Save a Few Bucks by Eliminating Your Landline Phone

Paying for a landline phone in your apartment can be a waste of money each month that quickly adds up. Over the course of a year, you could be spending hundreds of dollars more than you need to in order to stay in touch with the rest of the world. Put that landline telephone out of commission, and have more money to put toward your monthly rent payment.

The Costs of a Landline Phone

Traditional landline telephone services may have been around since the days of Alexander Graham Bell, but the only thing they’ve updated is their prices. The average dial-up landline phone costs between $50 and $90 a month. Although some traditional landline telephone services do offer amenities like unlimited long distance, caller ID, and call blocking, they do so at literally dozens of dollars more than the typical cell phone plan–and you have to pay extra to get them.

Digital landline phones can be much better deals. All-inclusive landline telephone packages at prices half, or even a third, of the cost of traditional landline telephone services are available at even better deals when you package the digital landline with television and Internet services. However, even that $25 to $40 a month is money you could spend on your monthly rent payment instead.

Alternative 1: Cell Phone

How many young people don’t have a cell phone?  You’re already paying $50 to $80 (or more) every month for your mobile window to the world. Although the extra $25 (at minimum) you pay for a landline phone may not be comparable, why pay that extra money if you rarely use a phone other than your cell phone? Plus, if you’re not connected to your cell phone at the hip, you can pay for a pay-as-you-go plan, and pay as little as $100 for an entire year’s worth of cell phone service.

Alternative 2: Email

Billions of emails are sent each day, and you’re likely sending a few dozen of them. Keep in touch with friends and family via email for those “thinking of you” nonessential updates, and you can do away with the landline phone altogether. By keeping the nonessential news confined to email, your cell phone can even be the much more affordable pay-as-you-go plan.

Alternative 3: Skype

Skype offers many free services, including free over-the-Internet phone calls and video conferences to many places around the country and around the world. If you want to call a cell phone or a landline number through Skype, a small fee may apply. However, convince your friends and family to sign up for Skype too, and you can chat at any time for free (or almost free)!

When you’re living in an apartment, especially as a young adult, any spare cash you can find to put toward your rent payment is a blessing. Although you may not pay much for your landline phone, don’t bother paying for something you don’t use–and don’t need!