Landline Phone Service Pros and Cons: Do You Need It?

Now that so many people have cell phones, it’s worth asking whether landline phone service is an obsolete and unnecessary element of a home or other shared living space. However, in some cases, a landline phone makes a lot of sense. Some good guidelines can help individuals decide if they profit from a phone landline, or if it’s just a burden on their monthly budget.

Problems with Cell Phone Minutes

One of the biggest financial benefits of a landline relates to cell phone costs. If you’re swimming in cell phone minutes with an expansive plan and lots of talk time, you may not need a landline at all, and having home phone service can just be an additional cost. But any time that cell phone users start to “go over” on their minutes, having an alternate phone line can save hundreds of dollars. Cell phone companies charge for each “minute overage” and these charges can really add up. A landline can be one of the best ways to make sure that your wireless telecom provider doesn’t leave you in the poorhouse when talk exceeds monthly allowances.

Extra Phone Lines for Business

In most kinds of home businesses and fledgling entrepreneurial projects, it’s not a good idea to have your personal line function as a business phone line as well. A lot of the problem is in how you pick up the phone: if you cannot keep clients and business calls separate from personal calls, your business image can suffer. When you have a dedicated landline for a business project, this can be an efficient solution for keeping your business looking legitimate and using your cell phone as a personal line.

Reception Issues

Other times, it makes sense for a home to have a landline when wireless providers cannot ensure good, consistent reception on their cell phone platforms. Depending on where you live, you may not be able to get a good signal through the air, and a telephone landline can play a vital role in making sure that your remote, rural home is still connected to the world beyond it.

Service Bundling

For some consumers, having a landline telephone isn’t that important, but it can be a reasonable cost when telecom providers “bundle” services. Even if you only occasionally use your landline, if you can’t save more than $10 or $20 by disconnecting it, it’s probably worth keeping, at least until you reconfigure your overall telecom service or switch to a company that will get you savings on single services. Companies sometimes throw landline telephone service in as a “freebie” and it may become useful sometimes down the road.

Redundant Costs

In all of the above situations, a landline can make sense, but when none of these are applicable, your landline phone may just be dragging your personal finances down. If you don’t need your landline, think about cutting it out entirely, and using your cell phone and voicemail options to stay connected to everyone in your life.