There aren't many pay phones in my town either.

 

 I recently read that AT&T are getting rid of all of their pay phones. Babs

We had phones along the freeways here for years for emergency purposes (not pay phones, though) but the state decided to take them out. They said that with just about everyone having cells that they weren't being used, and didn't want to pay any longer for manning them or maintenance. Doesn't seem like a good thing. E 

I think the removal of pay or emergency phones only forces more people to get cell phones. I know that one argument against having the additional expense of one was that they weren't really necessary since a person could use a pay phone in an emergency while on the road. This is not a viable option anymore.

 

Brandy that is a good point. I also find that some older people dont understand how to use a cell phone. My Mom could work a pay phone but never be able to see the small numbers and words on a cell phone. Also homeless and really poor people. They need to make calls sometimes and if they are wise do not have a cell phone bill. Babs 

Brandy:

 One of the stumbling blocks I have to being able to cut back on expenses is contracts. We could cut back on some expenses we have except that we are contractually obligated to keep the service for a set amount of time.

How do you avoid contracts for services like phone, internet, cell, TV, ect? What do you think of companies who demand a contract for their services?

 

The only one we just canceled was the cell phone. We replaced that by getting two Tracfones, which are prepaid cell phones. Google on "prepaid cell phone" and you will find a lot of them. Tracfone has better coverage in our area so that's why we got those. The phones were $18 each at Walmart, the card with 120 minutes and 90 days was, I think, $30. We were helping some relatives move and thought the extra minutes would be used, that's the only reason I bought the 120 minute cards for them. The cheapest card is 60 minutes and is good for 90 days. The minutes roll over but the time (90 days) does not. So to keep the phone active you have to buy at least a $10 card every three months and the per-minute charge is about 33 cents, which is very high compared to most contract phones. For our purposes that's dirt cheap since we don't use it much. With prepaid cell phones, the per-minute charge is generally higher than with a contract phone ONLY if you use the cell phone a lot. For people like us who perhaps make perhaps one 5-minute call every other month, the Tracfone is cheaper in the long run. The only reason we had a cell phone was that I wanted one for my wife to have in case the car broke down on her, etc. With the Tracfone, I thought I'd get one for myself too. So for $18 and $3.33 a month (60 minute card) I have a cell phone if I need it. For someone who uses a cell phone for business or is always using it (talking to a friend in the grocery store saying "I'm looking at some carrots now") a prepaid phone is probably not a good deal. Make sure you look at the coverage maps for each cell phone. The coverage for one that is cheaper may not be good in your area. Another advantage of prepaid phones is that you're not out a lot of money if it gets lost/stolen and you don't have to fight with the phone company over the expensive overseas calls. All of the regular cell phone companies now offer prepaid cell phones: Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, etc. with varying pricing plans but you may have to look for them on those web sites. And there are a bunch of other companies offering them.

babs:

Brandy that is a good point. I also find that some older people don't understand how to use a cell phone. My Mom could work a pay phone but never be able to see the small numbers and words on a cell phone. Babs 

One of the prepaid cell phones I saw on a web site did have extra-large numbers on it for just that reason. I suppose as more of the boomers get older the market for those will expand.

 

Walt34:

For someone who uses a cell phone for business

 

That's my husband and we were recently stuck with a very high bill. His company is now paying for a company issued PDA. He decided to cancel his cell service and I estimate that will be a $400 fee.

 

Brandy:

 That's my husband and we were recently stuck with a very high bill. His company is now paying for a company issued PDA. He decided to cancel his cell service and I estimate that will be a $400 fee.

 

That has to hurt! But if the normal phone bill was say, $100/month, in 5 months you're ahead of the game.

Walt,

The phone and internet access he had was $180 a month before he began this job. In November, it was $580 and partial use in December was $280. The call volume has increased since this bills!

I would say that using a company paid for unit and canceling the service even with that fee will save us money. He doesn't really need a personal cell so we don't need to spend even the $180.