Telephone advice

[uncledon]

Here's the deal ; I was asked by an elderly couple to help them find a more affordable telephone service.
They are currently paying about $52.00 (including a long distance carrier which they don't need) and about $42.00 for a cell with 50 minutes per month. They don't use more than the 50 minutes, usually about 20 to 30.
Does anyone have a recommendation as to what's out there that might save them a few bucks?
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[JBinUTAH]

Vonage, if they have high speed internet.
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[RILEYFISH]

Uncle D,

Have you all considered going straight cellular? I have done this, as have many folks. Its a slight adjustment to learning to have your cell phone with you all the time. If they want internet, you can still keep the internet service coming through the phone line into the house, but not have a phone on it. Not sure if they even need, have or want internet.

I have done thye above and it works great for me. Saved me about 70.00 bones a month.

Good luck
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[AFDan52]

Rileyfish is right , I did that same thing when I bought my new house in October. I have a different Internet carrier, but my phone is straight Cellular.
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[uncledon]

Thanks guys for your response.
I should have explained the situation a little better. They are in their middle eighties, do not even have a computer and getting rid of the land line is not an option. Everyone in the valley has their land line number and it would just not be feasible to dump it.
Just wondering if there is a way to keep the land line and add a cheap cell service. They don't need a lot of minutes as they only use the cell in emergencies.
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[AFDan52]

Look into the Criket Phone
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[RILEYFISH]

Don, you can get pay as you go cell phones. you load minutes onto it as you use them. That way they use what they have payed for and only use it for emergencies. I see your point, your not taking that land line away. good luck
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[ocean]

Whatever you do dont get vonage you will regret it!!! I am existing customer and will never ever ever ever recomend them to anyone their sevice and is crap .They will screw you over and their is nothing you can do about it .
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[wiperhunter2]

I have one those pay as you need it Trac fone. Here is a link to their web site.
[url "http://www.tracfone.com/got_a_tracfone.jsp"]http://www.tracfone.com/got_a_tracfone.jsp[/url]
Once you buy the phone(around $20) all you need to do is buy more time every 90 days. The cost is $20 for 90 days or you can buy a year for $99. They have the year time card on sale right now for $125 with double the minutes. It is cheaper to load it every 90 days($80 a year) If you go with the year time card you only need to load the time once a year other wise every 90 day you must load more time on your phone. It's not hard to load the time, just scratch the cover off the back of the card then type the pin number into you phone to add the new time. I've had mine for several years without any problems. I only use it mainly as an emergency phone or when I need to let my wife know that I'm still out fishing[]. You can buy them at a lot of stores, I bought mine at Wal mart but Shop Ko also has them.
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[REPETER]

+1 on staying away from Vonage...I have rarely come across a company I've been so dissapointed in. Their customer service is a total joke. Sounds like it doesn't apply in this situation, but for others out there.

I like my prepaid Verizon phone, but feel that I paid too much for the phone up front and now that I'm having problems with it can't really dump it. [:/]
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[BADFISH]

Have none of you hear of the magic jack yet. it is a USB devise you plug your phone into through the computer, then its like anywhere anytime calls in the US/Canada/ puerto rico or something for like 19 bucks a YEAR.

[url "http://www.magicjack.com"]www.magicjack.com[/url] I suggest you check this one out, it wont be too long before someone changes this i am sure....
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[wiperhunter2]

They had some thing about this on TV the other day and said it was a good product but they had very bad customer service. As far as helping this elderly couple out, this might not be what they are looking for since it is doubtful they have a computer[:/] and I think they are looking for a cell phone.
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[late4lake]

Magic Jack

[#ff0000]Sorry late4lake but new members are not allowed to post links until they have made 15 post. Here is a[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=faq"] link to the rules[/url]
for BFT. [/#ff0000]
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