How To Lose Debt

Many people in the United States have given up there land-line phone altogether, and only kept their cell phones. That is one way to reduce the expense of a home phone! However, if you are like me, and a few million other people, you are not ready to “cut the cord” just yet. I therefore want to discuss a few other cost reduction opportunities.

If you have cable television, most cable TV providers also offer phone service also. Most of these have unlimited local and long distance, at a set monthly rate using the power of the internet. Often it is bundled with many calling features, like call waiting, caller ID, etc. The cable company may even give you a reduced rate for joining, and reduced cable fees if you join as a multiple service customer.

You should certainly review these plans, but be careful about bait and switch. My cable company advertised a bundled rate, but then when I called, they couldn’t give me a bundled rate, and successfully install it this year. So I accepted a slightly more expensive option, just to get it installed, hence, bait and switch.

There are other internet companies like Vonage. It usually comes with a piece of hardware similar to a modem or router. At the time this blog was written, Vonage http://www.vonage.com charged $24.98 per month with unlimited local and long distance calls, including 5 European countries.

As we are trying to reduce or eliminate monthly landline phone charges, I would be remiss to not mention a fairly new player in the internet phone arena. It’s called OOMA.

You have to purchase an OOMA internet appliance for $249, although I have seen it discounted at Amazon.com. What is amazing is that if you purchase their hardware, you get all US calls for free. That is just what I said, no monthly charges at all!! It’s too good to be true, possibly? Things that are too good to be true usually are too good to be true. However, I have no reason to discredit their advertisement.

The OOMA hardware is sold by some big companies like Best Buy and Walmart, in addition to Amazon.com. The OOMA Company http://www.ooma.com claims the reason that they are giving phone service away for free, well free after you spend $249 that is, is that they want you to buy their advanced calling features. Advanced calling features include three way conferencing, call forwarding, as well as a second line for free functionality, among other things. The full list of “for charge” options can be found on their website.

Eliminating your landline phone, while keeping a service like OOMA appears to be another viable option to consider.

Another internet based phone “service” is called MagicJack,

http://www.magicjack.com/1/index.asp.

It uses a small device that plugs into the USB port on a PC or Laptop Computer and provides phone “service” with advanced features for around $20 per year!! The cost of the actual device is under $40!! It provides unlimited phone calls to the U.S. and Canada, and even some International calls with restrictions. It is a great way to save money on calls, however, it requires an active PC to function, which could be difficult in an emergency.

All of these services require an active cable broadband connection and modem, so if you do not have that for internet access, that will be an added cost. Be sure to factor that in if you need to get it to take advantage of these services. But, they are a great way to save money on local and long distance calling.