Considering Getting Rid of Home Phone: Upsides & Downsides

[pjpamchef]

I am considering getting rid of my home phone, I'm pretty sure I know all the upside reasons to do it, wondering if I'm missing any of the downside reasons. Has anyone regretted getting rid of their home phone??

 

[pchockeymom]

NO!! Since you can now assign 911 address to your phone, and you still have to give an address even when you call from a land line, there is no reason to have a land line unless you have a fax machine.

 

[Tracy99]

The only worry I have is for a babysitter. Almost all kids seem to have cell phones now a days but I always ask to make sure the sitter has a phone and if not, I am prepared to leave mine or my husband's at the house in case of an emergency.

 

[BethCooks4U]

If I had kids I'd have a land line for emergency purposes. We still have ours for now but will soon get rid of it since its just the two of us.

The other reason to keep it would be if you get lousy reception in your house.

 

[wadesgirl]

Haven't had a home phone for 8 years and I'm still not sure why I didn't do it before then! I do agree with everybody who says that it is still a nice thing to have if you have kids at home who don't have cell phones. They call if there is an emergency and you can call to check in on them.

 

[PamperedchefDaly]

One thing I can think of is reception. As long as you can make/receive calls on your cell in every part of the house you are probably ok to get rid of the landline.

My cell service is spotty at home. I can be sitting at my computer and sometimes my cell rings, sometimes it doesn't and the call goes to voicemail. Or, I can be talking on my cell and the other person will say that I'm breaking up.

Another thought--Do you have an alarm system that connects to a central monitoring station? I think you would need a landline for that.

 

[mvspenny]

I don't get good reception in my house so there is no way I would get rid of my home phone.. but I know a lot of people who got rid of it with no regrets

 

[lesliecooks4u]

We have one only because our house alarm requires it.

 

[carlajanes]

We still have our land line because our cell reception is horrible out here in the boonies. I use the land line number for all my PC correspondence because I don't want to be on the phone with a customer and lose the call

 

[1PamperedMommy]

We haven't had a land line for about 5 years now. However, now that my daughter is getting into calling friends (she's about to turn 7), we're thinking of getting a land line again soon. I think the only good purpose (for us) is so the kids don't use up all of our minutes. But when they're old enough for cell phones, we won't have to worry about that either. No matter what, when we're ready to go back to a land line, it's Vonage all the way! So much cheaper than the phone company!

 

[esavvymom]

The other thing is in the event of some storm or something. Several years ago we had a bad ice storm and knocked out power for over a week. After just one day, the cell phones no longer worked (towers down or something, not that our cell phones were dead....although they would have eventually) but our landline worked fine (as long as you dont have a cordless phone of course).

You could of course see if they have a basic basic level of service for cheap.

 

[flemings99]

We still have our landline b/c of the kiddos. We have cell phones through Sprint and according to the rep I talked to: when I upgrade to an iphone end of this month we can add our house phone on the plan for just $20 extra which is way cheaper than what we are paying for our home phone now.

 

[pcsharon1]

We still have our landline b/c of the kiddos. We have cell phones through Sprint and according to the rep I talked to: when I upgrade to an iphone end of this month we can add our house phone on the plan for just $20 extra which is way cheaper than what we are paying for our home phone now.

Seriously? I have never heard that. We have our phones through Sprint and our upgrade is coming up at the new year. Of course, I personally think Spring seems expensive compared to a lot of other companies anymore.

 

[kam]

I agree with all the reasons for keeping it. I will probably always keep a landline.

Just for the simple fact of the power going out. The batteries run down pretty quickly on the cell phones. We have a few corded phones, so we have phones when the power goes out. A friend with 2 young children had NO corded phones last winter when the power went out for over 23 hrs. I had extra corded phones in the basement and lent her one. They did not have the cell phones charged all the way prior (since you never have advance warning of a power outtage).

Our alarm is tied to the phone. And also our dvrs and tivos.

Plus, the simple fact of I hate talking on a cell phone due to overall reception. I have always felt that cell phones are not as clear as landlines.

 

[pchockeymom]

I think the only good purpose (for us) is so the kids don't use up all of our minutes. !

Ha!! We all have phones, no worries about our minutes, it's the texting! Our kids only talk to US on the phone, everyone else - text!!! Thank goodness for unlimited texting!!

 

[esavvymom]

Funny thing is, I wonder if those same kids who text non-stop it seems, would even have a conversation if they were in the same room together! Probably not- they'd be texting someone else!