5

Money Mistake Monday – I Waited Too Long To Get VOIP Syndrome.

VOIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, has been around for several years. But yet I just got it within the last year, costing me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. That was pretty dumb, if you ask me…why throw away perfectly good money just because you were wary of your phone conversations going over the internet instead of over the phone lines?

VOIP works like any other phone service – your regular old phone still rings in the house and you use it like you always have.
The only difference is that your calls are routed over the internet through a little box that is hooked up to your high-speed internet. The calls are crystal clear and we rarely, if ever, have an outage. The only time we would not be able to use the phone would be if the power went out, but that is why we have cell phones. Besides, when was the last time the power went out and you decided that would be a good time to call grandma? Add in the fact that most people only have cordless phones, which means they would not be usable anyway!

Verizon is the phone company here in my city, and all-inclusive phone service was costing me about $70 per month including the taxes. That was for unlimited local and long distance, voice mail, call waiting, etc etc. I had this service for years and only recently switched over to VOIP technology. While there are a ton of providers, we have Vonage and pay $25 for the exact same service that we used to have. That is a savings of $45 per month, or $540 per year. Add that up, and over time you are talking about thousands of dollars.

If you are paying for high-speed internet but are still using regular phone service, you might want to think about getting VOIP service. You can use cable internet, of course, and some communities allow you to have “naked” DSL, which is DSL service without home phone service. Why not cut that bill in half or even in thirds and save yourself a lot of cash? I wish I had done it earlier!


Like this article? Please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. Or, if you would prefer, you can subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox by entering your email address in the box below. Your email will only be used to deliver a daily email and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Comments (5)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Lazy Man says:

    I picked up Vonage very early, but I found that my smartest plan was to get their $15/mo. 500 minute plan. I found that most of the time I was at work using the work phone or at home using my free cell phone nightly or weekend minutes. It’s a good additional savings of another $120 a year – not bad.

  2. Kathy says:

    we would love to get VOIP, but our security system is hooked up to our landline. If the power goes out, so does our security system’s notification settings, which pretty much makes it useless.

  3. david says:

    I suppose that would make it difficult Kathy – thanks for the comment!

    LazyMan – do you find that you stay under 500 even with your family back east?

  4. JohnG says:

    Are there any issues with 911 service when you switch to VOIP?

  5. david says:

    Not with Vonage – they have 911 service. Some others, like Skype, do not have 911 service. Be sure to check with any provider!

css.php