You can cut your phone bill in half with a different service
Lizzie Tyner | RSS | 6 Comments
How many times have you gotten your phone bill and thought “We are spending way too much money on this?” We used to do that a lot. When you take your phone bill and add it to the fact that you’re paying for your cell phones and any other forms of communication, I know that sometimes you might think,”Is this land line even necessary?”
I have a love hate (but mostly hate) relationship with my land line. I really don’t want to get rid of it because I don’t always have cell phone service in my house and I don’t want to miss any important calls (and with my luck, the day I turned off the land line, I would get one of those important calls).
To help with my problem, I started looking into VoIP services. I’m sure that everyone has heard of Vonage. If you have cable, I’m sure at one point in time the company has tried to sell you on its digital telephone package (which is simply VoIP). There are many more providers than just this handful though.
After a brief Google search for VoIP providers, I found some really good deals out there. Most were cheaper than Vonage’s $24.95 a month.
You can choose what provider you want by the features you want. If you have friends or family outside the United States, then make sure you pick a plan that offers free calling to international numbers. Sometimes you can find services that offer calling for free to the UK and Europe. Most providers offer free calling to Canada and Mexico.
There are also some providers that offer a reduced price for service, but it requires you to leave your computer on all the time. The Magic Jack is the most popular form of that. I wouldn’t use one because I don’t want to have to leave my computer on for days and days at a time, and like I said before, the one time I have to restart my computer, I’m sure I’d miss the call I was waiting for.
I just feel like no matter what you pick, if you have a high speed internet connection, you can definitely save money with a VoIP service versus a traditional phone line. You just have to make sure that your connection is reliable and always on. Also, don’t forget, if you have DSL you may not be able to get rid of your land line.
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Tags: magic jack, vonage, digital telephone
Paul from all pink phones | Fri, Aug 28 2009
I only use my land line for incoming calls, hate paying the line rental but no other choice really. I do use a voip service for making calls (mostly for international calls). It’s free to most european countries and the states and probably lots more. I just have to credit 10 euros to get 180 free days which is pretty cool. The service I use is called Voipstunt but there are loads of similar services around.
Terry from Phone Over Internet | Sun, Nov 01 2009
There are several different VoIpo service providers that are much less expensive than Vonage and have good reviews as some are as low as $8.25 per month.. I have tried the Magic Jack and had a hard time setting up so that would work with my computer. I used mainly to call out and it seemed ok until the day it no longer worked. I tried the online customer sevice and they could not help me. I would not recommend it as a main line as the difficulty in setting up and having to leave your computer on all the time makes it not that usefull
Chris McClelland | Tue, Nov 03 2009
From what I have seen Magic Jack is basically what you pay for and even thought the service is cheap the call service is so-so(basically grainy and comes in and out), but it also depends a lot on your internet provider as well. It also depends on how much time you spend on the phone, as where as where you are calling to, I use my cell as my home phone because of all the minutes that I have
sam from uk phone deals | Mon, Nov 16 2009
I think Vonage is better than any other and I am using this and it’s the perfect option to call in other countries. I generally make USA calls.
John from Rapidshare Search Engine | Sun, Nov 22 2009
This sounds great. Does it apply to UK phones also?
sam | Tue, Nov 24 2009
If the service is good and if it’s cutting the cost, than it’s definitely gonna be time to change the service.