While putting together our family budget last year, we were looking for ways to save money as we adjusted to single income living. One of the first expenses we decided to eliminate was our home telephone. At $39.95/month, our landline was quickly becoming a cost we could do without. And we’re not alone.
According to a recent report by the Convergence Consulting Group, Canadians will cancel their landline at a rate of 9% a year in 2010 and 2011. It was suggested that 25% of Canadians have already ditched their home phones in favor of using a cell phone.
Why We Cancelled Our Landline
- The Cost – Saving nearly $500 a year sounded like a pretty good deal to my wife and I, and considering we both have cell phones we didn’t really see the point in having the landline any longer. My cell phone bill is paid for by my employer, so it’s just my wife’s plan that we pay for each month (around $65/month).
- The Convenience – We carry our cell phones everywhere, and with technology improving all the time, reception is rarely an issue. Plus, with smart phones like the iPhone or BlackBerry, my wife and I can use BlackBerry Messenger to quickly communicate for free.
- The Inconvenience – Quite frankly it got to the point where the only time our home phone rang, it was a telemarketer or some recorded message telling us to press #1 now because we’ve won a free trip. With our cell phones, besides the occasional wrong number, we aren’t bothered with unwanted phone calls.
Now there are some drawbacks to not having a landline. One being that if there is a power outage and your cell phone battery dies, you won’t be able to make a phone call. But I would hardly say that’s a good enough reason to shell out close to $500 a year for that piece of mind.
For some people, another negative to cancelling your landline and using a cell phone exclusively is that you might end up paying more for your cell phone plans by having to increase minutes or add other features.
Unless you have a good evenings and weekends plan, or don’t call long distance very often, it might be worth it to stick with your home phone. However with the emergence Skype and other VoIP services, you can significantly reduce or even eliminate your long distance charges as well.
It’s been more than three years since we cancelled our landline and we haven’t missed it at all. But now that I think about it, we haven’t “won” a free trip in a while either 🙂
Would you ditch your landline for a cell phone or VoIP service?
