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Landline - thinking about dropping it

I'm looking for options on people who had a landline and dropped it having only a cell phone as their home phone.  I'm sick of paying for a phone that we really don't use and only get sales calls on.  If you had a landline and dropped it, give me your pros and cons.
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Re: Landline - thinking about dropping it

  • I haven't had a landline since I moved out of the dorms in college, lol. Needless to say, I don't need it!
  • we haven't had a home phone in 2 years. the only con is when my son forgets his cell phone at his dad's and lars and i have to go run an errand. that means we have to leave one of our phones home for him in case of an emergency.

    other than that, zero cons. we get good reception everywhere in our house and have never even come close to going over our minutes.

  • I haven't had a landline in like 5 years.  I don't miss it at all.
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  • We got rid of our landline in September last year and we have no regrets.  We have more than enough minutes on our cell phone plan and we get great cell signal at our house.

    Ditch the landline! :-) 

    PS I didn't originally want to ditch it because of using it for 911 purposes.  DH confirmed with the phone company that even if we don't have phone service we can use a phone to dial 911.  So we have a corded phone that plugs directly into the phone jack on my nightstand just for 911 purposes.  When you pick it up there's no dial tone, but the phone company will still put a 911 call through. 

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  • I haven't had a land line since 2003 and I don't miss it.  The only issue we occasionally have is that DH and I both silence our phones at work and occasionally forget to turn the ringers back on when we leave.  It is tough to get a hold of someone who can't hear that the phone is ringing.  DH and I are on a family plan and have 750 minutes but since most of our calls are to eachother or to other family members who also have Verizon, we hardly put a ding in those minutes each month (but I believe it is the lowest minute plan).
  • We didn't for the longest time when we had Direct TV because I hated qwest...but now we're with comcast and its cheaper to have a landline so we went with one.  Plus I'm on my cell phone for work so darn much that sometimes I just get sick of it, and figure if its an important family emergency they know my home number and can call that.

    I also don't want to rely on a babysitter for DS to have a cell phone and use it if its an emergency so its an added bonus...most of this I am just saying to make myself feel better for having it...but its a tax deduction for me so I don't really care, and its only $20 a month, and I  don't pay for my cell phone plan so its win-win.

  • I ditched the land line when I got my first cell phone ... 2000 I think? I know I was rather late to the game in getting a cell phone, but I knew I had no need for a home phone and a cell phone.

    I've never missed having a home phone.

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  • I'd love to drop ours, but we use it primarily for international calling (family isn't on Skype and talking to friends on it sometimes is awkward!).  Plus, I am always forgetting to take my cell off vibrate or silence- mode so when my family/friends try to call me on it and I don't answer, they always know to call the home/land line. Besides, we get a Qwest discount with our internet, so it isn't all that expensive.

    Still - if we could, we would drop it. Unfortunately (or maybe not?!), that would mean we/DH would have less communication with his parents and sister.

  • We are dropping ours next month.  It isn't even technically a land line.  It is voice over cable which means if a storm knocks out our power we have no phone (except our cell).  I don't think we will miss it.
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  • I'm just the opposite, thinking about getting a super cheap landline. The only reason being for my DH's heart condition. Granted, if there were a severe emergency with him, we would call 911 but he sends monthly ekgs in over the phone. We always have to go to his Parent's house (up the road) to do so since we don't have a landline.

    If we were ever snowed in or stuck at home without a vehicle or something and he needed to send an ekg in, we can't. I really don't know which of our neighbors have landlines, except one.

    My Mom & Dad have a landline too, for the same reason that I'm thinking of getting one; my Sister & DH have the same heart condition. They need to have it for emergencies. They don't have it set to ring, it's down in their basement, it doesn't have an answering machine etc.

    DH and I haven't had one in forever. Other than emergencies, I don't see a need for one.

    I do want one when we have kids though. I am sure most babysitters have cell phones now days but in the off chance we'd get one that didn't... I would want to be able to call the house if necessary and/or have them be able to call me or 911.

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  • We haven't dropped ours. We have thought about it. But I don't like relying on a babysitter having/using a cell phone when babysitting. I rather have a home phone for that purpose only.

    ** DH works for the cable company so we pay very little on our phone, thus might change my opinion on that.

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  • We haven't had a landline for several years, and haven't missed it at all. I may change my mind once we have kids, but for now we're good with just our cell phones.
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  • I've been without a landline since 2003 and haven't missed it for a second.  You just want to check service with your provider in your house to make sure you get a decent enough signal.  I guess the only con I can think of is that you can't hear the phone ring throughout the house.  You either have to keep it in a centralized location and check it every once and awhile.  I don't get many emergency phone calls though so it's not that big of a deal if I miss a call here and there because it's in my bag or another room.
  • imageLauree1183:

    PS I didn't originally want to ditch it because of using it for 911 purposes.  DH confirmed with the phone company that even if we don't have phone service we can use a phone to dial 911.  So we have a corded phone that plugs directly into the phone jack on my nightstand just for 911 purposes.  When you pick it up there's no dial tone, but the phone company will still put a 911 call through. 

    This is good to know! I got rid of our landline three years ago and haven't missed it all that much. But I sometimes worry about having to make an emergency call at night but my cell phone isn't in my bedroom. I'll have to see if we still have a phone lying around somewhere that I can plug in. Thanks for the tip!

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  • We only had ours because our Comcast bundle came with it.  We live in an apartment and the door buzzer has to go through a 763# (we're both different area codes) so it was nice to have that while it lasted.  Other than that it was completely useless and constantly rang only due to telemarketers or charity calls. 

    We dropped ours yesterday and cut our plan down big time.  Such a waste of $.

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  • I haven't had a land line in probably 10 years. No problems here.
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  • We haven't had a land line in six years.  The only people that called my dorm phone was my parents, and they also have my cell number of course.

    We have talked about getting a home set up that your cell links up to when at home, so a "home phone" would ring, but since it's just H and I, it doesn't make sense yet.  When we had kids and then they are older we may network something, but I haven't missed a land phone at all.

  • We get AWFUL cell reception so we're stuck with a landline. That's fine for now. Oh, well. Otherwise when we didn't have one - it was a great money saver!
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  • imageBimbi284:
    I haven't had a landline since I moved out of the dorms in college, lol. Needless to say, I don't need it!

    Exactly this.

    Even my parents dropped their land line.

    We got a Magic Jack so that we can hook a phone up to the computer.  We only hook it up when we have a sitter over for DD.  Most of them have their own cells anyway, but Magic Jack has our address programmed into it to direct the call to the correct 911 connection in case a 911 call would need to be made.

    Magic Jack addressed the only con we had as far as not having a land line

  • I'm one of the totally paranoid ones and have the land line mostly for 911 purposes.  but also I like when people call the home phone because then whoever answers gets to talk to the person calling too.  I found before we told people we hda our home phone, DH's friends/family would just call his cell to talk, and I would never talk to them (same wiht my family), and I didn't like that disconnect either.  His friends would never call me to just chat, but if I answered instead of DH, we'd chat for a few minutes to catch up.  The very minimal cost of a home phone is worth it for me.
  • We have kept it for the 911, kids, phone rings all over the house even if we forgot to charge our phones or can't hear them, and I also like the old fashioned idea that someone calls OUR HOUSE, and whoever answers to gets to chat.

    I'll have to double check but I think we only pay $20 - we have an answering machine so no $8/month in voicemail.  

    I'm not sure how it would work if my kids wanted to call friends - guess they have to give a parents cell phone #?  Sort of a pain and we have no interest in giving them cell phones anytime in the next 5 to never years. :P

    Food for thought though.  I'd say 80% chance I'll still have a lan line in 3-5 years.  At that point our kids will be older and maybe we'd get a pay per minute cell to just have around the house.  Those are getting crazy cheap. 

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