How much do you pay a month for Your Phone Service?

[leftyladyfrommo]

I think my cellphone is $39.00.for 450 minutes and I think unlimited on the weekend. My land line is $26 (I do have caller ID)

My big problem with my cell phone is I can't figure out how to use it very well - being an older, techno-idiot. That is frustrating. Sometimes I can't even pick up messages because I can't figure out to go to get them.

They out to sell a special cell phone for old people. You just answer and call out and pick up messages. Leave the rest of the fancy stuff for the kids.

And I keep forgetting to take mine with me. And I forget to charge it up.

But other than that its fine.

God, I am such an idiot.

[Conker]

1. I don't pay every month for my cell phone since I have prepaid.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. So you go buy a card for that?

How does that work?

[Conker]

6. There are two ways you can do it.

1.)Like you said, you can buy a cell phone prepaid card for so many minutes (example $100 card for 666 minutes).Then you call your cell phone carrier and you type in the special number on the prepaid card to activate the minutes.Or you can do what I do...
2.)Call your carrier's customer service number (for me it is 611), and over the phone you can add minutes to your cell phone via credit card.

[Jack from Charlotte]

27. Me too. I average in the $8 to $10 per month range. My carrier is....

Virgin Mobile. Am REQUIRED to BUY, not necessarily use, $20 worth of time every 3 months.

Works great for me and cheap.

[AlCzervik]

3. with tax it's $41.57 a month, sprint 500 minutes a month plan

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Sounds like mine is right in there.

[AlCzervik]

5. yeah, seems pretty reasonable, i used to have the 3000 minutes when

i was working fulltime which most months i did not use and that plan came in around $65.

[babylonsister]

7. I don't own a cell, but pay about

$65 per month for unlimited long distance and local. I use long distance a lot so need it, and this was the cheapest solution available to me. And yes, I'm one of those saps that switched from AT&T to SBC, only to be again under the thumb of AT&T.

[DODI]

12. If it makes you feel any better, SBC bought AT&T and kept

the AT&T name because of the name recognition. Our bill per month with SBC/ATT is about $150 - but that is all the bells and whistles - unlimited in and out of state calling, Dish180, DVR service, high speed DSL, caller i.d. Every 6 months or so I ask them is they can lower my bill and they usually do! Last month my DSL went from $24.95 to $9.95! I like their customer service very much.

[babylonsister]

15. Funny, I've been told, on DU, that ATT bought SBC.

I still make my checks out to SBC though. :shrug: With ATT, I was paying about $100 per month and $50 for local; way too much. This worked out better for me, but I pay another bill for the computers, and another for the satellite! We like our creature comforts at home. If I combined them, it'd be about $150 also, so other than writing more checks, I do feel better!

[On the Road]

20. Dodi is Correct

SBC bought its former parent company. Sad state of affairs for AT&T. Their name is still out there, but top management drove the company into the ground so hard there wasn't much left of it.

Unlike Verizon or Bellsouth, SBC had been doing business under a gazillion brand names, including Ameritech, Pacific Bell, Cingular, etc. I guess they can finally have assume a single identity.

[LeftyMom]

8. $52/ mo with tax and fees, unlimited cell minutes and long distance

with voce mail, caller id etc.

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. Let's see

Land line through SWB with taxes is about $35 per month. I only use it for alarm monitoring and local calls. I would like to switch my alarm monitoring to cellular but I would have to re-up my monitoring contract to do so. Eventually I will do that and SWB will be history in this house.

Cellular is through Sprint. 200 anytime minutes, nights and weekends beginning at 7 pm, nationwide coverage, no roaming and mobile to mobile for about $35 per month plus taxes. I use it for all my long distance calls. I have family and friends who also have Sprint mobile to mobile which is handy and has allowed me to have fewer anytime minutes in my plan.

[SoCalDem]

10. AMEN.. although I probabbly won;t ever want a cell phone

if I could find one with a TOTAL bopttom line cost per month of under $40, I might be tempted.. I don't want to watch tv, play games, do math problems, do my taxes, or take pictures with a phone.. I make about 5 local-long distance calls to a town 8 miles away each month, and that's about it..

I don't trust the "plans" they advertise because my friends have all been burned, and I hate to waste money..

But then I would probably still not want one, because I like BIG phones...with BIG receivers that I can rest on my shoulder and have the use of both hands.. and NO... I don't want to "wear" my phone strapped to my head :)

[recoveringrepublican]

11. lmao, idiot here also, when i had one

couldn't figure out how to get my voice mail. I did figure out how to play snake pretty darn well though. And if it makes you feel better I was 23 at the time.

[Bluzmann57]

13. One of about 500 people who don't have a cell phone

I do pay $38.50 a month for my QWEST land line and that includes caller ID. And do not be fooled by the apparent goodness of the aforementioned phone company. They kind of suck.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. They DO suck

They've screwed me over in two different cities, so far. I won't give them another chance.

[Skidmore]

14. $23/mo. for basic phone service with .14/min for long-distance

on a small rural phone coop. We usually average about $3-5/mo long distance calls. We also have our internet service through them at $18/mo. For both, types of services we usually pay less than $50/mo.

[Klukie]

16. $24.99 a month for unlimited long distance.....

call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, and voice mail. Great international rates as well. Only 4 cents a minute to call Germany. Vonage Kicks Ass!

[mwooldri]

25. I have you beat.

FREE to Germany and $21.95 a month. Do you lingo?

But how much do you pay for Internet access? My only choice for highspeed is Time Warner Cable or anything that's running over it (I have Earthlink cable).

However Vonage is good for one thing that I might switch for. Vonage offer local numbers everywhere in the United Kingdom and Lingo only offers London area phone numbers. But Lingo offers phone numbers in more countries than Vonage.

In total for telecom charges (internet, phone) I pay

$41.95 for Earthlink cable Internet.
$31.95 for Lingo + a London phone number
$70.00 to Sprint for two cell phones.

A grand total of $143.90 a month. Eurgh.

Mark.

[catmandu57]

17. 16.95 per month for our landline

.05 a minute for long distance. My wife has a tracfone she buys time for and keeps for emergengies.

[mike_c]

18. $24.95 flat fee, no long distance charges, unlimited "minutes"....

Personally, I find the very concept of selling "minutes" repugnant.

I use Vonage VOIP. I love it.

[bleedingheart]

19. ugh...too much

we have two cell phones on a plan...hubby and I can talk to each other like walkie talkies with no charge...

However we have the 1400 minute plan (we share those) and the bill is around $100 a month...and we have that because he travels a lot for work and is gone a lot.

[Ksec]

21. two cells and a line at home

about 125 a month. Too much. My wife and daughter insist they need their cells .

[Q3JR4]

22. $50.00

With that I get all of my local and long distance calls, caller ID, call forwarding, and unlimited instant messaging (which I do use a lot).

[trackfan]

23. $19.00+- for landline and $6.67 for cell phone. n/t

[sandnsea]

24. You and me both

I literally have to hand the cell phone to somebody else to make a call. I don't know why I can't figure the stupid thing out. I also can't remember people's cell phone numbers, they're like play phones in my mind. I remember people's email addresses, but cell phone numbers are just a complete blank. Weird. But my fees are the same as yours, lol. Yeah I pay for the stupid thing, are we dweebs or what??

[leftyladyfrommo]

26. My cell phone would practically tap dance if I just knew how to

work it.

I even sat down with the instruction booklet (it's Nokia) and tried to figure it out. Couldn't understand the instructions.

But I can receive calls and make calls and I guess that is what is important.

And I got a little case for it that I can attach to my belt so I wouldn't lose it in my purse.

How cool is that?

[The Revolution]

28. $21/month land line with no features

I only have a land line, local calls only, no caller id, call waiting, or any other features.

Currently through Qwest, but if we ever get a local public telecom up and running, I may switch to that.

[Madrone]

29. Cingular cell - $29.99 (38ish w/ taxes)

For 300 anytime minutes and unlimited nights/weekends.

Phone - $15/ month - fully loaded. (caller id, call waiting, call waiting caller id, 3-way, voicemail, call forwarding, etc)

I work in the internet/IT department of our local rural phone company - so I get good discounts on the services we provide. Landline, DSL (free), and digital cable ($28)

[Left Turn]

30. Cell Phone + VoIP

I just use my cell phone for everything. But if I ever got an extra line, it would be VoIP. A lot of my friends have SunRocket, and they pay less than $18 a month for unlimited long distance. Can't beat that I guess.

[mtnester]

31. So we need a Firefly for the techno-phobe adults!

such a cute phone too!

http://www.fireflymobile.com/

[proud patriot]

35. My son just got a firefly for his B-day

from Grandma ... It works great for him and
he's not abusing it ,he knows it's just for
emergencies . He's allowed to call mom , dad
both grandma's , and his best friend .

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. After my landline went up to $50 per month

I switched to Vonage and now pay about $33, including taxes, for a landline AND a fax.

My cell phone is T-Mobile prepaid. I use it so little that I have only now used up the $10 worth of minutes that came with it when I bought it in March.

[Sgent]

34. For my landline

I pay $2.99 / month + .02/minute incoming and outgoing (nationwide).

I average about $6.00/month.

[BlooInBloo]

36. My plan is $39.99, but the bill is ALWAYS $100-$110. GRRRR

No idea why - I have a $10 text-messaging add-on, but that's it.

I've never come anywhere near using all of my minutes either.

GRRRRR.