cell phone only?

[FoundMyPrince]

Does anyone out there only have cell phone service and no home phone? Pros/Cons please? My DH and I each have a cell phone and we have a home phone. How many phones does one family need? I'm thinking we could save another $24/month here. Any imput?

 

[Malificient Tater]

This is just me, my thoughts. As long as I have a child in the home, under teenage years I am going to have a home phone. In case of emergencies and such I want a home phone. I know when Katrina hit even 3 hours north alot of our cells were not working but the phone company put a generator on so my home phone worked, plus without lights I did not have worry about charging it. I know people that have kids and just cells but they loose the phones in the house or their batteries mess up. And some people have crappy phone service in the house. But that is just me


And some place they can not find you as well with a cell in case of an emergency. We had that happen when a tree fell and killed the power and started a fire, I had to call the fire department and they did not know exactly where I was

 

[If U Had Wings]

As long as you get great cell phone service I would think you should be fine. I could never give up my land line. I live in the Bermuda triangle of cell phone service. It's virtually impossible to use my cell phone from my house, and in about a 2 block radius around it. It has something to do with how the towers are located in the area, and the fact that I'm pretty near the water.

I was able to switch to phone service through my cable company though for only $15 a month. Unlimited long distance and all the bells and whistles (caller id, 3 way calling etc.). From the phone company I was paying $25 a month for just local service and no frills.

Plus I like having my lines separate. I give out my cell phone number to few people it's really for emergency purposes only. I like being able to avoid calls if I'm out.

 

[Deffenm]

We only have our cell phones. We get great reception plus if we ever needed to use a regular phone my in laws live less then 2 miles away plus we are very close with our neighbors (know garage code, and have key to house) and they have one. We have not had any problems and I so enjoy only having one phone bill.

 

[Kitzka]

We havea small family of 3. DD is 9. We have and land line and a cell phone. It is more a peace of mind thing with me. Between the black out a few yers back and september 11th, I want a back up for my family.

We actually got rid of all of our extras. 2 way calling, calling waiting, etc. We now only have basic phone service and it only costs about $14 with taxes per month. It use to be about $45 with all of the bells and whisltes.

I think it is a personal choice but for us having both is the way to go.

Lara

 

[Banana magic]

DH is wanting to get rid of our land line, but I am against it. He uses his cell so much for work, I wouldn't end up with any minutes for myself to use! We have 2 children and they know where the land line phones are and how to use them. I will be using all the cons listed here when he brings this up again!

 

[Pigeon]

I've been cell phone only for the last two weeks, but not by choice. In a fit of insanity, I thought I'd save some money by switching to VoIP. I started getting high speed cable from Earthlink, and their Truvoice phone service sounded like a great deal--about $25/month for unlimited calling, vs. the $65/month I'd been paying Verizon and ATT.

Earthlink is a disaster. They cut me off from Verizon before they'd even shipped the part I need to connect to the service. All of their "customer service" is in India, and it is appallingly bad. No one will take ownership of problems, and they just shunt you from person to person, all of whom repeat the same 5 phrases. I spent over 10 hours trying to get it straightened out to no avail.

I decided to just forget it and am switching back to Verizon. But Earthlink is notorious for being slow to release the phone numbers, so it's going to take at least another week.

Being without a land line has been very odd. My biggest concern is that there are lots of people who would have no way to look up my number. Personally, I wouldn't do it because of the power outage issue, but can see why people are tempted.

 

[Malificient Tater]

I do not have their VOIP but I have had Earthlink for 6 years now and have always loved them. I had no idea.

 

[STLDisney_Freak]

DH and I are cell phone only. I cancelled my landline because I was completely tired of paying $75 dollars for a landline and then another $75 dollars for cell phones.

 

[bnorm27]

We have discussed this a few times, and may actually do it soon. My land line phone costs approximately $60 per month. I can whack that down to about $18 per month, but need to buy a phone with answering machine. We can certainly use our cell phones for long distance, and my employer pays for those. I do need to keep at least the very basic land lone package in order to keep my DSL service with Verizon.

 

[Tinka_Belle]

DH and I both have cell phones and no landline. When Rita hit after Katrina our power went out for about 24 hours and my Blackberry was how we were able to find out what was going on. If we would have needed to charge it we could have in the car. There are advantages to having a landline though. Especially if you have anyone watch your children in your home you would definitely want one.

 

[Darcy03231]

We've gone to just cell phones and while I really thought I would miss the land line I've found I haven't, at all. I really don't miss the political calls, sales calls and survey calls. The kids didn't use the land line at all - just their cell phones (DD-16, DS-14). I'm saving about $65/mo. Things came to head for us when our land line didn't work for 4 out of 6 weeks. Verizon would fix it, it would go back out a few days later and then it would be another week before they could come out and fix it again. I kept having to take vacation days to be there when they were there and we finally just got fed up and cancelled the land line back in October.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

We have been without a landline for about 5 months and can't tell the difference. I transferred our home number to my cell phone "just in case."

But no one really used our home phone anymore because they could always reach us on our cells. In fact, whenever they DID call our home number, no one ever answers and it goes to the machine because the batteries on the cordless phones are low/dead and don't recharge well so we never hear the phone even ring.

We also always use our cells for calling out because it is more convenient and because of the lack of juice on the cordless landline phone. So, we make about 1 call out a month, if that.

We DO have small children, 6 and 8 but they are NEVER home without us. If we are not home, they are either with us or at my Parents' home.

We had been wanting to cut landline service for YEARS, but were reluctant because of the trouble getting through on cell service in NYC during 9/11 and the black and brown outs.

HOWEVER, my parents live in the next building and we would just be calling each other. What pushed me over was that worst case scenerio, I could just go over to let them know we were ok and to use their landline, if necessary.

As I said, there has been no difference for us, I can't even tell (since we weren't using the landline anyways), except I have one less bill to pay per month!

 

[Jaycey'smom]

We only have cell phones and it has worked well for us.We have not had a home phone for years now b/c I could not see paying for a phone that was NOT getting used!! Also we have Alltell so between the free mobile to mobile and 10 free "friends" we NEVER go over on mins. (even with DD10 talking on hers all the time)

 

[ah1126]

Like many of you we have discussed this many times. My husband wants to have only cell phones, but I won't budge. Durring hurricane Ivan we lost cell service for several days, but our land line worked just fine. All of my family lives about 1000 miles away, and the land line was the only way I could reach them to let them know we were ok. I also had trouble getting in touch with my boss and co-workers to check in. I just have very basic service and we don't use it much, but I won't even consider getting rid of it. Good luck on your decision.

 

[richs52]

My biggest concern is that there are lots of people who would have no way to look up my number.

That's a BIG PRO for me! I love that by only having a cell phone, I can control who can find my number, and who I can give it to. No more telemarketers! No more polls! It's great!

....and while I don't live in a hurricane zone, my land line used to go out a heck of a lot more when we had bad thunder/wind/ice storms that my cell phone does now.

For us, having only cell phones has been nothing but postive.

 

[Tinkertude]

An other concideration: 911 until about a year ago did not have the capabilities to know where you were calling from in my area. We still have a land line bundled in with tv cable and internet connection. I would like to get rid of it but dh doesn't care to.

 

[LovePug]

I haven't had a land line in years and have had no problems what-so-ever. It became ridiculous for me to keep paying for a land line that we never used anyway.

 

[jennz]

Does anyone have a cell-only and make overseas calls?

 

[smiller]

Let me preface by saying I haven't read through all of the posts...

I haven't had a land line since 2004. When my Swedish rommate moved out, I kept the land line for 1 month. I made 1 call. The ENTIRE month! When I called the phone company to cancel, they of course asked why. No amount of money is worth one phone call to me! I could have gone to the corner gas station to make that one call. Yes, I did and still have a cell phone, and that's all I need. I'm in an area with good reception, so I can't complain there.

For me, it makes no sense to have a land line. For others, it makes perfect sense to have one. I wish you the best of luck in making your decision!