Going to mobile phones only...

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

DW and I each have mobile phones. Then we have a traditional house landline phone. She also has a 2nd land line she used for fax only, and that is getting less and less use as she works less. I also have a "Magic Jack" VOIP line which I used to use for work.

Our goal is to cut down to:

• One cell phone each (both support 911).
• Magic Jack for in-home longer calls to friends and family, and toggle it to the fax machine by pre-arrangement when a fax is expected.

Our Verizon contract may be problematic (not sure if they'll let us drop voice and keep data without a big fee). But aside from that, it should save a lot of fees.

Sound reasonable? Anyone have any problems going cell only?

 

[LOL!]

We have DSL for internet, so we would still pay the phone company if we didn't have a landline. Our bill is under $30 a month for DSL plus a landline. The landline is a so-called "safeline", so all incoming calls are free; outgoing non-toll-free calls are 50 cents, so we use our cell phones. We don't have to change our phone number nor give out our cell phone numbers with the landline.

During hurricanes, cell phones don't work. The landline does.

We do not have cable.

Maybe you can talk your landline company to pay you to keep a landline?

 

[Buckeye]

Been there done that for the last 7 years (even without Magic Jack). We haven't found it to be a problem.

 

[modhatter]

You mention you have DSL and phone line. What is your understanding on being able to have DSL without the landline? I called my carrier about this (AT&T) One representative said I could have DSL without landline, a second representative told me after that, I could not.

Do you know anything about that. I recently purchased a ooma VOIP box for phone, but have not tried to hook it up yet.

 

[LOL!]

One could have naked DSL, but it costs more than we pay now.

 

[Dimsumkid]

You mention you have DSL and phone line. What is your understanding on being able to have DSL without the landline? I called my carrier about this (AT&T) One representative said I could have DSL without landline, a second representative told me after that, I could not.

Do you know anything about that. I recently purchased a ooma VOIP box for phone, but have not tried to hook it up yet.

I believe when you get DSL w/o a landline, it's called "dry loop". You can get it from AT&T this way.

 

[W2R]

We plan to drop our landlines, too, at some point.

I have known a lot of people who have done this, and none who have regretted it enough to go back to having a landline. I'll have to be more careful about charging my cell phone as required.

 

[KB]

In my area, ATT offers DSL only but it costs the same as DSL with a measured plan land line. No savings at all, so I still have a land line.

 

[LARS]

I can't get by without the ability to send and receive faxes. So unless I'm missing something (which is very possible) I don't see how you can abandon the landline and still have faxing capability...

 

[VaCollector]

I'd like to drop my land line as well but assume that it is necessary for my home security system!?

I do get an actual discount on my homeowner's insurance by having my alarm system monitored....although I have never ever actually ASKED how much it is .... they do request a copy of my bill every year to confirm that I actually DO have the monitoring....

Anybody know if it's possible (monitoring) via cell phone service??

As far a needing it for faxes (my DW still w*rk$ from home occasionally)...we debunked that a couple of years ago by having all correspondence scanned and emailed....well, at least it works for us!

 

[REWahoo]

Rich, we did away with our land line four years ago. Although I know it goes against every fiber of your being, you really don't need to wait one more year. You'll be fine going mobile. Really.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I can't get by without the ability to send and receive faxes. So unless I'm missing something (which is very possible) I don't see how you can abandon the landline and still have faxing capability...

She'd have to reserve it to pre-timed faxes, like fax it to me in 15 minutes, then hook the phone line into the fax until it arrives. Not ideal but probably infrequent. We'd use the Magic Jack for that.

 

[walkinwood]

You can subscribe to an online fax service & get your faxes over the internet. (eg. Internet Fax Features and Pricing - eFax Messenger) Could be cheaper and more reliable than a phone line based fax.

We ditched our land lines in 2007 and haven't regretted it. We use Skype for long calls to save on minutes. I've just discovered Cheap International Calls with Localphone which is significantly cheaper than Skype or calling cards for international calls & very convenient (no 800 number to call or pin to enter). Skype allows me to use my cell phone # as my caller ID which is very cool.

 

[simple girl]

We've been going with 2 cell phones and a magic jack for over 5 years now. No problems. Well, yes, sending faxes can be an issue - but our local library will let us send faxes for a nominal fee. Otherwise, people can send us faxes via scanning and email.

We get DSL from AT&T now - running a special for $14.95/mo in our area for a year.

 

[Nova]

Cell phones only since 2002. We have skype, but mainly use it to call USA numbers when we are in Mexico.

 

[sailor]

She'd have to reserve it to pre-timed faxes, like fax it to me in 15 minutes, then hook the phone line into the fax until it arrives. Not ideal but probably infrequent. We'd use the Magic Jack for that.

Just one word of caution.
Magic Jack (and a lot of other VoIP providers) does not officially not support faxes.
Your fax experience will be highly dependent on your internet connection quality & Magic Jack end point settings.
Try to receive few test faxes before committing to this setup.
As alternatives I can recommend few internet services (people who receive faxes for you and send them to you in an email).
Two with low rates are efax ( Free Online Fax Service from eFax free if under 10 pages per month) and Faxaway ( Faxaway's Internet Fax Service. ) for $1 per month.

sailor,
who develops VoIP software for living

 

[lowflyer]

Kept a land line for longer than I needed because of a perceived need to fax. Never used it that way. Ended up scanning and e-mailing instead. Moved old "home" number to DW's cell phone four months ago and are now cell only. Works fine for us so far.

 

[haha]

You folks who use DSL- how do you get your TV signal?

I pay way too much for Comcast bundled land line, cable and internet ($123/mo, and I have to call them and complain every 6 months to avoid being stuck with more.) but to drop the phone alone would save me almost nothing.

I am not sure I could go without cable- I would probably hate it during the NCAA basketball tournement or other similar events.

Are all of you using broadcast?

Ha

 

[Nords]

Rich, even we at Ohana Nords have eFax. (It's free if you don't mind getting an area code for somewhere like Fargo, ND.) It's always worked and I've never had to worry about coordinating phone lines, computers, or answering machines. I can't remember for sure but I suspect we started using it in the 1990s. No complaints.

I've had it for so long that I hardly ever get a fax anymore. Almost everything that I used to get by fax now comes from e-mail or a secure download from a website.

I can't remember the last time I actually sent a fax. For our PenFed refi we sent an e-mail with about 20 attachments that were easier to download as PDFs (brokerage statements) and attach, or quicker to scan (rental property lease agreement) and attach as a PDF, than to fax.

But I've never owned a dedicated fax machine and we only pay ~$25/month for our landline. Now if there was some way to watch HGTV without paying a $60/month cable bill I'd be a lot more financially motivated...

 

[youbet]

You folks who use DSL- how do you get your TV signal?

I pay way too much for Comcast bundled land line, cable and internet ($123/mo, and I have to call them and complain every 6 months to avoid being stuck with more.) but to drop the phone alone would save me almost nothing.

I am not sure I could go without cable- I would probably hate it during the NCAA basketball tournement or other similar events.

Are all of you using broadcast?

Ha

Ha,

I currently get DSL for $15/mo + landline for $13/mo from ATT. I get cable TV from Comcast for about $60/mo.

The DSL is their slowest offering but fine for my needs. The landline is a limited package pointed out to me by CUB (Citizens Utility Board - a consumer advocate group which monitors utilities) and includes unlimited incoming calls and 30 outgoing local calls (additional are $0.05 ea) and no long distance service. The cable is a package Comcast refers to as Extended Basic.

I'm satisfied with the value I recieve from ATT for DSL and landline. I puke everytime I pay the Comcast bill since we are not big TV watchers. But I keep the service since, like you, it would annoy me to miss certain sports broadcasts available mostly on cable.

 

[zinger1457]

Turned off my land line about 5 years ago. After seeing how low my cell phone usage was I switched from a monthly to a pre-paid plan. My last $100 refill lasted about 9 months.

 

[simple girl]

You folks who use DSL- how do you get your TV signal?

I pay way too much for Comcast bundled land line, cable and internet ($123/mo, and I have to call them and complain every 6 months to avoid being stuck with more.) but to drop the phone alone would save me almost nothing.

I am not sure I could go without cable- I would probably hate it during the NCAA basketball tournement or other similar events.

Are all of you using broadcast?

Ha

We just recently dropped cable <gasp!>. Yes, the biggest issue is sports coverage that would be on ESPN, primarily certain NFL football games. DH is assessing how much he misses it as we go along. He is also going to try out ESPN3 (which you can get with certain DSL hookups, like AT&T). It sounds like you can watch lots of college sports on ESPN3, but not the pro football.

The jury is still out, but we are quite pleasantly surprised with the transition so far. We are finding we watch t.v. less, are reading more, and are getting more of other stuff done. Plus, there are public channels available that we didn't even know existed. One show is called "Create" and is like HGTV/Food Network (ok, not as good, but it gives me my cooking show fix when I need it.) We also are enjoying a free local music channel and there also is a free weather channel. I was really surprised to see what is out there on the airwaves that is free.

 

[Sarah in SC]

No cable here nor a landline. We dropped it a year or more ago. The naked DSL from ATT was on the $14.95 special for a long time, but we just got bumped up to the $19.95 one. It is the DSL light, which is plenty fast for us, really.

Go for it, Rich! And like they've said, faxes are pretty rare--emailed attachments are the norm now.

 

[Martha]

Rich, even we at Ohana Nords have eFax.

Sometime before I retired my firm went to a mostly electronic system and each of us were assigned our own fax numbers. It made life much easier to simply pick the fax off the computer or if you needed the paper, send it to a printer. However, fewer and fewer things are now faxed and most seem to use scanned documents if people want to see signatures.

Rich, I really recommend the eFax option. I have noticed that Realtors have been slow to leave the fax system. My spouse bought a townhome last year. The real estate agent was always wanting to fax documents to him to sign. We had her scan them in an email to us and we would print, scan and email back. No issues with that.

 

[modhatter]

Rich, even we at Ohana Nords have eFax. (It's free if you don't mind getting an area code for somewhere like Fargo, ND.) It's always worked and I've never had to worry about coordinating phone lines, computers, or answering machines. I can't remember for sure but I suspect we started using it in the 1990s. No complaints.

I've had it for so long that I hardly ever get a fax anymore. Almost everything that I used to get by fax now comes from e-mail or a secure download from a website.

I can't remember the last time I actually sent a fax. For our PenFed refi we sent an e-mail with about 20 attachments that were easier to download as PDFs (brokerage statements) and attach, or quicker to scan (rental property lease agreement) and attach as a PDF, than to fax.

But I've never owned a dedicated fax machine and we only pay ~$25/month for our landline. Now if there was some way to watch HGTV without paying a $60/month cable bill I'd be a lot more financially motivated...

You can get HGTV if you get a Roku box. Only $60 and then you can HGTV on it. It is not live. Not sure if it is more than a day old. You have to go on their web site for channel line up and add it on your account. You can also subscribe to Netflix for $8.99 a month, which gives you lots of movies and stuff to watch.