phone service

[tabbycat31]

ok since so many people have been talking about phone service, I figured I'd start a poll.

[sarah]

I have a land line but I use a discount long distance service which gives me 1200 long distance minutes for 25 a mpnth. However it seems to becoming unreliable so I am thiinking of alternatives.

[tabbycat31]

responding to my own poll........ I have a (traditional) cellphone only that I pay about $39/month for including taxes and text messaging.

The reason I will never get a landline...... the first is privacy. I don't want to be listed in a phonebook so anyone could find me (particularly with a non common last name) and I don't think that I should have to pay a fee for my privacy.

The second is that I am rarely home, and it makes no sense for me to pay for a phone that I will never use.

The third is I don't have to worry about paying for extras like Caller ID, long distance, voice mail, etc. They all come with my cellphone, and I can talk to anyone on my carrier, and nights (after 9) and weekends are free. I've never gone over my monthly minute allowance. Usually the only phonecalls I make before 9 are business related or very quick personal calls.

[PRICEPLUS]

Cell phone and land line!

[rduell]

We have a land line and a prepaid cell phone. I would love to just go with cell phone, but our area is so remote that we have no coverage for cell phones yet. Just 20 minutes away in either direction where DH and I work, there is coverage. So we have the land line for home and the cell phones for work and travel.

[cindilee]

cell phones only, I havent felt the need to have a land line in almost six years. I have cable internet so dont need a land line for anything. Many people I know no longer have land lines.

[lgslgs]

Land line only.

Cell phone wouldn't work around here unless we go up to the top of the hill to place our calls.

We also have Hubby's family in England so we need cheap phone rates to the UK. We use a seperate long distance service for that (no monthly charge and less than 5 cents per minute to UK.)

We are tempted by Vonage but we lose electricity here fairly often and it's nice to have the luxury of being able to call and whine at the power company when the lights and heat are out.

Lynda

[poundwise]

Vonage for home
Prepaid cell for wife
Cell for work (work pays)

[pearlieq]

Originally Posted by poundwise

Vonage for home
Prepaid cell for wife
Cell for work (work pays)

Ditto!

[PrincessPerky]

two cells, one each....cheaper than land and cell...no long distance no roaming...calls to top 10 numbers are free, plus more than enough included minutes.

[SavedintheCity]

Vonage (although we are switching to SkypeOut/SkypeIn cause it's cheaper!!)
Two cells
(Oh brave new world that has such people in it! Brave New World, Aldus Huxley)

I would whole-heartedly recommend VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) to anyone. It is SO much cheaper than traditional landlines (Skype is free if you call other Skypers). For those who call abroad alot, these services are indispensable; they are far cheaper and better than the traditional calling cards. Plus you have a ton of added web-based features. With Vonage, et al, you don't even need your computer on to use it. It works just like a traditional phone, the call quality is excellent and costs $24.99/month for unlimited national calls. You can even set up phone numbers in several different cities so your loved ones can call you as a local number and therefore saving them from long distance fees too!!!

[neatdesign]

Originally Posted by lgslgs

Land line only.

Cell phone wouldn't work around here unless we go up to the top of the hill to place our calls.

We also have Hubby's family in England so we need cheap phone rates to the UK. We use a seperate long distance service for that (no monthly charge and less than 5 cents per minute to UK.)

Lynda

Our situations are almost identical!

We use a prepaid cell phone (Virgin Mobile) which only costs about $5/month; unfortunately, it doesn't work at home (have to drive about 3 miles to higher elevation before we get service) or at my job, so Mark just takes it with him to work and we take it on road trips for emergencies.

We have a traditional landline mostly because we use it to call Mark's family back in England. The service we use requires a landline phone, or else the rates are a lot more expensive (but moot in our case, since the cell phone doesn't work at home anyway!).

Lynda, is your husband originally from England? If so, from where? Mark's originally from Hertfordshire and moved to the US in May 2003 on a K1 visa. We use OneSuite.com for our pre-paid long distance calls, I think it's about 2.5¢/minute to call the UK -- a steal, we can talk for 6 hours and it's still less than $10! What service do you use and what are the rates?

~ Jenney

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by neatdesign

Lynda, is your husband originally from England? If so, from where? Mark's originally from Hertfordshire and moved to the US in May 2003 on a K1 visa. We use OneSuite.com for our pre-paid long distance calls, I think it's about 2.5¢/minute to call the UK -- a steal, we can talk for 6 hours and it's still less than $10! What service do you use and what are the rates?

~ Jenney

Pat's from Hull. We did the K1 visa for him and were married in 2001. Gosh - I don't miss those applications and adjustment of status forms! Makes an IRS audit look like a Sunday afternoon picnic in the park, doesn't it?

We're using Covista for our long distance. It's about 4.9 cents per minute - which works for us since normal calling for him is a 2 hour call, every other month.

We're going to keep watching what's going on with Vonage. Their 14.99 plan + normal UK rate would save us a little money - but it would likely be a wash if we got the prepaid cell phone. Thier 24.99 plan includes free calls to UK land lines, be we don't call enough to make that worthwile. I'd also want to test with someone else's cell phone first to see if we can actually find any place on our land where one would work.

Lynda

[neatdesign]

Lynda, I have sent you a PM.

~ Jenney

[Gruntina]

I have internet phone but data with text message. I never use the phone minutes because I am deaf.

[Fern]

i havent' seen a poll here in a while. wanted to do a few myself, but couldn't figure out how to. How do you do it?

[Hez]

I only have a (traditional) cellphone...for me there's no point in having a landline.

[project15]

we have cellphones and a landline. we only have the landline so we can have DSL. it's like $8 a month for the landline, but the DSL/landline is still cheaper than cable internet.

[CraigThor]

I have 2 Cellphone on e for me and one for the wife, mine I should be able to tax deduct as it is for work and all calls on the sprint network are free. I just recently got a land line as cable access around here is more costly then dsl and not a great access. the landline is like $12-15 a month as it is only a computer line.

Craig

[Elgin526]

Landline at home ($35-40 a month) and a pre-paid for me (works out to $5 a month on average. DH has a traditional plan, but he usues his so much that a pre-paid would actually work to to cost us more. He wants me to give up the landline, but I don't want to. I want to be able to call 911 in an emergency and not have to worry about trying to find my cell phone or wonder if it's charged up. Also, 911 can tell where you're calling from on a landline and send help if you aren't able to speak, or if a young child calls and doesn't know the address.