Cutting Costs

[JelloShotGirl 0]

Hubby and I are trying to cut corners on everything to save money. We have a land line that is "bare bones" and it still costs us about $42 a month with no usage. Bare bones meaning no extras like caller id, etc etc. We already have a cell phone plan that works for us and it costs about $39.00 and we have the option to add on a line and get another phone for one of us for about $10 more a month. Should we keep the land line or not? I know it is good to have one because of emergency---power outage, blah blah blah , it is more "secure" for your banking etc etc and I dont have to worry about dropped calls etc with the landline because sometimes that is the annoyance w a cell phone. Please let me know your input/opinon.

thanks!

[Jenn! 918]

We don't have a landline and have never had any problems!

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Im young but old fashioned...ALWAYS have a landline

why? i dunno...emergencies,security..having it drilled in my head lol

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Landlines seem to have lost their purpose, IMO. If the phone companies don't want them to go extinct, they need to offer basic service for dirt cheap...like $10 a month. You're paying way too much, IMO.

[Bootylicious!! 2]

Dropped my land line about a month ago. We might have gotten a call on it once every two weeks, if even that. I just couldn't see paying all that money for nothing. We strictly use our cell phones now and haven't had an issue so far.

[chri'stina 190]

We don't have a landline and have never had any problems!

Same here. We just both have a cell phone.

[milimelo 4,477]

Would like to drop the landline but can't because of the house alarm. Waiting to move soon.

[Jenn! 918]

Oh, that reminded me of the one drawback to having no landline. In our apartment building, the intercom/doorbell system is connected to residents' landlines. So, we have no doorbell.

[YuAndDan 153]

Check with your phone CO, see if they offer "metered service", this charges a fee for out going calls but not for incoming. I have a friend who has this for the DSL, and uses IP phone for making calls over the DSL.

[Aubrey 10]

Yep, same here -- cell only for several years now. As long as you're not blabbing it up on your phone, it's no problem at all.

[dalegg 143]

If it wasn't for the fact that I get 2000 minutes to Vietnam for only 20 dollars a month on my landline it would be gone. The only calls I ever receive on it are from telemarketers.

[aidan80 9]

We ditched our landline in favour of Vonage a long time ago with no one single regret! We where paying close to $70 a month just for the phone and that's without making a call or any extras!!! We switched to Vonage with caller ID, 3 way calling.. etc and for just a about $38 (including taxes!) a month we have all the calls we want to North America and most places in Western Europe (like back home) we also have a virtual number we rent for $5 per month (included in the $38 we pay) so people back home can call our phone in Florida for the price of a local call back home! Once and a while we get someone from back home calling the wrong number.. looking for the doctor or a taxi.. not knowing they just called Florida

If you call back home a lot and you want the security of a land line without the costs I'd go for Vonage! They'll send you out a router that connects to your internet connection, connect a standard phone to the RJ11 jack on the router and your up and running! For added security if the lights go out during a storm you can always purchase a UPS that will keep your router/modem up and running. Go check it out.. I still might have a promotional code somewhere to get an extra month free.. let me know if your interested.

[msu17 0]

Nope. Why would I get another line just so telemarketers could call me on it? Everyone who needs to talk to me would just call the cell. If you are worried about emergencies and power outages, they sell car cell chargers and little portable ones, making that worry obsolete. Drop it and save the $$

[aidan80 9]

Nope. Why would I get another line just so telemarketers could call me on it? Everyone who needs to talk to me would just call the cell. If you are worried about emergencies and power outages, they sell car cell chargers and little portable ones, making that worry obsolete. Drop it and save the $

Good point but luckily we've never had a telemarketer call us on our number from vonage, I don't think it had been recycled or recycled enough. Although on Sprint we had all kinds of people calling looking for people and of course friendly bill collectors! On a cell those people looking for other people will be eating up your minutes.. don't have to pick up just have to waste money deleting their voicemails lol... Luck of the draw when it comes to getting a number now but not all is bad I'm sure. Your right about the power adapter.. we got one of these to charge phones, laptop when on the road or if the lights go out.. etc I've seen them at Wal-Mart as well priced from around $15 for a 80w model all the way up to around $30 - $40 for a 200w model.