Should I change my phone number?

[mikelan6]

I just got a new VOIP (voice over IP) device to save some money on my phone bill, so I have the opportunity to change to a new phone number or pay an extra fee and transfer my old phone number to the VOIP device.

One of the advantages to this is that I will no longer have to deal with annoying toll free calls from creditors looking for my ex and a cousin of mine, who I don't know how they got my number.

The disadvantage is having to notify everyone I know about the new number. I'd also lose the "305" area code and moving to the secondary "786" number.

What should I do?

1) Keep my old number and deal with the annoying calls?
2) Change numbers and hope the annoying calls don't follow?

Thanks!

 

[AKL_Megs]

I'd change it. You really then only have to notify the people you REALLY want to have your number. You'll probably get a bunch of new telemarketer calls... they are always the FIRST to find out about a new number. I don't understand the area code thing... maybe because there are about 50 area codes in this area!

 

[diznygirl]

There will always be annoying phone calls - no matter which number you have.

I say keep the current one.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

When you change your number you get a whole other set of annoying calls.

My vote is for it to stay the same.

 

[Melmac]

I voted for keep your old number. When I changed cell providers, I ended up with our area's secondary area code. It is fairly new and not a lot of people have the new area code. We had a really hard time having people pick up the phone because they thought it was long distance and someone they didn't know. Plus, there were issues with companies assuming we had the old area code and then they had the wrong number. As others have said, the annoying calls will follow - just from different people.

 

[FireDancer]

I vote new number, but also get a Google voice number. You don't have to give anyone the new phone number and you can set up a lot of rules for what happens when someone calls the new Google number. You can set it only to ring the phone for known callers, to ring phones depending on the caller (friends and family call both cell and home, business contacts ring cell and office, ect).

Plus, if you end up changing numbers in the future you just change it in Google voice and don't have to change the number you give out.