or discounted to talk to people on a family plan and she just stayed on it because it was such an old plan they had a really good rate. We paid them for her and the kids portion and paid for any hardware we bought.

Trying to figure out why this is significant enough to be a news article (Wall Street Journal), and I'm drawing a blank.

I work with execs who’s cell phone plans are still in parents’, ex’s, or maiden name’s.

They typically just took over payments and never changed the plan.

Other than a conversation topic, no big deal.

quote:

Trying to figure out why this is significant enough to be a news article (Wall Street Journal), and I'm drawing a blank.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I thought it was funny. As a young man there is no way that I would be living in my parent's basement or hitting them up for gas money. Establishing my own independence was important. The article had a humorous tone as well. The WSJ has a variety of articles and this was a nice change of pace for me.

This is obviously an article intended to scare people into changing their plans, ie going to their provider and spending cash. This is just marketing.

quote:

When Nicole McCauley, 35 years old, started her new job, executives at the firm initially screened her calls.

Why? I mean, unless maybe it's a job involving a high security clearance, why would an employer need to check up on who you're calling?

They weren't screening the calls to her phone. They were screening the calls from her to their phones because her father's name came up on their caller ID rather than her own name.

My brother put our parents on his plan. Would only give them
a flip phone, they couldn't manage a smartphone.

Daughter was on ours until recently, she's on her own plan now, significantly less expensive to keep her as an additional line on our plan, close to 1/4 the cost of her having her own single plan.

For the uninitiated, login to your account from your provider, ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, and you can setup the caller ID for that line your self..

I use Acme Car Warranty...

Gee, I’ve had a Verizon plan for years and for years every line has allowed you to customize the Caller ID info for whomever is using that phone.

Not exactly a secret, maybe these “young professionals” aren’t all that smart…

Must be a slow news day

As my contribution to leveling the playing field, I've been on my daughter's plan for several years.

Much cheaper to add a phone to her plan than to start my own.

quote:

“I usually text people,” she said.

We are all real surprised at that statement honey.

More power to them! The way the phone companies set it up it's usually in your best interest to stay on a grandfathered plan with as many people on it as possible for as long as possible. I don't care how much money you make, it's silly to piss it away by getting your own plan that might cost double or more what you're paying as part of a bundled plan.

I'm getting married soon, and we're both established adults. It's been very interesting looking at all of our accounts to see what should be combined and what needs to stay separate. The cell phone bill is going to go up a few dollars a month by combining our plans, but we should get better service so it's a wash. Health insurance on the other hand is significantly cheaper if we both maintain our individual plans. If we have a child however, it becomes much cheaper to jump to a family plan.

I can't print money, so I have to cut dollars and cents where I can.

My aunt recently got a smartphone with data plan. She's paying over $100 a month.


I offered to add her to our family plan at no cost to her (would have cost me $25/month for truly unlimited everything). She decided to stay on her own plan because she thought she'd be able to stay within her flip phone plan budget. Well the plan was the same cost but after taxes, fees, discounts that she was told she qualified for but didn't and "data usage" upcharges, her $50 a month plan became over $100. She's also locked in for 2 years.


Single user cell phone plans are the most expensive per line. If there's any way to get on a family plan expect the savings to be 50-75%.

Our son and his wife, oldest daughter and her husband, and middle daughter were all on our family plan. It is much cheaper to be on the same plan with T Mobile.

Easy to have caller ID display the name of the actual person.

We changed the plan over to our son's name because he gets a military discount so we are now all on his plan.

This is changeable on Verizon, and you can pick individual names for individual lines. I've done that on our family plan after one of the others in the plan told me about that happening and I did a search.

I don’t care what my ID shows ups as on your phone. If our phone numbers are not saved in each others contacts your not that important to me.

As for a business if you care what my caller ID shows up you better be paying for the phone.

Heck, I am still on my father's name...