Aliens and humans love their home phones. Don’t believe me? Just ask E.T. A few years ago I moved into a new home and I got a call on my cell phone from my parents who asked when I was getting a home phone number. ”Isn’t the number you are calling me on good enough?”, I replied sarcastically. A short pause told me this wasn’t something they ever considered. ”Well what if someone you know is trying to find you in the white pages?” I kind of laughed thinking that was the last thing I wanted or cared about.
Fast forward a few years to the darkest deepest moments of the great recession. My parent’s had lost most of their retirement fund and were going into a state of depression and fear. I went to visit and got out a spreadsheet and looked for ways to cut back spending. Wham! $45/mo on a home phone! Are you kidding me? I have been without one of those for years. My cell phone bill is big enough by itself. My parents aren’t alone in getting buckraked on a home phone service.
Prices for such services start around $10 per month, but it is more common to get “deals” from places like Comcast around $40 per month. That is $480 per year, $2,400 in 5 years, and $29,280 for life. No thank you.
There are much better options if you insist on having an extra phone number to confuse your friends. One option is Ooma. The service is free for life after being buck raked for their expensive device. Don’t worry, this will pay for itself after a few months if you were using some Comcast, AT&T or other pointless service that put you in a white pages allowing call center spammers and recorded voices of Arnold Swartzenager to bother you at 6pm every night.
My advice – drop the home phone altogether unless you are a die hard E.T. fan.
