Getting rid of the land line advice

[chanibell]

I would like to get rid of our land line. My dh thinks it may be unsafe if we ever need to call 911 and the power is out and our cell phones aren't charged. Any advice? On the other hand if we got out of state calls on the land line,people would call our cells and then we would be charged. We pay about $38 a month,but gosh there are so many taxes added on!

[MtnCanary]

Get a corded phone that you can plug directly into a wall jack - they don't need electricity. They're also really cheap. Then if there's a power outage, you can still call 911. I know that in our area, even if you don't have phone service, 911 is still accessible on the land line. Check with your phone company to see if this is the case in your area (I think it has to be, but I don't want to overgeneralize).

hth,
Kristin
mom to dd (almost 6), ds (3) and #3 due in June

[mightymoo]

I was under the impression this was the case too.

[polyhymnia]

Originally Posted by MtnCanary

Get a corded phone that you can plug directly into a wall jack - they don't need electricity. They're also really cheap. Then if there's a power outage, you can still call 911. I know that in our area, even if you don't have phone service, 911 is still accessible on the land line. Check with your phone company to see if this is the case in your area (I think it has to be, but I don't want to overgeneralize).

hth,
Kristin
mom to dd (almost 6), ds (3) and #3 due in June

Yes, we have this. We haven't tested it (obviously) but were told by the phone company that it would work. We also live in a condo complex so there are lots of neighbors if it is a true emergency and our corded phone 911 dealie doesn't work.

[wildecent]

i won't give up our land line. 911 is good but i was able to speak to my out of state family during the blackout some years ago when many other people i knew couldn't. i like the peace of mind.

[Valian]

I'll never get rid of ours, for me its a safety thing too. Not just 911, there are many scenarios I can imagine using it for.

But, $38 seems high to me for a monthly fee. We've gotten our bill down far below half of that by dropping all extra features and not paying for unlimited local calls.

[artemis33]

We got rid of our land lines when we bought our house 5 years ago - just never hooked one up here and we each have a cell phone.

When I was pregnant I considered getting a land line because I was worried about 911, but I live in the city with many neighbors all around me and several businesses right down the street. Yes, I can imagine some bizarre scenario where the power is out, cell phones are out and somehow I can't get out of my house to the neighbors, but really it is quite unlikely, yk?

If I lived in a more rural area or even just where my neighbors were a bit further away, I'd probably get a minimal land line plan. I didn't know about the 911 thing with phones though (that it is supposed to work regardless of service) - I've heard that is true with cell phones though it doesn't help in this case.

One more thing, I've also heard there are very very basic plans available at the phone co that are below the min they advertise. Might be metered calls or something, not sure, but if it is just for emergencies it might be worth checking out and should be much less than what you are paying.

[polyhymnia]

Originally Posted by Valian

I'll never get rid of ours, for me its a safety thing too. Not just 911, there are many scenarios I can imagine using it for.

But, $38 seems high to me for a monthly fee. We've gotten our bill down far below half of that by dropping all extra features and not paying for unlimited local calls.

I'm curious what other emergency scenarios you are thinking of. I would love to have a landline again but can't financially justify it - but if I'm missing some safety reasons then that might tip the balance.

Around here the cheapest absolute-most-basic plan (the one they offer to seniors as part of the "everyone must be able to afford a phone" dealie) is $25 by the time you add all taxes in, etc.

[becoming]

We recently got a land line put in because I was in the exact situation you mentioned -- no land line, no electricity, and my cell phone was dead. I didn't need to call 911, but I did need to call my parents to keep me updated on the weather. (We live in a mobile home in an area where tornadoes are common.) I ended up having to drive over to their house in the midst of the storm because I was afraid a tornado was coming and had no way of knowing. It was a very scary feeling not having connection to the outside world, and I never want to be in that situation again.

Another scenario I thought of was, what if my cell phone got damaged somehow and wasn't working, and I needed to call 911 for some reason?

Is it possible to get cheaper phone service? We pay $23.47/month for ours.

[KatWrangler]

Its my understanding when you call 911 from a cell phone your address doesn't come up like it would with a land line. So if you have an emergency in your house and get disconnected or can't talk, they can't find you.

Now that said, I think they can eventually go thru the cell phone company and find you. Kind of like they found that poor girl in the KC area last week. Tracked the ping of her cell phone from the last call made.

[chel]

for all you guys with dead cell phone. I found a wind-up radio/NOAA, light, siren, and cell phone charger. I also have a jumper cables, air pump, power outlet unit.

I don't have a landline. It was costing around $25 for the bare basics.

I'm also in an apartment so I have lots of people in screaming distance and the closest door is just 3 ft away.

I love having a cell and if I had to pick between the two I would go for a cell. I'm out of the home so much and yeah, I like someone to be able to track me down if I go missing.

[Valian]

Its true that with a cell phone and 911 that your location does not automatically appear to the dispatcher.

In a TRUE emergency, it can matter if the dispatcher sends emergency vehicles from the closest trauma center or not. It can also matter if time is spent hunting down the phone.

Other scenarios include any adult other than myself needing to call out, not just for 911, and not having cell phone or not being able to locate mine.

My Dc needing to call 911 in an emergency with Dh or I. I feel confident I can teach him on a regular phone but the cell phone is often lying about the house, on silent, locked, etc.

I WOH on a random schedule and have Grandma watching Ds when I'm not there so I want a phone available to anyone who is in the house.

Its obviously a risk many people are willing to take, not having a land line, but I think its a potential problem I can easily avoid.

We've lived places where people claimed $30 was the absolute cheapest plan available but setting aside 30 min to really talk to the phone people always revealed that this 'cheapest plan' still included things like unlimited local calling. We set up a 200 calls/mo for $X and then X cents for each call afterwards. We were only making about 50 calls/mo anyway so that worked fine. We also dropped line insruance, ($3-4/mo), caller id, voice mail, three way calling, I can't even remember what else. We dropped our bill to something like $12+tax a few years ago (2003).

[Lady Lilya]

We use voice over IP phones from Vonage. If you have a high speed internet connection, you can get this service.

We previously had the cheapest plan possible from our local phone company. It was only $10 a month for their service, but with taxes and fees came to over $30. We chose that plan because it had a low monthly service cost, but we had to pay a pretty high amount per call on top of that. Since we almost never use the phone, it was fine for us.

But we got from Vonage a plan with similar features and 500 minutes/month for only about $20 after all the fees.

Of course, VOIP phones need electricity and internet connection to work.

[reducereuserecycle]

i had heard u could still call 911 and i tried it here and it didn't work. I still only use cells and it saves so much money. As fas as worrying about people calling and using up your minutes, remember that most cells have caller id adn you can screen your calls.