Do We Get Rid of Our Land Line?

We don't have a land line, just our two cell phones (my husband and mine). I think teaching her on the cell phone will be fine.

I've been without my land phone about seven years and only have a cell phone. It was strange at first but now it's just normal. On Speed Dial, set #9 to 911. Teach your daughter how to call 911 on your cell. This is what my son does for his six year old. She started getting interested in the phone at five. Hope this helps you.

I cancelled my land line and my husband and I use only
our cell phones. We have a 2-1/2 year old and a 5 year
old and you just have to instruct them not to "answer"
or "dial" the phone. My daughter has dialed "911"
and we've had to scold her. They learn pretty quickly!
:)

Don't be afraid, right now we have to think "economically" smart, cut the expenses !

I wondered about this for a while myself and then decided to cancel ours last fall. I haven't missed it at all and the extra money is handy. It got to the point that we never used it. The only people who called the landline were telemarketers, surveys, solicitors, etc. We can still use the landline to call 911, my 5 year old has already tried it.

I would keep the land line for just in case your cell phone quit working or need charged..you never know if/when that will happen.Tell the phone company you want just basic service nothing else.No long distance,no name/number display..nothing.You would be amazed at how much you will save there and also you have a phone you know will work when you need it..good luck..
S. B

My husband and I don't have a land line -- we've always just had cell phones since we've gotten married. I haven't been concerned about it. I see the point of having a fixed spot where the phone is, in case of an emergency and your child needs to find it, but, really, I don't think that's very likely. In fact, my mom has portable phones for her "land line" and we're always trying to find one of the handsets when we need to make a call, because somebody always takes one and puts it on a bookshelf, or leaves it in the kitchen, or leaves it outside, etc. I think cell phones are more practical, because you can take them with you, and can always have the same thing, even outside the house.

But what you have to decide is whether the yearly expense is worth the peace of mind you may have.

Hi K.,

I think for some people, it's just a matter of opinion, but for us, it was a matter of security. Our home alarm system will only work with a land line. We tried having it on the high speed internet and you do not get continuous service. Just like you can get "kicked off" a website when too many people log on, our alarm system would get kicked off the same way. Also, whenever we set on/off the alarm, we had no phone service for up to ten minutes! At school, they teach the kids how to use a land line to dial "911". I would consider the cheapest land line for your house and make all your other calls on your cell phone. Just a suggestion. Hope it helps. L.

I am not sure if anyone addressed this but if you have your phone plugged in it will always work to call 911. Even if you have your landline turned off. So if that is your only reason for keeping your service you don't need to. So remember if your phone is not in service don't think its safe for your kids to play with it because it will still connect with 911 if dialed and the police will respond.

I have toyed with the idea as well. However, we have kept our landline with basic services. This is the number that the school calls if schools are closed or if there is an announcement we need to be made aware of. Also, my son is 7 and is starting to have friends call. It's nice for him to have a phone he can use. I think landlines are great for emergency use as well. I'd keep it.

Get yourself a magic jack it is $20 a year and you can leave it plugged into your computer. We are getting rid of our line too and using our cell phones but I want to be able to use a phone other than my cell for my business. I did a ton of research and found that the magic jack is perfect for just that. I think it will be just as good for your concerns as well. Check into it and see if it is just right for you. I love the price! $20 a year!
C.

Well not sure what to tell you as i personally use the phone through the cable company and can't afford to have a cell. I guess a big part depends on how often you use it

I don't know who you have your land line with, but we just got "dial tone" only on ours. Very cheap, but what a hassle to get them to admit that there was a much cheaper way to have land service. When I asked for basic, they said, "we don't have that".....on and on it went. Actually, I waited another 4 months thinking that what Verizon had told me was there were only a $15-$20 difference with a much lower plan compared to the unlimited service we'd had for so long. If it is Verizon, just tell them you want a "dial tone" only. It's like $20 a month and except for emergencies or local calls we don't use it. Like the other posts said, we paid a lot of money to have tele-marketers call before. Seems that when we downgraded, the market calls stopped almost entirely. I think it's very important to have a land line, but, to each his own I guess.

That is definitely a personal preference. We got rid of our land line and use our cell phones exclusively. It has been great. Less telemarketers and less cost. The only problem we have run into is when we first did changed over we left with both phones when we went out one night and had a babysitter. The babysitter had one, so no real issue, but I tend to leave mine behind since it is the "main #". The only other problem would again, be when my husband is out of town and then I need to go out and have a sitter. But everyone who keeps my kids has a cell phone with them, so really I guess it becomes a non-issue.

I would suggest you get rid of your landline. a 4 year old can learn to use a cell phone the same as they can use a landline. You could even get a plan with shared minutes and add a line to leave at home and teach the child to use that one.

I think 911 needs a land line to be able to find your home, if you have an alarm system they need a land line...I saw a special on it once. Plus, you may not have a great connection at all times...depending on your home. Sometimes when I am on my cell on hold for a company, it just hangs up. Frustrating to have to wait on hold again! Personally I would not want to be able to be contacted at all times. Businesses, telemarketers, etc I like to keep my cell phone for close friends only. The home phone, I can just pretend I am not home. If they have your cell, they know you are with it! :o) Also, if anyone stays at your house, babysitter, friend, family, etc they would have to have their own phone or there would not be one if you left.

I haven't had a land line in about 7 or 8 years, and I don't miss it a bit. I just had my first baby, so regarding the child issues, I'm not speaking from experience, but I would think it would be just as easy to teach her to use the cell phone to call 911 in an emergency as a land line. And it probably would be more practical, because then she'd have the knowledge to call 911 wherever there was an emergency, i.e. in the car, or out and about, instead of just the land line at home. I don't plan to get a land line. With a child now, the money is tight, and all we need is one more bill, right??? ;)
Good luck to you!

We thought of this as well, and my husband was all for it. We have 3 kids and the oldest stay at home after school. Because of this I chose not to get rid of the land line. My oldest child has a cell phone but it is not always charged, on, or avail. I like the comfort of knowing even the youngest can pick up the phone and call 911. Not to mention he will not be able to carry a cell phone due to medical issues. I also have a home business that requires faxing, must have the land line! One other positive, we recently went a week without electricity and cell service was not avail in our area due to the ice storm.....I didn't even recognize the phone's ringer when it rang! My handhelds were out but the one phone in the kitchen was a blessing. Family was worried and we were able to still keep in touch. Good luck on your decision!

My husband and I both considered getting rid of our landlines also and just using our cell phone since we rarely ever use the landline. We decided againest doing it for one reason and that is because of 911. When you call 911 they know right where you are without having to have you tell them. We just took all the extras off our landline and switched to basic service.

My husband and I got rid of our landline over a year ago. We got 3 cell phones on a shared-minutes family plan. He carries one; I carry one, and one is usually not used, except when our 6-year-old is out of town staying with relatives; then she takes it to call us on. We have it fixed so that it only calls out and receives from certain numbers. We haven't had a reason to call 911, but that is something to think about when you make your decision. We like having one less bill, and more space on our desk, and one less number to remember.

There is starting to be some pretty good research that children should not use cell phones. The radiation penetrates their skulls differently than adults and may set them up for an increased risk of brain cancers later in life. I saw some MRI's of how the radiation enters their brains and from that moment on swore my child wouldnt talk on a cell phone again. I also went out and bought a earpiece for myself. I suggest you do some research in this area before making a final decision.

We got rid of our land line. We were paying $90 for it and never used it. Basically we were paying $90 for solicitors to call us at dinner time and try to "give" us windows that we have to pay for .... if that makes any sense, so we called them and told them to cut it off. I am in TN so they told me that it is a law that the have to leave the 911 on. We don't have phone plugged up but if we needed to call 911 from the cell, we could plug is up and call. That is all that it can do though and that costs nothing.
We use our cell phones at all times anyway so it was a good decision for us. I have a 30 month old and I never think about not having a land line. I think it is all in what you get use to and once you get rid of it and see that you can live without it, you never miss it.

I havent had a land line for more than a few months since 2002 and i only briefly had it due to having the internet but thats now thru the cable company it just makes things easier not having one because depending on what type there are chances of it not working during a power outage or in bad weather and I say teach your kid on the cell mine know how to and it makes things easier like the last person said if you are out and about and now there is a 911 charge on most if not all cell phones where if 911 is dialed they can locate you by using your cell phone and especially if you are on the go like we are (with 3 kids) there really is no use in a land line because if you are waiting on a call or something and have to leave u could miss it but then again thats just my 2 cents whats the use in the extra money goin out.

I am one that likes the security of a land line. If something were to happen to you while she was the only one there & she can't find your cell phone...I often leave my lying around. We use Vonage for our phone. Cost us about $33/month and we have free long distance to the US & Canada. I love it. My family out of the area will call me, and I'll call them right back to save them money. If you have reliable internet, it's the way to go.

One other thing, I think it is law that even if you don't have a land line, you can plug your phone into the phone jack & still be able to dial 911. Just make sure she knows that it's not a game or something you do just because, because that could lead to trouble, LOL.

we ditched our land line years ago. my almost 2 year old can work the cell so im sure your 4 year old can figure it out. save the money and just use the cell!

I ditched my landline and use only my cell phone. I had a landline briefly when I first moved to NC because I wasnt sure what kind of cell reception I was going to get.

I have taught my son how to use the phone. More importantly, I have taught him the number so that he can call me no matter where he is. I called my carrier and asked for a new number with a lot of repeating numbers to make it easy for him to remember.

You might want to consider using voice dial, or if that's too complicated (some phones make voice dialing harder than dialing with your eyes closed) then maybe speed dialing. My son knows if he opens my phone and pushes and holds the number 6, it will call my mom (I chose 6 because he calls her Mum Mum and 6 has the "M" on it). All of my speed dials will dial one of my family members or my closest friends, so matter who he gets, he can tell them he needs help. He also knows how to dial 911 in case of a true emergency. Your daughter might be a bit young for all that, but it's no harder than learning to use a regular house phone.

My dh reminds me that ice storms and hurricanes can take cell towers out, while most landlines are underground. It's nice for us to have a 'back-up". However, we did drop our local service, since we have DSL, and before our cell package included free long distance nights and weekends, we just used a cheap phone card at 3 cents/min. I think it was Wal-Mart at the time. I still think it is practical to teach your daughter how to use both phones for emergencies, as you can't determine where she might be when one happens.