I'm thinking of getting a cell phone and getting rid of my land line.

[raccoon]

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive plan to go with?

[Chan790]

1. How much time do you spend on the phone?

Because that makes all the difference...a cheap plan stops being cheap as soon as you break your allotment.

Most people I know who use their cell as their only phone and have an average number of phone calls opt for the unlimited minutes package that pretty much every carrier offers nowadays for around $100...which isn't going to save you any money.

[raccoon]

2. Not a lot. Most time I spend on the phone is talking to a sib who is instate but LD.

I'll check my old bills and see how much time I spend just on those calls.

As for local, I make/receive few calls.


No, $100 wouldn't save me any money.

[Chan790]

3. Generally, if you can schedule those calls...

during free nights and weekends and use the phone rarely otherwise, I'd suggest getting the cheapest plan that has that benefit...on most carriers it's around $40.

[jobycom]

9. TMobile's MyFaves would work well for that.

You can choose 5 numbers that you'd get unlimited calling for. For instance, their basic MyFave's plan is 39.99, and you get unlimited calls to the five numbers you choose (you can change the numbers, too--once a month, I think), unlimited nights and weekends, and 300 regular minutes. I've share a plan with my teenage daughter, have 700 minutes between us (we each get to choose our own 5 numbers), and we've never come close to going over, because both of us spend most of our time calling the same people.

And of course you don't pay long distance fees, if anyone still pays those.

I'm not pushing or even recommending TMobile, just giving my experience. Other services might have similar plans, although when I was researching TMobile was usually judged the least expensive service.

[SacredCow]

4. It really depends on how much you use a phone....

If you can get away with a low-usage plan (and not go over), then you will save some bucks.

I have only had wireless since 2005, and I pay about $100 per month. But to be fair, I have my regular line, plus I share the minutes with my OnStar phone (which makes it a billable 2nd line for Verizon). And, I have some of the gee-gaws (texting package, data package, etc...).

[hobbit709]

5. Landlines work even in a power outage.

If your cell isn't charged, you're SOL. I pay $20/mo for my basic landline and it works even if I'm sitting in the dark. I also have a VOIP phone but it only works if there's power. The other thing is, do you really want to give out your cell number to everybody?

[Auggie]

6. Is it me, or is call/sound quality better on land lines?

[jobycom]

8. Depends on location and phone.

Some places have better wiring than others, some wireless signals are better than others, some phones are better than others. My cell phone has better quality than the last land line I had, but the wiring in my home was outdated, I used a cheap cordless in the house, and I have a nice cell phone with a strong cellular signal. Obviously the reverse would be true, if you have good wiring and a lousy cell phone with a weak signal, you'd have better sound quality on land. With cell phones, though, if you aren't stationary your signal may vary, so your quality may vary.

My experience, anyway. I'm not a phone guru, though.

[jobycom]

7. TMobile has their MyFaves plan, if you talk mostly to the same people.

You can get unlimited calling to the same five people (you can change which people every month), plus unlimited nights and weekends, plus however many all purpose minutes you sign up for, for a pretty low fee. I call mostly the same people, and use less than 200 minutes a month calling other people, so it's perfect for me. Most of my long, leisurely calls are on the weekend or evenings anyway.

TMobile's big drawback is their wireless network (it's not 3-G), if you plan to get a wireless plan. Their advantage is that they are a GSM provider, so you can switch phones easily. There is a SIM card in each phone, and you can switch it from one GSM phone to another. This lets you buy cool unlocked phones. It also comes in handy if your phone is damaged, because you can easily switch phones, so you can buy a used phone of one of the cheap TMobile prepaid phones and swap out SIM cards, and your phone will work like the old one. Also, if you travel overseas, you can buy prepaid SIM cards for foreign service and use your own phone without having to switch or get a new phone.

TMobile and AT&T are the only American carriers who use this. There are probably disadvantages, too, but those all make it a convenient service for a home phonee.

One other thing TMobile and others offer is wireless hotspot calling. If you have a wireless router in your house, you can buy their hotspot plan and your phone will connect over the router, and you won't use up minutes. I've never seen a need for this, but if you call a lot from your home or someplace else with a wireless connection, it could pay off.

Just my observations. Many more factors than I've mentioned may come into play, of course.

[snooper2]

10. Welcome to 1995

:rofl:

[hamsterjill]

11. I decided against this recently

I had been considering doing this same thing; however, recently, I spent a weekend with no cell service. A tower was damaged in our area.

This caused me to change my mind and I have kept minimal land line service. I use the cell phone for convenience and for long distance calls.

I have AT&T as my carrier. They were not interested in my complaint about no reception until several people in my general area started reporting problems.

[no name no slogan]

12. If you have high-speed cable internet, you might consider Vonage

It's fairly reasonably priced ($20-$25 a month), and goes through your broadband cable. You get the convenience of a land line without having to deal with the local phone company (who, in my case, are beyond grossly incompetent).

However, if your cable or electricity goes out, you lose your phone. That's the only down side.

Otherwise, the service is good, the LD is way cheap (free to the US and a few European countries) and you still have the comfort of having a land line.

This is the DU member formerly known as Woohoo, Woohoohoo.