Not Upgrading my Cell Phone
My cell phone provider has been sending me emails, mailings, and even text messages trying to get me to upgrade our cell phones. I’ve been hesitant to do so, mainly because I don’t want to get into another contract. The other day I received another email from them telling me that if I upgraded they’d give me a $30 service credit. Very tempting as who doesn’t love to make money on something they were thinking about doing anyway?
I deleted the email. I wasn’t planning on upgrading my phone anyway, so why should that change my mind? If I upgraded, it would end up locking me in for another year or so, I’d end up spending money I hadn’t planned on spending on a phone, and ultimately if I got a newer technology phone chances are I’d want to do picture or text messaging, which would also cost me more money.
I’ve been thinking about dropping our cell phones or landline. It doesn’t make sense to have both, but I like having a phone at home that I can talk on without worrying about the battery dying or eating up my minutes. I also like having a cell phone in case of emergencies. But, people have lived without them before so I’m sure I could do it. Choices, choices. I think I’ll just leave it as it is and reevaluate later. I could look into doing some type of VOIP phone or something along those lines for a home phone but I don’t know many people that have done that.
Do you have a home phone and a cell phone? What works for you?
i recently considered dropping my cell phone and adding a landline. if i did that, i’d be able to take advantage of a bundle my ISP was offering, where i’d get all 3 services (landline, cable, internet) for $99/mo, which is less than half of what i pay right now for a cell phone and internet/cable.
i like my cell phone though. i’m away from my apartment most of the day, and my phone lets me get email on the go. i’m a freelancer so the difference between getting a job and losing it is often timing. i’ve lost work over not getting back to someone within 4 or 5 hours.
that said, there’s something about being constantly “available” that isn’t so great either. i find myself compulsively checking email, people get offended if i let their call go to voicemail and don’t get back to them immediately (because they know i “can”) and the nice walks in the park i truly love are more frequently than not interrupted by someone unimportant needing something even less important.
it’s an issue i’ve grappled with for a while but haven’t been able to reach that happy medium. perhaps the solution is keeping your landline and getting a pay-as-you-go phone whose number you only give to a select few people?
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I’m thinking of dropping our home phone. There’s a problem with our wiring so the phone doesn’t work, we only use it for internet. Now they offer internet only plans that are cheaper than what we’re paying. I just got a new cell phone though:) Mine was on its last legs, I love my new phone. But the free phone still cost me tax and I have to wait for a rebate. They do try to sucker you in with those offers.
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You could always do a pay-as-you-go phone. I did that for a while. Also, most major carriers have different prepaid plans, so you can shop around and find what works for you. That way you can keep a low amount of minutes (emergencies) but not have a contract tying you down.
I don’t have a landline, just a cell. I’m hardly ever home so that just seems to work for me.
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We had Vonage for several years and were happy with it. You can have your calls forwarded to your cell phone if you’re away from home, and if you travel, you can actually take your phone with you (we once took it to Canada for a 6 month stay). Downsides are that if your internet or power goes out, so does your phone, so we had cell phones too for those situations. I recently canceled our Vonage service simply because I found that we never used it. Now we just have our cells on a rollover plan, which makes for way more minutes than we could ever use, so I don’t have to worry about overage charges. For us, this seems to work the best.
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Does anyone remember when we didn’t have cell phones? Seems like nobody can live today without one, but life seemed a lot more simple when we didn’t have to worry about calling plans and paying tons of money for over texting each month.
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Zach- I love the pay as you go idea! I’ll have to do a comparison of that versus what we have right now. I like the idea of not having a contract. I hate feeling tied down with the cell phone!
Miss M- I like the idea of having a home phone. I’m kind of old fashioned. I like the rebates because I remember to send them in. I hate when I forget!!
Kittymoose- I’m definitely going to check it out. I think I’m also going to look at switching providers to see if that would save us money. I hate paying the cell bill each month!
Krystal- Thanks for letting me know you like Vonage! I will look into that. Also, I may look into switching to get rollover minutes. I don’t have that now and would really like that.
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Nick- I totally agree with you! Life was so much simpler then. That’s actually one reason I’d like to cut out my cell phone. I figure people lived without them for so long, why can’t it?
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Drop your landline, you don’t need it. Use Skype, have your other family members use Skype. Calling Skype to Skype is completely free. And you can call anyone all over the world. I think there are also 1-800 numbers you can call that allow you to call any number for free after you listen to an ad.
Pay as you go in the US is way more expensive than a monthly fee if you do regularly use your cell phone. I lived for 6 or more years without a landline.
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Hi Anon- I’ll have to check out Skype. Thanks for the comment!
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We have a package from Time Warner cable for our phone, internet, and cable, which cuts down on the costs.
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@ Leila- We don’t have Time Warner here, but ours is all bundled together so we’re getting the best price we can.
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