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A good option is to try Ting. It's a really affordable way to have high usage for cheap on your cell phone. If you decide to sign up her is a referral code that will save you $25 off your first bill https://zfo68g251f6.ting.com/ I've been very happy with their service.
When I am on hold to the IRS on their toll free number, I want it to be on their time and not using up my minutes on my cell phone where it isn't toll free.
You will use your cell minutes even if you are calling a toll-free number. With a cell plan, you pay for airtime. Time means you pay even if the other party never answers the phone & it just keeps ringing, as you are consuming airtime.
At any rate, we keep a landline because of those 45 minutes-on-hold trying to reach a human being at our insurance company or even calling Comcast.
At any rate, we keep a landline because of those 45 minutes-on-hold trying to reach a human being at our insurance company or even calling Comcast.
Many of the new plans are unlimited talk time. Walmart is selling unlimited cell phone talk for as low as $20 a month (a special plan by paylo plan by Virgin Mobile).
What many people refer to as a "land line" is in fact a "wire line" provided by their cable company. These wire line plans do not have the giant rooms filled with batteries that backed up a traditional plain old telephone system. So they are almost as vulnerable to loss of power as a cell phone.
If you get rid of the oldest copper wire plain old telephone (i.e. not even cordless), you should have a plan of attack to handle emergencies. You could keep extra batteries charged for your cell phone. You can often purchase gasoline generators for as low as $200 to run a few devices in addition to charging your phone. In the event of a large scale emergency, the cell towers may get overloaded. Have another means of communication (text from computers running on generators).
Location: Approximately 50 miles from Missoula MT/38 yrs full time after 4 yrs part time
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This info is interesting, may , I say MAY, save you some dollars, and most likely will only be of interest to those that live in a rural area, already use Verizon for their cell phone and Laptop (because they get "good signal strength" from one or more local towers), and have been paying close to $40. month to keep their "old fashion Land Line" (without ANY Long Distance capability---just local calls and no other bell or whistles.)
I did some checking with Verzion and
made - a switch- with them about a year ago.
I now pay $20/ month for all local service and calls AND GET FREE Long Distance Service. They give you a little black plastic device that sits right next to your main phone and picks up a "signal" from the same tower(s) that send out the signal for your cell and Laptop. You keep your same phone number, BUT you lose your "listing" in the local phone book, because your are no longer using the "hard-wired-telephone system' you had before from "your local Phone Company" (NOTE: You "disconnect" your phone from the "jack" in the wall, and hook that same phone to the previously mentioned "little-black-plastic-device" that is now "your connection for a 'Phone Line'.
I get one "Billing Invoice" from Verzion per month that lists my Charges for use of my: (1) My Cell Phone----(2) My Lap Top, and (3) My ($20/per/month) former so called LAND LINE--with no charges for UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE USEAGE. Prior to this set-up, I had to use my Cell Phone for ANY long distance calls I wanted to make......which "ate-into-my MINUTES/PER/MONTH/PLAN".
Benefits to me: (1)Save approx $17.50 per month on my" land line" costs.....(2): Get FREE LONG DISTANCE.....(3) Allowed me to go to a "lesser-minutes-per-month-plan" for my Cell Phone since I no longer use it for Long Distance...............Please Note: I am not affiliated with Verzion IN ANY WAY.....I just have been pleased with what they offer, and what I have chosen has worked for me.
They call that service Wireless Home Phone (WHP) and you can get it from Walmart for $10/month (but you must pay for your own equipment).
As I understand it, some WHPs may not have enough juice to ring a whole bunch of phones that are not cordless and don't have their own power supply. Most people have dumped many of those phones a long time ago.
They are inexpensive but subject to the same disruptions as your hand held mobile phone in the event of power loss, and/or overloading of cell towers in event of mass emergency. Just work on backups using text.
The equipment is usually $100 but may go for less.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 02-20-2015 at 11:37 AM..
We have the phones that cell phones can be linked to too. NEVER occurred to me to use them without land line service. What a great idea. The land line has become a telemarketing pain in the butt anyways. The only reason we kept it is for emergencies and having quick access but it sounds like that really has not been an issue.
The land line has become a telemarketing pain in the butt anyways. The only reason we kept it is for emergencies and having quick access ...
Give yourself some backups once you drop the land line. You may break or misplace your cell phone.
Examples are Skype, Google Hangouts, and/or Google voice. These systems use your wi-fi and they have no monthly fee. You can run them from your computer if you have a microphone, or you can buy a cheap android phone for $20 from Walmart and put Google Hangouts on it. If the phone supports android, you don't have to activate it as a cell phone to use it as a WiFi backup.
The other advantage of using Google Hangouts is you can make calls to people who you don't want to record your main phone number on the Caller ID. Google Hangouts show up as UNKNOWN on the Caller ID.
ScratchWireless sells a phone for $100 that works on wireless for voice, and on cellular for texts with no monthly fee. Also a good backup to keep around the house. Texts are good to use in a a municipal emergency situation where the cell towers are overloaded. Texts are limited to 140 or 160 characters because they are sent on the transport messages on the signalling paths needed to control the telephone traffic during periods when no signalling traffic existed. In this way, they may be easier to send when the primary systems are overloaded.
American Roaming Service sells 120 minutes of cell usage for $15 good for one year. These are outbound calls only. You can buy them for an old cell phone that you no longer use, or you can buy a cheap cell phone. Often times you need to give a kid or visiting relative a phone for emergencies only. While that works out to 12.5 cents a minute, the overall expenditure is low. It's a good thing to keep in a car if your purse/coat is stolen and you lose your cell phone.
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