We've been seriously contemplating cancelling our home phone and relying solely on our cell phones.
There are a few things that are keeping us from it:
1) We are attached to our phone number - crazy, I know. BUT it identifies us as residents of our town since the post office doesn't handle our mail.
2) We like not being reachable by everyone at all times. No offense. :)
3) We are a little old-fashioned and just like the idea of a home phone.
4) We are concerned that we would need to significantly increase our monthly cell minutes which might not save us much in the end.
Reasons we are considering cutting it:
1) We want to decrease monthly expenses - this is, of course, the #1 and main reason.
2) Most people have our cell numbers and use them.
3) We are not attached to the MANY sales, donation, and other calls we receive.
So...any thoughts on this decision? Have any of you made that decision (to cancel your home phone...not to never sign up for it)? Also, more generally, if you only use your cell phones, do you like it?
I'm sure it seems a bit ridiculous that it's such big deal for us but it really is...for both of us! :)
14 comments:
We still have a home phone because if there was ever an emergency, ie. weather, etc, the cell lines become unusable due to everyone using them and the land lines still work.
I was in New York on 9/11/01, the cell phones didn't work, but all the land lines and pay phones were available.
Just my 2 cents.
Kelly Sarandis
We did it and greatly cut our phone bill! We ported our home phone number into my cell phone and my husband kept his cell number. We use a pre-paid unlimited plan from Wal-mart that uses the Verizon network. We each pay $45 a month for our phones with unlimited calling,texting,and browsing. We can't beat that!
We have it for the alarm system in our house and in case of emergency. With three little kids, my thinking would be if they were able to call 911, at least they could trace the address with the land line.
We have only used cell phones in our married life and I hate it! Only for sentimental reasons, though. To me a home phone brings you closer to people: if someone from church calls for my husband and I answer, I can connect for a minute, too. We've never had this and I think it's sad. Cell phones have always been the cheaper choice for us and it is nice to not have many (there are still come) solicitor calls.
Good luck with that decision!!
We only use cell phones, and will probably always do that. It's super easy, cheap, and everybody uses that to contact me anyway. I say do it, but if you do, you better get a little bit better at charging and answering your cell. ;)
We have always only had cell phones, and have never had any problems. We do find that you have to remember to charge it each night, and as I am terrible at hearing mine ring, some of our acquaintances might complain that we are harder to reach. I don't think that would change with a home phone...
The point about kids being able to call in an emergency is valid... I would teach them how to use the cell phone and to know their address.
That's a great point about the kids. They know their address (most of the time :)) and they know that you call 911 in an emergency and it would be good for that to be tied to a land line that could easily trace the call.
Thanks for weighing in and feel free to continue! This has been an ongoing decision for us...
One way to cut costs without dropping the land phone line all together would be to just drop long distance from your plan.
We did and use our cells for our long distance calls. Locally we still have phone service and the peace of mind it brings. It wasn't a huge savings, but maybe $20 a month or so? AND you save those crazy taxes added for the privilege of long distance service! :)
Just a thought!!
We have dropped our long distance and various features off our home phone which has helped so we may just leave it at that. We don't use our home phone much but I definitely can see the reasons for keeping it!
ha! so funny. We have gone through the same thought process and just decided to keep the home phone - scaled down for some of the reasons you stated!
We use Skype as our "home" phone. For $40 a year you can get a local number for anyone to call you on and then $30 a year to call out to anywhere in the US and Cananda. The disadvantages 1) you can't use it to call 911...2) it's connected to your computer so if Internet is down so is your phone...3) the initial cost for the phone is a bit pricey. The advantages 1) $70 a year sure beats even $20 a month.
So I'm late to this discussion, but we were just debating this question over lunch at work yesterday.
We have always just had cell phones, but we don't have kids to think of.
The best solution I heard was the cancel the home phone, but pick up a pre-paid cell phone from some place like Wal-Mart. One of those phones that works like an old calling card and comes loaded with a certain number of minutes. It could be kept in the kitchen and provides a phone that's always available for the kids in case of emergencies, but has no monthly fees attached.
Sounded like a pretty solid plan to me :)
We have not had a home phone since living in Indiana and it drives Kevin's mom crazy. But we seriously don't see the need to pay the extra money every month. The cell phones work just fine. And I LOVE having caller ID so I can screen calls. If I don't recognize a number, I never answer it and just let it go to voice mail. Most of the people I talk to regularly have AT&T and minutes are free, so that has not been a problem.
Oh, and maybe you could talk to Kevin b/c I don't know all the details but we were contemplating at one time using an internet service for a type of home-phone. Apparently it had good reviews and was only like $20 for the whole year.
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