This seems to be a trend you hear more and more about. People dropping their land lines in favor of going cell phone only.
My wife and I decided to give this a try since we noticed that:
1) A lot of the phone calls we got on the conventional line were solicitors or surveys.
2) Most of our friends would call us on our cell phones anyway since it was the most dependable way to reach us.
With cellular plans getting pretty affordable, with hundreds of minutes including long distance, voice mail, and caller id it seemed silly to have three phone files for two people.
So we decided to drop our land line and figured that if we found it annoying that we could always reactivate the line later.
We decided to go cell only for at least six months.
After about 3 months both my wife and I decided to leave the land line down permanently. We are saving money by not having to pay for the rarely used land line, and we don't miss it at all.
If you can completely remove a monthly bill from your expenses, it's a great addition to your monthly bottom line (see the article Beware Of Subscriptions).
Of course I know people who can't do this because cell phone reception at their home is really poor, but since the reception at our house is great, we've really found it to be a great decision.
I'd be eager to hear if other folks out there tried going cell phone only and if it has worked for them.
4 comments:
I've been "cell-only" for YEARS now, but I often long for my old phone. I'm talking about my OLD OLD phone...the one attached to the wall with the long coils of cord to the handset. Cell phone makers seem to have focused entirely on new features instead of trying to get the call quality up to what we had with our old landlines. Also, I really don't like making/receiving calls when I'm doing other things (driving in the car, shopping, dining out!). Call me old-fashioned.
The one feature of my phone that trumps the landline is that my wife and I can always stay in touch. That and it has a built-in flashlight. :)
I have been cell only for FIVE years now and I love it. I have had roommates over the past five years who have had landlines and I occasionally used those lines but there has not been a landline in my name over the last five years.
I have always been lucky to live in areas where I get great cellphone coverage so I never missed the land lines.
In fact the last land line that was in my apartment was because my roommate had DSL and that was two years ago.
@ Matt. If you do not like making or receiving calls when driving etc. then just don't pick up the phone. Cell phones have caller ID so you can always check out the missed call and then call back when it is convenient.
I don't think I will EVER have a land line again.
I don't have a land line, either. The last time I did, I was in the dorms in college where everyone had a land line in the room.
It really doesn't make sense to pay for a land line, unless you live in an area where you can't have high-speed internet (*shudder*).
I often choose not to answer my phone when I'm busy, but the predictable result of that is that people don't call me as much anymore (I think my wife actually gets more calls from my mother than I do). I think if I only had a landline at home, I'd be more likely to pick it up and therefore I'd get more calls. I remember when I was a kid I always RAN to answer the phone when it rang.
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