Ditching your land line and going cell phone only.

[SplashMo]

I cut the cord on cable two years ago and it has been great. Still have the landline. Should I give it up and save the $25.00 / month and use just our cell phones? Any drawbacks? Interested in hearing folks experiences...

 

[kymom99]

I got rid of mine when we moved 3 1/2 years ago. No regrets. The only people who called the house phone were telemarketers and my mother-in-law! At the time, I didn't want my son to have his own phone but he was old enough to be at the house alone at times. We got an additional cell phone line for $10 a month and left it at the house. Problem solved. It eventually became his personal line.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I won't! My Niece had her house burn down because of a cell phone call to 911.

If you use your cell phone in another city you cell phone will search for the nearest available tower to route your call. Well just 2 years ago her neighbor had been to another city just to the east of where they live. And used his phone in that city. Well what happened is the next time he used his phone the call went through the cell tower in the other city because his cell phone was hung up on that tower. So the 911 call went to that cities dispatch center.
When he told the dispatcher the address which was a common street name. The 911 dept sent a fire crew to the address in their city not where the actual fire was. In call back to 911 to see where the fire dept was they discovered the call was going to another city.
And when the fire dept did show up the chief explained what happened about the call getting hung up on the tower. He said that if 911 dept would answer the call by say Cleveland 911 what's your emergency rather than the standard "911 what is your emergency" folks would be alerted that they don't have the right 911 dept.
Happened to a friend who is a police chief in PA. He was on the Ohio turnpike and witnessed an accident. Called 911 only to recognize the voice on the line as one of the 911 operators in this own town. He was surprise to be a few hundred miles from home yet his call went to his 911 dept.

So I will not give up my landline. $25 a month is a good insurance policy. Or what if you have an emergency and there is a child in the home that needs to dial 911. It would be better if they know right were the phone is located to make that important call rather than a small child hunting for a cell phone that could be in a pocket and not accessible because the injured person might be laying on it.

There is a code you can type into a Verizon phone which will reset your cell phone back to the tower in your city but I don't remember what it is since I no longer have Verizon. Its like #268 or something.

 

[kathy884]

It would work out just fine for my son who keeps his cell phone charged all the time. My husband. though, rarely uses his cell phone / just has it for work calls. And me, my cell phone isn't charged half the time. Also, our cell phone reception in our older brick home isn't as good as the landline.

 

[natfrac]

We ditched our land line 6 1/2 years ago and we've never regretted the decision. Our current cable package includes phone, but to us it's not worth plugging in.

 

[daughtersrus]

I use my fax machine a few times a month. The money saved on the bill is not worth me driving to Office Max to fax

 

[Marionnette]

9-11 and our home security system are two reasons why we keep our land line. Since it's part of our cable bundle, it really isn't costing us much more to keep it.

 

[Disneefun]

Consider whether you live in an area where power goes out a lot. We live in an area that gets both a lot of ice and a lot of hurricanes. If you live where you can be without power for days, a landline (with a corded, not cordless phone) is a good idea.

 

[nkereina]

We went for five years without a landline and had no issues. The only reason we have one now is because our cable and internet package was actually cheaper if we added the phone, and it turns out that our new house has crappy cell service so our cell phones don't work well there (AT&T). The drawback with having a landline through our cable provider is that whenever the cable is out, so is the landline - this includes power outages, major windstorms, or just for no reason at all because it's Time Warner

 

[aprilchem]

Consider whether you live in an area where power goes out a lot. We live in an area that gets both a lot of ice and a lot of hurricanes. If you live where you can be without power for days, a landline (with a corded, not cordless phone) is a good idea.

We bought solar chargers for our cell phones for that reason - in an extended power outage we would just charge them that way instead.

I've personally had call 911 from my cell phone 5 times since we got rid of our landline about 9 years ago. Once was in another city when I was in a car accident, three times were from my home (we're not crazily accident prone - I live on a corner near an intersection with a stop sign that people often run, causing accidents) and I've had to call twice from work. All 5 times the dispatcher has known my approximate location and emergency services/law enforcement has come to the correct place.

 

[Funfire240]

We never connected a land line when we built our home 7 years ago. I was concerned with having children but normally the only sitters we have are grandparents so they have cell phones too. We only had one time when I regretted it, but everything turned out ok. My Dad had a medical emergency one night and it happened to be a time when I forgot to turn the ringer back on after work and DH also had his ringer off after hunting that evening so no one got through to us until I saw the missed calls the next day.
I keep a spare charger plus in an emergency, we can always charge them in the cars (have always had a car charger and now with the Cherokee we can even charge in the car via USB or the regular outlet.)
The only other time I had a problem was when one of the kids moved my phone and I couldn't find it and DH was at work - I had to facebook message someone to call me from my kindle so I could find my phone! Luckily the ringer was on then.
So it definitely has its good and bad points...

 

[fbb]

9-11 and our home security system are two reasons why we keep our land line. Since it's part of our cable bundle, it really isn't costing us much more to keep it.

I did this for a couple of years (keeping the land line solely for the security system), then decided to bundle the security system with the internet and like it much better.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

I have no landline anymore. When we first moved into our neighborhood almost 10 years ago, reception was BAD no matter which carrier you used, so I never, ever would have considered going only wireless. Now, service is great (no dropped calls at all since I switched 5 months ago) and our phones keep a charge for several days (we checked this out the first week we had them - now they get recharged each evening before bed).

Definitely set up a regular docking station or particular place to keep the phones, though. You wouldn't want to misplace it and have the ringer off.

 

[hsmamato2]

Consider whether you live in an area where power goes out a lot. We live in an area that gets both a lot of ice and a lot of hurricanes. If you live where you can be without power for days, a landline (with a corded, not cordless phone) is a good idea.

no longer true in many neighborhoods. B/C of the computerized bundled services that are attached to the poles in our area,(at&t,uverse,etc) ALL the wires are now dependent on that huge box attached the pole at the end of the service area. Have you noticed them? when the battery inside that handy dandy box goes, the entire system quits too,including the phone lines,which used to work in a power outage. I wish it were true,and I paid 40 per month for years till I discovered this fact....(10 days without power will teach you a lot about how the grid works) at the end, the cell tower generators had given out,except for texting(at times) and the phone line had stopped after about 3-4 days. When everything is depending on battery life,generator strength,and computer driven systems, it just 'ain't what it used to be.' Maybe it still is in some rural areas, but not for most places. We just made sure to text all or loved ones and let then know we were fine, then settled in to wait it out.

 

[hsmamato2]

oh,yea,to OP's question... yes we did switch to just cells..... we lal have our own cell line(youngest kid started with our 'home' cell at 8 bucks a month - the rest of us have a regular cell/data plan.... we have a central desk/recharge tray that I created, it's where the phones 'go' at night, kind of like how when I was a kid, I always knew where the phone was,plugged into the kitchen wall my phone is either in my purse,or on that desk.

 

[jahber]

We haven't used a land line since we moved to a new house almost 10 years ago. Like a pp said, we have a line with our cable package, but the only people who call it are telemarketers (I can see their name and number on the tv when they call--how annoying!).
Fwiw, my neighbors directly across from me are paramedics and we have a police officer behind the house behind us and several more within half a mile. If our house is on fire, someone's going to notice and call their co-workers at the station 2 miles down the road. Nothing in life is guaranteed, but $25 a month for a phone doesn't seem worth it.

 

[mblondie0509]

I have not had a landline in almost 11 years and have never had a problem. Now that DS9 is older, I did pick up a tracfone to keep at home in case of emergencies but I put $20 on every 90 days. I shopped around recently and could not get a landline for less than $30 a month here. I also don't have cable/satellite or the internet at home and we are doing just fine!

 

[dawnhaze]

I'm 30 and landline phones feel like a relic from another age to me. My parents got rid of ours when I was in high school and I've never had one in any of my own residences.

If you live somewhere with good cell reception and a modern 911 system, and you don't use a fax machine or a phone-wired home security monitor - I'd say stop wasting the money.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

We have not had a landline in more than 15 years. Zero problems.

 

[angierae]

I haven't had a landline since I had a job that required one, and I quit that job in 2003.