We've got a request for opinions/reviews of "Magic Jack" phone service:

Does anyone know anything about it?  Have you tried it? Do you use it?  

Hello--

I have had mine for about a month. I only use it to make long distance calls and so far I like it. I don't have any complaints, but I have heard of people with problems with them.

My father knows several people that have them and love them which is why he gave me one.  My intent is to one day give up my land line, but I haven't be able to do that yet. For some reason having a land line at my home seems important.

You do have to have a high speed internet connection in order to use it.  It just plugs into the USB port of your computer and the installation is just a few clicks.  I did it myself and had no problems.  

 Frugal Girl

 Thanks for your response. I didn't know anything about it myself, but I went to the site to see what I could find. It looks like a really good deal if you make many long distance calls at all. Like you, I'd be cautious about getting rid of the home phone, though, if that's the only other phone you would have - not sure why, except that landline phones are an older technology and possibly more stable. 

How much did/do you pay for yours?  

I don't know anything about Magic Jack either, but I do have an opinion on computer generated phone services. If your computer or provider goes out you can't use them. In our case we have Roadrunner Broadband thru our cable company, and several times they have had to shut down or went out for one reason or another; had we had their phone service we would have been without the use of that phone. For that reason we've decided not to switch our land phone to that type of service. We do have cell phones that we can use but prefer to keep the land phone. Having both gives us better options to make calls.

Another note here: Following the recent little earthquake that we had here, the cell phone systems were jammed within seconds after the shaking stopped; supposedly the systems overloaded and the cell companies shut the systems down. It was an hour or more before they worked again. We didn't try the land line - but it did ring several times without it going to the recorder. Others had this happen too, it was reported on the news. This reinforces the cautions about being prepared ahead of time. Your phones probably won't work following a disaster and you can't call for help, you will have to handle your emergency yourself as best you can. If your electricity is off you also can't use your computer. Edey

DH got magic jack a whiule back. We are using it onvacation in the RV. Working great. The cmp as internet and we have a wireless set up for it.  Babs

babs:

We are using it onvacation in the RV.

That's a really good point I hadn't thought about... you can use it anywhere, like a cellphone. Is it cheaper than a cellphone? Is your usage limited (time wise, I mean)?  

My dad bought it for me but I think it was $39.95 plus shipping. I think it was around $50.00 total.  I did see where QVC had it for $33.00 plus shipping and tax for today (Wednesday only) which would be much cheaper purchasing it from MagicJack directly, besides QVC has a 30-day unconditional money back guarantee if you don't like it.  Seems like a deal to me and the way to purchase it if you want one.  I would buy one at that price!

 http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/app.detail/params.item.tsv!.tpl.tsv.cm_scid.TSV?cm_re=PROMOTIONS-_-TSV-_-E02659,TSV&cm_sp=TSV-_-HP-_-IMAGE

frugalgirl:

My dad bought it for me but I think it was $39.95 plus shipping. I think it was around $50.00 total.

Thanks! I'm not in the market myself, but some of our readers are. Any information is appreciated!  

As far as I know there is no limit to usage. We haave found that you need to high speed internet or the connection breaks up. Babs

So far magic jack works great. I got rid of my land line and have data only, my computer is on all the time anyway with a UPS system attached in case the power goes out. $39.95 plus shipping, then $19.95 each year after. I don't use a home phone enough to pay the phone company's rates anymore, so this cuts the bills fast. I have the data only DSL to my house, and a home network attached to that. I haven't traveled with the magic jack yet, but I plan to take it along when I do. No complaints from me yet, I even sent faxes with it.