Friday, November 4, 2011

Land Lines- Ditch or Keep?

ditchlandlinesavemoneyhousephone
In this digital age where almost everyone owns a cell phone, the question becomes do I even need a land line? I have a packaged bundle with Charter which recently ended. My husband and I use our cell phones much more than the house phone. Actually the majority of the people calling on my house phone are those pesky telemarketers. We will receive the occasional call from a relative who doesn't call us often. I'm in school all day and even the school has my cell phone. The teacher texts me if she needs to get in touch with me as I usually have to put the phone on silent during class. I keep it in my pocket in case of an emergency so the cell phone is so convenient.

It seemed obvious it was time to ditch the land line. I called Charter to negotiate my rates when I was told it wouldn't make sense for me to drop it. It would cost me more to not have it, but I felt like maybe that was part of a scheme to keep me bundled. More money in their pocket. After talking to a couple of higher-up's, I got a great deal on a new contract and yes the land line is included. I have a great rate for all my services for two more years. It's not terrible having the land line. It's probably better to have it for 911 but that's a decision everyone has to make for themselves. I know many people ditching their land lines so you really need to consider all the benefits or negatives like an extra bill. Sometimes it also pays to call the company and negotiate for better rates. You never know unless you try.

2 comments:

BethElderton said...

Hubs and I ditched the land line a few years ago. My kids and their friends are all twenty-somethings and not one of them has a land line. In fact, now that I think about it, the only people in my family or anyone I know who still uses a land line are my mother's generation (70's-80's) and some of them also have cell phones.

Dawn Conklin said...

I don't have a home phone, I haven't for about 3 years now. The last time I had a land line I got into so many arguments with customer service that it was crazy! They told me it would cost me $60 a month for landline and high speed internet since I also had a wireless plan through their wireless company. Only problem is the bill was always over $100 a month with no explanations! I could never get an answer as to why the amount was off. Eventually told them to take their home service back (took 3 months to cancel somehow) and I kept the cell phone service. It wasn't worth it for me, just more money!