Ask the Readers: Do You Still Have a Landline?
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Lazygal, @cdcookin, and Elizabeth Wilie for winning this week's contest!
In an age where almost everyone has a cell phone, more and more people are opting to save money by getting rid of their landline. For many people, it makes more sense to rely solely on their cell phone than continuing to pay for a landline. However, there are still quite a few people who have opted to continue having a landline in their home.
Do you still have a landline? Why or why not?
Tell us whether or not you still have a landline and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We're doing three giveaways — one for random comments, one for random Facebook "Likes", and another one for random tweets.
Enter 1 of 3 Ways:
- Post your answer in the comments below, or
- Go to our Facebook page, "Like" us, then "Like" the update mentioning this giveaway (you can comment, as well — but you don't have to for entry), or
- Tweet your answer. You have to be a follower of our @wisebread account. Include both "@wisebread" and "#WBAsk" in your tweet so we'll see it and count it.
If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest ends Monday, April 4th at 11:59 pm Pacific. Winners will be announced after April 4th on the original post and via Twitter. Winners will also be contacted via email, Facebook, and Twitter Direct Message.
- You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
- You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.
Good Luck!
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Haven't had a land-line since I left for school back in 2001. Cell phone has always done the trick and I move around too often to be bothered with a number that changes all the time.
I have a landline for two reasons, both of which put me in definite minorities. The first is that I live in a slice of land in which dial-up is my only option for internet connection, and the other is that I don't want a cell phone. Call me old-fashioned, but I kind of like living a little more slowly and a little LESS connected.
Yes, we still have a landline. Our reason is that we Don't have a cell phone. Right now, it is not in the budget!
no landline. i live alone and have no need for one. saves a lot of money too!
I gave up my landline years ago. As a young person who always seems to move around, it just makes more sense. The only member of my family who still has a landline is my father, and that's because he lives out in horse country where cell reception isn't always the best.
I do still have a land line in my home. There are so many forms and applications where you have to list a phone number, and I don't want to put my cell number out there for everyone to see so I put my home number which has an answereing machine.
I do. I'ts a job perk:-)
I have not had a landline since I got my first beeper back in 2001 (ahh, the good old days). At first it was mostly because I didn't spend much time at home anyway, so having a landline was useless to me. Now, it just seems like a frivolous expense.
No landline for us at the Gilbert's. I kicked AT&T to the curb last year and we save a whopping $108 a month!
We still have a landline (technically VOIP through Vonage) because we don't have (or actually want) a cell phone.
The only reason we still have a land line is to support faxes for our home based small business. We only receive about 6 faxes a week so the cost per fax is huge. Would love to find an alternative and cancel the landline.
@Polishmom - you can try eFax or similar services. You do not need a landline for fax nowadays.
We still have a landline, since our internet is tied to it, I'm home at least 4 days a week, and in the beginning, we did not get good cell reception at our home. Our cell plan is from my husband's office, so we cannot use it for unlimited service, except on weekends. I personally like having a landline. No worries about losing that phone! :)
We really like having a landline in addition to our cells for a variety of reasons, chief among them the fact that cell phones pose health risks so we severely limit our use of them. Also, since we have a Vonage landline plan for about $30 a month with unlimited calls in the US and many other countries, it is a dirt cheap way to make the majority of our calls. For our cells, we each have Net10 pay-as-you-go phones and with their most reasonable rates, $15 per month per phone, we are confident that paying just over $60 a month total for the use of unlimited landline and limited but sufficient time on the cells for when we are away from the house ($15 buys 150 minutes), we are getting the best of both worlds.
Rachel,
Do you have to use the 150 minutes for that month? Do you have to pay 15 dollars every month? Do they carry over to the next month? How does it work? I have a plan where I pay 10.00 whenever I run out of minutes. I want to say I have 90 days to use them. So if I don't use my phone a great deal, I could only pay 10.00 for a 3 months span. I just have to find out how many minutes I get. I like it bacause, if I need to find wiggle room in my budget, then I won't use my phone as often.
Beware of Net10, they spam your phone and will not stop. T-Mobile prepaid is a little more expensive but the minutes last a year after you spend $100 with them.
We no longer have a landline. We decided to get rid of it a year ago because we primarily use our cell phones and also because it was too expensive. We were paying about $70 a month, so we're saving about $840 per year!!
I still have one but only because it is connected to my alarm system. Otherwise, we rarely use it.
I totally still have a land line.
1. I live in rural Vermont. Cell reception is better than it used to be, but still iffy at our house.
2. The heft of an old fashioned phone just feels better in my hands. And I love the ring - we actually have an old rotary phone hooked up just for the ring.
3. I just lost my cell the other day (a low-use pay-per-minute one). It's really hard to lose or misplace a big-ass land line phone.
4. I DON'T want to be at everyone's beck and call, 24-7.
We dropped our land line last year after we realized no one was calling us on it except for my parents. My in-laws email or call us on our cells and we talk to our friends online via various chat formats, so it seemed silly to keep the land line for one caller. So we dropped the land line got a free Skype account and got my parents convinced to get a Skype account too and they love it.
we have one for our security system, but there's no phone plugged into it.
no. it's cheaper and more convenient without a landline. less taxes and fees. i bought an affordable ooma from costco. the payback period was relatively short. part of the convenience is that i don't have to worry about cell phone battery life being a limitation; i have "virtually unlimited" minutes; i have flexibility to connect any corded or cord-free phones to it; i have an option for a community and/or personal blacklist (nix those telemarketers!)... okay, i guess the list goes on. the landline wasn't needed anymore.
I haven't had a land line since 2003 when I was provided one in college.
We just got rid of our landline a few months ago. I actually really miss it, but there was a short in the line and it was going to be expensive to repair and require ripping up the ceiling in our basement which had just been redone. We mostly use our cell phones anyway, so we just cancelled the landline.
Since we have to have the paid connection for our ADSL internet, we use the landline for cheap-ish local calls (cheaper than mobile call rates for us Aussies). And since we don't make either long-distance or international calls, the landline is the cheaper option for us. Skype is still rarely used here, especially by businesses, so we rarely use it either.
I got a landline when I went off to college. When I graduated and got an apartment, we both had cellphones. We didn't see the point in getting a landline, especially since it would just got more money.
We have a landline because it's included with our housing situation. We only have to cover long distance charges.
I STILL HAVE A LAND LINE AND INTEND TO KEEP IT AND MY OLD PHONE THAT WORKS WHEN THE POWER IS OFF. I CONSIDER IT A SAFETY LINE. I CANNOT HAVE MY PHONE ON AT WORK AND MY HUSBAND HAS THE MEMORY OF A NIT SO I THINK IT IS A NECESSITY.
I live in NYC and wouldn't consider giving up my landline. On September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center fell, ONLY landlines worked in the city. Also, during the blackout of August 14, 2003, again, only landlines worked in the city - so, hoping there won't be any more disasters in the city, but prefer knowing there's a communication line if so.
Yes, we still have a landline.
We have a landline for the secure link to 911.
I finally eliminated our household landline last Summer (2010), after 16 years with the same number. The only calls we were receiving on the landline were marketing (and political campaign) calls.
Yes, we still have a landline. That way, when the children are home alone, they can still reach us to complain about whatever crime one is committing against the other. For the past ten years we have not had a long distance service on our landline which makes the bill somewhere around $15 per month - cheaper than equipping the kids with their own cell.
Got rid of our landline last Summer. Only calls we were getting in recent years were marketing (and political campaign) calls.
Yes we do still have a landline. We tried to cancel it one time and bellsouth offered a reduced rate of $5.00/month to keep it!
Contrary to my desires, we still have a landline for my wife's home business as well as for the little ones...or at least that's why she tells me we still have a landline. :)
Kind of. We use TMobile's @Home service to give ourselves a landline. Primarily this is due to the fact that we have kids. The benefits we saw were that one, our kids only have to memorize 1 single number, two, we can give out 1 number to the school or family phone book which calls our house and three, in case of emergency we have a dedicated house line.
With that said, if the @Home service wasn't $10/month and we had to go with something more expensive we might not have the dedicated house number. I think we'd move to having an extra cell phone on our plan keeping it around the house like a landline.
Nope! All I have is a cell phone with data plan. At times I even thought about getting rid of my cell phone and just have no phone. I am not sure why I have a phone or if I really need one.
Yes, I had to move back in with my parents because of medical problems and they still have a landline basically as a way for relatives to get a hold of anyone who is home. When I lived alone, I only used a cell phone.
I do not have a landline. It is much more convenient to just use my cell phone, and since I don't really watch TV, I don't benefit from a package deal with phone, TV, and internet.
We have not had a landline for about 6 years, we kept dialing (no pun intended) it down as we added to our cell service, than finally the VOIP we had was more work than benefit, the service dropped more calls than our cell phones did so we dropped it entirely and went to unlimited cell service, dont miss it at all!
We still have a land line! For two reasons:
1. Cell service can be spotty where we live, so having the land line allows us to not worry!
2. I don't want to have to rely on a babysitter to have a fully functioning cell phone. If there is an emergency while I am gone, the phone is always there!
Yes I do. It is for my DSL and 911E. I suppose if I ever got an alarm system, they would probably require one too.
have not had a landline in years, have cell phone and voip in my home. Works well for me.
I don't have a cell, since a landline is much cheaper and the benefits of a cell to me are minimal.
I don't use a landline. We didn't even set one up when we moved into our house. We both have cell phones and we aren't home enough to need one.
Hi and happy Tuesday :) Yep, still have a land-line. Our cell phones are only for emergencies, so we do not have lengthy conversations on them. Besides, it's nice to know there is a phone there that will work without needing to charge, or worrying if the power goes out. Does that make me old fashioned, fine, but hey, at least there will be a phone there when it's needed! :)
Lois
Landline? Sure, two in fact. I guess that makes me Old School but cell phones don't have "extensions". A 2-line phone in every room works quite well for us. With the added benefit that on the corded phones there's no battery to go dead in the middle of an important call.
I agree with you on that one. It doesn't die. You can't lose it either when it's stuck somewhere.
We don't have cable, so our internet is through our land line.
I also use a land line with a cord for any transaction that includes bank account numbers or social security numbers.
And lastly, I give all potential telemarketers the land line so I don't get spam calls on my cell.
I have not had a landline for close to 10 years.
My husband and I both have cellphones and an internet based home phone. It makes financial sense for us.
My husband got his first cellphone about 12 years ago on a $20/ month plan. It has been grandfathered in, so he still pays $20/month for (granted) not a whole lot of minutes, but one of the main perks is the first incoming minute is free. If somebody calls, if he can't get something done in less than a minute, he calls back on a landline. He has an add-on to his cellphone plan for unlimited texts for $5/month.
My cellphone is of the "pay as you go" variety. I use it only when I am not around a landline-- just for quick calls as needed and for texts. The cost is less than $10/ month.
Lastly is the home phone. Cost is around $20/month with free long distance and no limits. We use it for mostly everything. Often, things can wait until we get home. We can conduct business, return calls, talk to friends and family as long as we want.
All of our phones have caller ID, call waiting, voice messaging-- all the perks that used to automatically come with a phone. For about $50/month all our phone needs are met. It suits us well.
Yes, I still have a landline. I prefer to talk with a "regular" phone versus my cell phone. The reception is just so much better.
Nope - ditched the $35/mo landline for a $9/mo prepaid Tracfone (and kept our number, too!).
Yes, we do still have a landline.
I keep my landline phone for three reasons:
1. When my teenagers are grounded from their cell phones, they can contact me in case of emergency, i. e.: "Bring home milk!"
2. My elderly mother has Life Alert, a system for her protection, though she is never left alone and never wears the watch-like device that activates the alert.
3. I occasionally need to send a fax, but that happens more often when I don't have landline service than when I do. Average cost for occasional fax: $125
Hmmmm.
Still have a land line. Primarily because we live in a Hurricane zone.
I have a landline for several reasons. I have a family, and we like to have one number to reach each member. I like to be unreachable when away from the house - I don't want to get calls when I'm out shopping, at the beach, or whatever. We do have $6 a month Virin Mobile service (with cheap old phones) in case of emergency. Emergency usually being, we want to pick up a takeout pizza on our way home!
No we do not have a landline. Got rid of it years ago.
Depends on what you call a land line...
My primary phone is my cell, but I do have an Ooma telo for 911 or any long winded phone calls. I really don't need the "land" line, but for the price, its nice to have a second line with real phones for guests.
Yes I still have a landline. Landlines are still the most frugal move for our family. We do not feel the need to be "plugged in" to a phone system in a car or at the grocery. I find most users of cell phones are extremely rude with them in public and look ridiculous walking around talking constantly in public. We have pay as you go cell phones for emergency use and this is what best suits our needs.
I'm done with landlines. The ability to call 'individuals' instead of 'locations' has changed communication for good. Why pay for something I would rarely use?
While I don't have a landline phone myself (I'm wouldn't be home much to answer it anyway), I do work for a telephone company and have spent many years selling as well as using business and residential phone and Internet services. Yes, there is a trend away from residential phone services, but I don't think the landline is going away for good just yet.
Often people outside of major city limits need to have a landline phone if they're to receive DSL Internet services or even Dial-up (Yes, still the only option in some areas and the preferred connection method by a miniscule minority). In more urban areas, the industry is moving toward stand alone Internet that doesn't require a home phone to function, but this is not available everywhere or even widely. There are other Internet options that don't require a home phone such as satellite or cable, but those can be very costly and are not always available.
Another key group for phone service in the home are families with very young or very old members that need special care. If there is an emergency and you are teaching your kid to dial 911, you don't want them to have to search out a misplaced cell phone that may have a charge or not and then not be able to make that call if they need to.
A benefit of landline phones that hasn't reached the cell phone towers yet is the electric charge over the copper wires that keeps the phone powered generally doesn't go out in emergencies. If there is an earthquake, electric grid blackout, or major storm, the land line phones are build to be the last to go out so people can call for help. Cell phone grids can get overwhelmed and you can't make your call. Land line phones allow people to call for help when the cell towers might be out of service.
Also, with the economy the way it has been the last number of years, we’ve seen a growing movement of people looking for alternative employment structures. More and more people are starting businesses from their homes. While many businesses use cell phones as a component of their communications with customers and other businesses, it is rare to see a business run entirely on cell phones, whether you’re based at home or in an office. When money is on the line (pun intended), people still turn to the copper wires as it’s seen as more secure, reliable, and in many cases professional.
Finally, there are tons of people who keep their landlines in their homes because it's generally a LOT cheaper than cell phones. A cell phone bill tends to be $40 on the low end and can be several hundred or more for a family plan. For a family or an individual on a budget, sharing a landline can be a real option.
Nope. My roommate and I had one just after college graduation in 2002. The only people that called us were telemarketers and her mom. We both had cell phones, so the $9/month seemed silly, and we cancelled it after 6 months.
I cut the landline when I left my job at the phone company. Not worth the money for something I never used.
I still have one, for three reasons:
1) If I drop the phone, the whole Verizon FiOS bundle actually will cost me more due to the introductory plan I'm on.
2) The alarm requires a landline. I could switch to wireless monitoring, but I'd have to pay more per month and purchase an expensive wireless adapter for the alarm system.
3) Cell reception is sometimes terrible in my house and I'll just make the call from the landline.
I have a VoIP line. I live in a partially-underground basement in a cell phone dead zone. Even if I didn't, I'd still probably have the VoIP line. I like to answer the phone when I want to answer the phone. I don't like it when other people expect me to have a phone tethered to me.
I am going to be moving later this year and will end up getting a cell phone. But if you call, don't expect an instant response. I'll get back to you when I feel like it.
Call me old-fashioned, but I refuse to get rid of my landline. I have a small amount of anytime minutes on my cell so I need to have a landline. And my landline is connected to my broadband service. I also worry about not getting a signal on my cell if there's an emergency at home.
Yes, we still have a landline. Unfortunately, cell service is unreliable in the rural area that we live so we have to keep the landline. When cell service is better...we're ditching it! :)
I haven't had a landline in years. Don't see a need for one, it's cheaper just having the cell.
Yes, we still have a landline in addition to our 2 cell phones. It is our home business phone line and also from personal experience during an emergency, calling 9-1-1 from a cell took longer than using the landline. And the landline told the dispatcher where I was calling from. A cell does not always do that in most communities.
Have both cell phone and a landline. Cell phone (Tracfone) is only used for emergencys when traveling.
Nope, I haven't had one for about three years now, since I moved into my condo. I had one in my apartment that I never used, but at that time I had to have a land line to get DSL.
We do not have a land line... just our mobile phones.
Yes - I have a landline. BUT, I have a really good reason - I am hard of hearing and need to use a captioned phone, which unfortunately does not work with VOIP alone. I do have a cell phone (use it for texting), but I have not found a 'captioned' cell phone yet. When they come out with cell phones that have captioning, I'll be the first one in line to buy one!
My fiance and I do not have a landline. The majority of the phone calls we make would be long distance and for whatever reason long distance service is priced ridiculously high here. Our cell phones don't care about long distance and with all the driving/travel we do we'd need to have cell phones anyway. Why pay extra for something unnecessary?
I've actually never had a landline of my own. When I left home to attend college, I just used my cell phone for everything. It was just easier when I was shuttling between my dorm room and parents' house (later apartment and parents' house) during the year. Now it seems so unnecessary that it's almost laughable. Why pay an extra monthly bill for a phone that only calls my house? Between my cell phone, Google Voice, and Skype, I'm never out of reach and have more features than any landline could offer.
I don't have a landline. Last time we had one was late 90s when we still had dial up.
My house does not have a land line because my husband and I were looking for ways to save on our wireless bill. I plan on getting a VOIP home line in the near future due to our children. They are almost old enough to learn how to use a phone in case of emergencies and I want there to be a phone easily accessible. Plus it would be nice to be able to reach the babysitters (ie grandmothers) because most of the time everyone leaves their wireless phones in their purses.
We did not have a landline for about 2 years, but once we decided to get DSL, we had to have it hooked up again. It also runs our DirectTV services. We have the basic package and cannot call long distance. We use our cell phones for long distance calls.
No landline for us, my husband and I have had our own cellphones for 8+ years. There have only been a handfull of times when a landline would have been helpful (things like the town's reverse 911, but we have since been able to get our cellphones added to the list), but the cell phones work just fine for us.
We still have a landline. Why? I really don't know. Habit, I guess. The number I give people when they ask is always my mobile, and that's what I use to make calls most of the time, too, because all my useful numbers are stored on it and I don't have to find some lost piece of paper (or dig the phone book out of the mess) to look them up. But we do find it useful to have our number listed in the phone book; a few of our long-lost friends have found us that way. We're also dithering about whether to switch to the phone company for our Internet link; if the cable company raises the rates one more time we'll make the switch.
I don't - because I'm cheap, and I don't like to talk on the phone. I have a cell phone, grudgingly, so why the heck would I want two phones?
We keep our landline because it is easier to hear in our area. While the cell phones work I actually prefer to talk on a regular telephone
I still have a landline because we have DSL for internet. Getting rid of the landline would only save us $10/month. So the convenience seems justified based on the price.
We have a landline although I don't know for how much longer.
No we do not have a land line. We actually could get a land line for $20 a month for unlimited calling (I work in Telecom) but we choose not to. Besides not wanting to spend the measly $20 a month, it's a matter of not always wanting to be reachable. I don't always have to answer my cell phone. I can put it on silent. But you cannot silence (easily) a land line.
No we do not have a land line. We actually could get a land line for $20 a month for unlimited calling (I work in Telecom) but we choose not to. Besides not wanting to spend the measly $20 a month, it's a matter of not always wanting to be reachable. I don't always have to answer my cell phone. I can put it on silent. But you cannot silence (easily) a land line.
I actually never have purchased a land line. I got a cell phone right out of high school and 12 years later I am still doing the same thing.
We want to lose the landline, but can't quite figure out how. Do we need a separate cell phone that just stays at home? What about kids who don't have cell phones yet? Is one of the cell numbers designated as the 'main' family contact number? Too many questions, so can't let go of that tangled mess of phone cord.
Currently my husband and I are living with my parents while we wait for our new house to be built. We don't plan on having a landline installed. In today's world, phones aren't used for talking as much. Even though we both have cell phones, we don't receive many calls (other than from each other). Usually, when the phone rings and I know it's not my husband, I wonder who is actually calling me. Most communication is done over email, tweets, instant messaging, or Facebook. There just isn't a need for landlines anymore.
We have a landline and always will. They do not know the long term effects of cell phone radiation, but they do know that cell phones stimulate parts of the brain when held to the head. This should be concerning to everyone. Cell phone use is banned from use by children in the European union for this reason. Despite our unlimited calling plans with our cell phones, we use them as little as possible and only for convenience sake. We also plan to get blue tooth headsets to avoid holding them to our heads at all.
Technically, I don't have a landline, but we have VoIP, which acts as our landline. My office is a home office and I spend a lot of time on the phone, so a landline-ish phone trumps cell phone minutes when I crunch the numbers.
no landline for over 5 years. cell phone is the primary phone and we have a cheap VOIP line in case people still want to call "the home".
I do not have a land line for probably 10 years or more. No need for one and it's less per month that I have to spend.
We still have TWO landlines. One for my work-from-home husband, one for personal use. Although we are less than 5 miles from a sizeable small city, our cell phone reception is pitiful. (And that 5 miles also means we cannot get high speed internet, so web phones are also out of the question.)
Yes, we have a landline, but mainly because we get a better "bundle" price through Comcast when you have all 3 services.
We still have a land-line. We have two kids, and cell service in our house is spotty. So, the extra expense is worth it for us, for now.
We still have a landline for three reasons. 1) Alarm system. 2) Answering machine for calls from forms, emails, etc. 3) When power was out for an extended period and we couldn't charge cell phones, we were still able to contact family and friends.
We got rid if our land line 2 months ago and are using our existing cells. Saving $50 per month.