Thinking about dropping home phone --

[erincon23]

We're looking at all expenses right now -- DH has been out of work for 14 months. Currently, all four of us (including two teens) have cell phones, and we don't get too many calls on our home phone. DH wants to look at dropping the landline, but I'm not sure about how that would work! What do you put down on applications or other forms that ask for home phone? Did it cause any unforeseen problems? We actually have the smallest number of minutes on our cellphone plan available, but NEVER come near using them all up, and DH says we have tons of rollover minutes right now, so I'm not worried about that. I'd really like to hear anyone's experiences doing this. Thanks!

 

[RitaE]

Funny, I was going through our bills yesterday and saw that we are averaging about 50 minutes a month on our home phone and I think over half of those minutes are telemarketers who ring the phone long enough until our voice mail picks up and then hang up - logging a minute.

We've talked about it several times but have never taken the jump. We really should.

 

[kaytieeldr]

911. Landline, if you dial they can pinpoint your location and send help immediately. Cellphone, they can triangulate you but not 'find' you.

Call your phone company or (better) go to their website and see what THE LOWEST cost service they offer is.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I dropped my landline a year and a half ago. Anyone whom I wanted to talk to had my and DS's cell numbers and called us on them. I was paying $50 a month for telemarketers to call me. Mmmmmm, no more. I don't miss my land line at all.

ETA: For anyone who needs a phone number, there's usually a "Home Phone" line as well as "Other" or "Cell Phone". I make it a point to write N/A for home phone and, if I want my cell phone number given, I also make it well known that it is a cell phone number as they can't be used for telemarketing purposes. I've also added my cell # to the Do Not Call registry just in case it gets leaked out.

 

[leadfootlevi]

For applications, I always just put my DH's cell phone number (his cell phone is the designated "home" phone). We got rid of our home phone 4+ years ago and have never missed it.

It is true with 911 - I've called 911 from my cell phone and reached the neighboring state (we live on the border). They just transferred me to my county. Had I not been able to speak though - that would be a different story. On the other hand, it's just as likely to need 911 and the phone service or electricity be out. There are always risks...

 

[katie26]

I've been thinking about getting rid of my home phone for a while now, but I have pretty bad cell reception in my apartment. My parents suggest Magic Jack - an adapter that plugs into your computer and lets you use a traditional phone via the internet for $20/year. I'm seriously considering it.

 

[LuLuO]

If you are concerned about 911 access, ATT offers an Access Line - Local Measured Service [at] per month $14.00 , plus taxes and such which if I remember correctly for us would put it at $21 per month which is $25 less than we were paying. I'm sure other companies offer something similar.

We bundle our phone with cable and Internet at the moment so we pay like $10 a month for our home phone. We are looking to cancel cable though so we may end up going the Access Line route because I don't want to be without 911 access.

 

[MeekoB]

I'd love to get rid of my home landline, but I need one in order to have directv because the receiver calls out on that line.

I have gone down to the cheapest plan, but it still costs me $35 a month -- mostly in federal and state taxes.

 

[EMAW]

We haven't had a landline for about 3 years and I have never regretted it. We have Directv without issue, and I use cable for my internet.

I have my phone number registered with the local 911 and actually my husband had to call for me a few months ago, couldn't remember our street address and they found us without issue.

 

[Kathi OD]

We got rid of our landline about 4 months ago when I realized the only people calling us on that line were politicians.

When I'm asked for my home phone, I just give my cell number. No problems so far.

 

[ladyhawk14624]

We got rid of our land line about 2 years ago. No problems whatsoever. There are 5 of us in the house with cell phones and no one we wanted to talk with ever called us on the home phone. My elderly mother lives with us and has a land line for her own use. Can't see switching a 93 year old woman to a cell phone.

 

[MrsPete]

We dropped our housephone 2-3 years ago, and we have not missed it a bit. Why pay for BOTH?

We're making plans for building our retirement home right now, and we do not intend to install phone lines.

 

[gshumaker]

If you want to keep it - go to the lowest price option.

Verizon offers a per call plan at something like $7 month plus 10.2 cents per call. Incoming calls are free just the outgoing ones you pay for I believe.

 

[Swimalie]

I talked to Comcast last week. Right now we have a bundled plan of cable, internet and home phone with them. For us to drop the home phone, it would raise our rate for the other 2 services more than what we are paying now. So if you have a bundled package like that, it might not be worth it to drop the phone. You can also call your phone company and get the basic phone service. For me personally, I wouldn't go without home phone for lack of 911 pinpointing service. It's just not worth it in an emergency.

 

[Panna]

I dropped mine about a year ago and don't miss it at all. If you are worried about 911 calls, keep your landline phone plugged in, you can still use it for emergency calls.

 

[sam_gordon]

There are two benefits to having a landline...
1) As has been mentioned, 911 service.
2) If power goes out in your area, you could lose internet (so much for MagicJack, Vonage, etc), possibly cell phone (whether from your battery dying or the cell sites losing power).

In 2009, we had no power for over a week. I found out we got power back by calling home... when the answering machine picked up, I knew power was back on.

Our home phone service (no long distance, no caller id, nothing special) is $16/month + another $15 in fees. I'd love to be able to cut the fees.

 

[disneydreamersx4]

We dropped the home phone one time and I forgot I was talking on a cell phone with my friend alot one month, who is a talker, and the bill was through the roof

 

[robinb]

We have been thinking about getting rid of our land line too. It seems a waste when I also have tons and tons of roll-over minutes.

 

[Harters2WDW]

We haven't had a landline for about 3 years and I have never regretted it. We have Directv without issue, and I use cable for my internet.

Same here!!

 

[BoogasMom]

I'd love to get rid of my home landline, but I need one in order to have directv because the receiver calls out on that line.

I have gone down to the cheapest plan, but it still costs me $35 a month -- mostly in federal and state taxes.

We haven't had a landline for a year now and haven't regretted it one bit since getting rid of it. AND we have Directv service. Go figure.

As far as 911....it's a risk we are willing to take. I have lived all of 39 years and so far have never needed to call 911 for anything. We have an alarm system that is set to a cellular signal and my husband's phone rings if it goes off. If someone were to break in, the ADT person receiving the signal would automatically send police anyway so that's not a concern. There is a risk of not being able to speak and/or not being able to get myself to the key panel for the alarm system to push the "rescue squad" button but life is full of risks that we take every day....heck just getting in your car and driving down the highway is risky.

It's all in what you see as being an acceptable risk to take. For us, we gave it no second thought.