Why I Ditched the Landline Telephone
For a couple of years, I’ve been wondering why on earth we still have a landline telephone. Both my husband and I use our cell phones as our main number for work, and I rarely call on the landline. We get our phone through our cable service, but even with the bundled pricing, it just didn’t make sense to keep paying for a service we weren’t using.
Here are the top reasons I thought I needed a landline:
- I’m upstairs when my phone is downstairs. I’m downstairs when my phone is upstairs.
- I can’t talk with the phone propped between my ear and shoulder. And I don’t want to always wear a headset.
- I’m over 40. Isn’t that what older people are supposed to do?
- Telemarketers need a place to call.
- How will my kids call 911?
Here are the top reasons to dump the landline:
- There’s no reason to pay for a service we don’t use.
- My babysitters only communicate via text.
- I even text with my mom.
- I have enough minutes in my plan to cover my phone needs.
- I never bother to check my landline voice mail.
- I can automatically put my phone on “do not disturb” at night.
- My kids learned how to call 911 on my phone. Learn How HERE.
So far so good. It’s been a couple of months now, and I haven’t missed our landline one bit.
I must admit I do miss using my pink princess phone once in a while. It’s a girl thing, right? Plus, I liked being able to cradle the phone between my ear and shoulder, but I’m training myself to grab the hands-free ear buds the phone came with to save my neck from cramping. And because of the great do not disturb option, I keep a charger on my nightstand and charge the darn thing overnight without worrying the phone will wake me up.
Have you given up your landline? Why or why not?
Still have the landline in case of a natural disaster. Living in earthquake country, the landline towers will be repaired before the cell towers.
Smart, Patrick. There are definitely some reasons to have a land line!
Especially in this day and age, I see very little point in a landline. Though, Patrick does raise a good point, we don’t get many earthquakes in Birmingham (UK)!
I haven’t had a landline for about 5 years, just used to get cold callers ringing at annoying times!
I sometimes wonder why we still have a land line….
We never use it….The only time it does get used is when telemarketers ring…lol
Kim — I think it’s time to get rid of that landline 🙂 We started talking bout it when I realized we were only getting telemarketer calls. Anyone I knew who wanted to reach me would call my cell. Haven’t looked back!
I gave up my landline about five years ago and have never regretted it. I realized that paying for both a cell phone AND a landline when I barely talk on the phone enough to justify one phone was nuts. I also do not miss hearing from the telemarketers! One other benefit; as a single woman it adds a measure of security. I can give my cell phone number to someone that I have just met without having to worry about them looking me up and getting my address. It gives me a little more control.
It meant that my kids got cell phones a couple of years sooner that they ordinarily would have but that’s okay.
I never would have thought about that! When I was single, I would only give out my word telephone number. I worked at a larger company in Chicago so I didn’t need to worry about anyone trying to find me at my home that I didn’t really know.
I’ve been contemplating this move for awhile. My husband and I rarely use the landline, but I think I’ve been holding on for the kids. If both my husband and I are out, and since my kids don’t have cells yet, I feel like I’d want that landline – not just rely on the babysitter’s cell. And I didn’t think about the earthquake issue. Perhaps we should keep, but would love to pocket the savings.
Good point about your kids not having cell phones of their own. We’re fortunate enough to have awesome neighbors that I know the kids can always run next door if they ever needed an adult.
I’m sad to admit that the only reason I’ve legitimately thought about getting a landline was so I could use it to call my cell phone so I could find it when it’s lost.
True story.
The saddest part is that I live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house. IT’S NOT THAT BIG!
LOL! Lisa — I do have to ask my husband to call my phone once in a while after the kids abscon with it!
We ditched our landline just over a year ago. We just added a 4th line to keep at the house and it will eventually be my oldest son’s line when he gets a bit older. It was cheaper to add the extra line than to re-add a home phone.
Some day I will have to add my kiddos to my phone plan… but they’re definitely not old enough yet!
Yup, we too dumped our land line years ago but we have VoIP for international calls
We don’t really make international calls…. mostly texting during traveling over the Internet. But VoIP makes complete sense to save some bucks!
I was so excited when we finally had a land line! That was when I was around 6 or 7 i think (took some time before this technology reached our third world country) and I remember having a phone pal who was a few years older than me! Those were hilarious times.
The phone was used mainly for my family’s business and ever since they sold it, we didn’t really had a need for it anymore especially when cell phones came around.
We never got one since I got married, we rely heavily on cell phones. It’s less expensive and so much more convenient.
We’re thinking about getting rid of it. The only people that call us on it are telemarketers and our parents. I don’t know why we’ve kept it this long!