Tips for saving money on calling long distance. Post your ideas!
I dropped my land line and only use a cell phone. It's great because I can walk around the city and feel safe, plus, anyone can get a hold of me in an emergency.
I get free nights and weekends, eliminating the need to pay for long distance. Plus, I get caller ID free on the phone. I have T-mobile service and save a ton.
By Melissa
To save money on your long distance charges you can do a couple of different things. First of all, you could buy long distance phone calling cards from stores, convenience stores, etc. They are usually cheaper per minute than using your house phone. The other option, which happens to be the one we chose, is to get a cell phone. You pay a certain amount for a certain number of minutes per month. It has been lot more economical than long distance from our home phone.
By Robin
USA DataNet has a website. You are only billed for the time you use. There is a maximum price per call or a small fee for very short calls. So much better than ATT which charged us every month, whether we used it or not.
By Barbara
Editor's Note: There is a website like this that I have used for a number of years called OneSuite.com. You have to dial a long number to call long distance but you can program it into your phone.
We make a lot of long-distance phone calls from our home. My husband's family lives 4 hours from us and my son's dad lives an hour and a half. We buy the 500 minute phone cards at Wal-mart and they last forever! Plus our phone bill is so much lower!
By Alica
Most cell phone plans have "free" weekend minutes. Make sure to take advantage of those minutes, too!
By Sandy
If you have a Cingular cell phone, you can call anyone else with a Cingular cell phone and it is free anytime, day or night, weekends or weekdays. If you want to call someone who doesn't have a cell phone, there is no long distance fee, and if you call at night or on weekends, the calls are free. The only reason we still have a phone line into our house is for our Internet service. We are in an area where there is no cable service.
By Harlean
I don't have a cell phone. I lived quite well without one before and still do. I do have Momentum for my phone company. It gives me unlimited long distance, local and regional calls besides 12 different features including Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling and a bunch of other stuff for no additional charge. The total cost is $39.95 a month plus state and local taxes you are already charged on your regular phone bill. It comes in just under $50 which is great since I'm on the phone to my family in NY several times a day!
I have never had a problem with them, their customer service is excellent and I have had them for two years now.
By Fran Marie
We have gone the route of the phone card also. But instead of buying a new card every time it is empty, we just add new minutes to it. We use an MCI card and the cost per minute is about 3.5 cents. I haven't seen a company or card that will beat that rate unless they charge you a per call fee. There is no fee for the call with MCI. Since we do not use a long distance company our phone bill is less than $25 per month and I usually put about $10 on a card at a time and that will last about 2 1/2 to 3 months.
By Dani
The best long distance is no long distance. I do have family out of state but I got rid of the long distance service reluctantly at first. I was given a phone card. It has been wonderful. I have over 300 minutes left on it. It started with 450 minutes. it just requires an 800# then my pin #. That way, I don't have a long distance bill if I don't use it this month. It's cool!
By Sandy
Hey if you use a cable modem you can sign up with any voice over internet service. I am with Vonage and they give you all the bells and whistle services plus free long distance to anywhere in the US and Canada. My price plan is $24.99 which with tax come to around $28.00 a month. Beat that! This is unlimited long distance!! The sound quality is excellent and I can't tell the differece. It's great!
By Randy
I am happy with ECG at 3.9 cents/minute with no monthly fees. It's the lowest I know of without having to sign up for direct debit. Frankly, if it comes down to rent, food, or my long distance company, guess who's going to wait? I don't do direct debit because it forces me to put the least important thing first.
Another option is to use email and written letters in place of phone calls some of the time.
By Papillon
If you make a lot of long distance phone calls. Shop around for phone cards. I found one (at Sam's Club) for 2.9 cents per minute. That is a real bargain, the 2.9 that includes tax, FCC line charges, universal fee. Those fees can add up to $10.00+ per month.
By Ladyjudy
We use SprintPCS for our long distance. Long distance is free and Sprint to Sprint phones provide free calls, as well as after 7pm and weekends. http://www.sprintpcs.com
See if your phone company has a long distance plan. We have 250 minutes a month for just $12. It's through the phone company, so there's no dialing numbers off a phone card before calling.
By Anna
I didn't realize, until I called the phone company, that you aren't *required* to have a long distance company on your home phone. We use our cell phone for long distance, and so we were paying our long distance carrier for NOTHING! They charged us a fee even when we didn't use it at all. Better late than never.
P.S. The man at the phone company didn't even know if we "had" to have a long distance carrier. He had to put me in touch with a customer care rep.
By Elizabeth
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I also save money on long distance and don't have to by calling cards. And I can beat the vonage price I use SKYPE on my computer and I pay $24.99 for long distance calls anywhere for a Year That's right $ 24.99 for the year. My landline service for long distance was out of this world. And the town I live in only has one phone company so just about any call I make is long distance. Now you can't beat that.
I buy calling cards from a salvage store. They are 67 minutes for $1.50. Work out great. So I buy a bunch of them at a time.
I bought a phone card at Costco for 19.99 then add money when I want too. I've added as little as $5 at a time. It takes a few phone calls to get my pin number memorized and it drives my husband crazy WHEN he make a phone call but other than that we save. Our monthly bill is for basic local service at $24.99.
Tip for Senior Citizens on low income....check your local phone company for Life Line service. It is based on your income, but will cut your phone service about in half. My 85 year old mother uses this, and her bill is about $14.00 a month. She also doesn't have a Long Distance carrier. Another phone company (AT&T) feature is measured service. If you don't make a lot of outgoing calls it will save money since you are not charged for incoming calls, and pay a pennies per minute for outgoing local calls, but it greatly reduces your base phone bill.
Personally, we only have a single line with no extras (except CallWave) and no long distance carrier. I discontinued that when they began to charge $2.00 a month whether I use Long Distance Service or not. Actually, most of my family members have computers and internet service, and we keep in contact by emails, and also by Yahoo Messenger. We have a son in Missouri and a daughter in Utah, and we "talk" to them almost daily on Messenger. Also still have the cell phones on our sons family plan. So phone bills are no longer a big problem here. In fact, if I didn't need the phone line for my internet service, I would disconnect it completely, but we are in an area that so far has nothing to offer except dial-up or satellite, and that is a little more than we wish to pay.
Harlean from Arkansas
I just found this sight yesterday & got this email about saving on Long Distance. We have a cell phone for long distance, but I think the info here is more cost effective.
Does anyone know what Dean may mean about buying phone cards at a Salvage Store? I wonder if he means a store where they buy items from stores going out of business.
I buy phone cards at the Dollar Tree. For one dollar you get 30 minutes. I use very little long distance at home since I have a cell. But my hubby is hard of hearing and the cell just does not work for him so he has to use the land line for calling family in another county. Hope this helps someone!
Post By Dean (Guest Post) (07/20/2007)
I buy calling cards from a salvage store. They are 67 minutes for $1.50. Work out great. So I buy a bunch of them at a time.
I'm new here, so this is my first post.
I wonder what Dean meant when he said he got calling cards from a salvage store? Could that be a store that buys out other retailers?
I have an all-inclusive phone plan....... at home, so I can call long-distance as needed without having to keep track of every little minute I'm on the phone.
And for when I'm out, I do have a prepaid cell phone for emergencies only!!! If someone finds themselves home most of the time...... this would work well.
Use Skype! Skype.com. I use it, it's awesome. $30.00 for unlimited calling to anywhere in the USA for a whole year! I can call landlines and cell phones. it's awesome! (no i don't work for skype, but i love it!)
I have to have a landline b/c I don't get cell service at my place. Even worse, I live JUST over the line from one A/C and another, so ALL my calls from home are long distance!
I ditched AT&T and got Unitel instead. I spend between $1 and $4 a month now on long distance! I don't use it much, but that used to be $20-30!
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