The Cell Phone Verses Landline Delimna

There is the question as to whether to give up a landline (aka phone service) in favour of cell phones only.  Some of our kids have totally eliminated their landlines and a couple after using only cell phones for a couple of years went back to adding a basic landline.  We have Bell for our landline, Roger's for my husband's cell phone and I put my cell phone of a pay as you go plan through Telus because I seldom use it. 

Here's the problem in Ontario.  We have Bell so pay $54.85 for a very stripped down service that includes caller ID and 500 minutes of long distance for North America.  They were none to pleased when we cut over $30 worth of extras about three years ago after buying a home telephone system offering call waiting, call blocking and all those nice features on board so all we need is call display.  The only feature on our landline that can be reduced is long distance but that won't save us much.  I pay $100 per year for my cell phone pay as you go plan with the only problem being it is only good in the US but I can unlock the phone, buy a sim card and plan in the US which would be good at our vacation home.  I very seldom travel in the US by myself so really don't need a cell phone there.  My husband pays $86 per month for his cell phone which has a data plan.

We looked at getting a new cell phone for me and eliminating our home landline.  A new cell iPhone was $199 special and adding a family plan was $50 plus $16 for caller ID and shared data ($66 total).  We would be up to $152 per month BUT if my husband changes his current cell phone plan that is no longer available he would also have to pay $16 for caller ID which brings the total to $168 per month.  We are currently paying a total of $151.43 for both cell phones and landline so giving up the landline would actually cost us more money for less.  Plus, we have internet and television with Bell so get a bundle discount of $21 per month that we would lose if we eliminated the landline.  After doing the math, we quickly realized giving up our landline in favour of cell phone only would not save us any money but rather cost us more while getting less.  Now technically, we could without changing out my phone, adding US coverage with no data but it would still cost us more monthly. 

I personally would rather go to cell phones only.  It really is a lot more convenient and quite frankly the younger generation has embraced cell phones, choosing to eliminate landlines.  There are a lot of benefits going to cell phones only as you have instant communication pretty much everywhere.   So far, the problem of telemarketers is very low as you aren't listed in a directory so the calls for the most part that you get are for you. 

The downside is cell phone numbers like landline numbers are recycled which means you can have a high volume of calls from debt collectors from the previous owner of that number but the cost of those calls can cost you in addition to your actual cell phone plan.  We dealt with this problem with both our landline phone number and my cell phone number since moving here in September of 2011.  They can be very nasty as well as threatening and if you are on a pay as you go plan can really eat up your minutes AND they will not remove the number from their database even if you request it contrary to the rules set out by the CRTC.  The problem is, you cannot block these calls on a cell phone the way you can with a landline.  The best advice I have after having this cell phone number for 18 months is to not answer the call, find out who they are via a service like Who Calls Me then report them to the CRTC. 

An Update on Canada's Do Not Call List

I know everyone has their job to do but I seriously detest telemarketers.  First they are invading our  space using the services we are paying for.  In essence they are stealing our services.  Having a phone line does not entitle telemarkets to call your number.  Second they call at obscene times quite often disrupting dinner or sleep.  So I declared war on them.  I posted about Canada's National Do Not Call Registry in my personal blog back in early February of 2009.  This was after adding our phone number to the registry.  Instead of having the effect we wanted the telemarketing phone calls actually increased!  Later in Novemeber of 2009 I posted about our new phone system with a lot of built-in features that would not only save us money on our Bell telephone services but also give us the peace of mind of immediately blocking telemarketer calls.  All non-identified calls (no number, private number, and etc) can be collectively blocked with one push of a button while those identifying the number can be Googled to confirm it is a telemarketer then blocked.

One great site for finding information on a phone number call you is Who Calls Me but there are others.  If the phone number calling you is a telemarketer, scammer  or in at least one case a prank caller who must have had excellent long distance service, it will show up on this site.  Included on this site are comments from others who have received calls from that number and in many cases the company or agency will at some point be identified as well.  At this point you can now make an informed decision as to whether this is someone you want calling your house.  If you don't then call block them and/or report them. 

I stumbled upon information today that adding your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry is not a good idea.  Many have reported that telemarketing calls increased after they added their number much the same result we saw.  The reason for this is the National Do Not Call Registry provides their list of numbers to telemarketers under the premise that the telemarketer is to remove these numbers from their call list.  Unfortunately some telemarketers are now using these lists to their advantage by selling them to off shore telemarketers meaning you will get bombarded with telemarketing calls from outside of Canada.  In light of this new information:

If you have not added your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry:

1. Do not add it!
2. Subscribe to caller ID from your phone service provider.
3. Don't answer any phone number you don't recognize.
4. Check that phone number on a site such as Who Calls Me.
5. If the phone number is a telemarketer and you don't want them calling, block the number.
6. Report your experiences to online forums such as Who Calls Me.

If you have added your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry:

1. Follow steps 1 through 6 above.  It is pointless reporting to the government link above although you can try.  One more report against them won't hurt.
2. Turn your answering machine or voice mail off.  In most cases unless you are away you don't need it on and if you are away those needing to contact you will already have your contact information.   Telemarketers quickly realize they are wasting their time calling your number so it will get bumped off their list.
3. If this is a problem telemarketer that gets around your phone defenses.  If you are using your own phone system to block their calls this should not be a problem.  If it is a problem, go online!  This type of thing is perfect for disclosing on forums, newsgroups, blogs and Twitter.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

New Phone System

When we were newlyweds there really wasn't a lot of choice in phones other than colours. They were corded units with no extra functions. Over the years as times changes with a busier lifestyle stand alone answering machines became quite popular. These devices used micro-cassettes but they served the purpose. The down side answering machines was of course power outages. Well Bell Canada saw they could be making more money off of customers by offering their own answering service (voice mail) and they sweetened the deal by allowing you to call into your voice mail from another location so you could hear your messages. This was an attractive feature for those traveling a lot but really was meant for the business people. At the same time telemarketers saw residential homes as the perfect market. Bell quickly started adding new features with one of the most useful being caller id that is a somewhat effective way of dealing with telemarketer.

The last phone system we bought had a built-in answering machine. We saw this as a way to eliminate voice mail from our phone service. If I recall correctly the system consisting of the base and two addition hand sets cost $79.99. It worked well for us for about 8 years but over the last couple of months it was apparent the system was dying. None of the handsets would hold a charge longer than about 5 minutes and two of the handsets lost partial parts of the display. It was time to go shopping for an eco-friendly solution.

Panasonic KX-TG6473 Phone System

Pictured is the Panasonic KX-TG6473PK eco-friendly cordless expandable phone system we purchased at Sam's Club for $59.99. This is the first phone system I've seen with the EnergyStar logo! It is also RoHS specified no chemicals used which includes lead, mercury, hexavalent chomium, and specified brominated flame retardants (PBB and PBDE).

The standby power consumption has been reduced by 59% over their previous model which means we use 10.52 kWh verses 25.83 kWh annually on standby. In terms of electricity savings that is $1.63 so nothing to get really excited about. However, calculation of our previous system that used 2 - 6.5 W and 1 - 18 W adapter the cost for that phone system worked out to be $28.54. The new system will cost $11.07 annual to operate at our current electricity rates. Again, an $11 annual savings doesn't seem like much but it gets better!

The phone system has a built-in answer, call block, call screen, call waiting, 4-way conferencing and ringer id all features that cost extra if using Bell Canada's services. The call block is not limited to just phone numbers either as this system allows the blocking of calls without phone number such as out of area, private caller, or long distance with no phone number identified. What this really means is that the only additional service we need from Bell Canada is caller id. That's it! This should give a maximum savings of almost $30 per month for 3 months then $24.95 for a total savings of $290.60 the first year then $275.20 annually depending on the plan we replace our current home complete plan (most expensive) with. So now that really is a savings but if we consider the new phone system also acts as an alarm clock we save an addition $6.31 in electricity. In short we stand to save $307.98 the first year the $292.58 each year after that making this purchase very frugal with a payback period of 2.3 months! In terms of combining frugality with being eco-friendly this ended up being an excellent purchase.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009