Canceling Your Landline? 4 Points to Consider First

You might want to think twice before canceling your landline phone service and joining the 2 in 5 U.S. households that have opted to go mobile-only.

Consumer Reports says there are still a number of reasons it makes sense to keep your landline,

• Can you hear me now? Consumer Reports said it tested the voice quality for talking and listening on a cordless home phone and it was “generally better than that of the best cellphones – important if you suffer from hearing loss, your household is noisy, or you spend a lot of time on the phone, especially in the home office.”
• More secure. Home phones are connected to your address, including apartment numbers, so if you call 911, emergency responders will know where you are, regardless of whether or not you can talk to them. Cellphones use a GPS-based method to report your physical location to 911, but it’s not exact. For instance, if you’re in an apartment on the third level of the building, your phone doesn’t indicate that.
• Savings? We recently told you that cutting your landline service is a great way to save money. But that’s not always the case. The Huffington Post’s Brie Dyas said she was going to cancel her landline to reduce her cable bill, but “without it, the bill was actually higher.” I pay about $19 per month for my landline. Consumer Reports said canceling the landline from a cable company sometimes amounts to savings as low as $5 per month, if they’re in a bundled package.
• Helps improve cell reception. “By placing a cellphone near the cordless phone’s base, you can access your wireless service using Bluetooth technology and use a cordless handset to make or take cell calls,” Consumer Reports said.

Maybe I’m old school, but I refuse to give up my landline. Yes, I have a cellphone, but if I’m going to spend any more than 60 seconds talking on the phone, I’d rather use a landline because the connection is so much clearer.

Plus, nine times out of 10 I have no idea where my phone is. Car, purse, between the couch cushions, in my 11-month-old’s mouth — it could be anywhere. It could also be on vibrate or the battery’s dead – all are likely scenarios. Sometimes I wonder why I even have a cellphone.

Do you still have a landline? Share your reasons for keeping what some call a “dinosaur” below or on our Facebook page.