How to Save BIG Money on Your Landline Phone and Get Even Better Features

It’s time to talk about our next area of saving big money – the telephone! We’ve shared tips on cell phones and cell phone plans, but many (like us) still use a landline for many reasons.

When we came to this area of our budget to find out how we could drop at least another 2% in bills from that month forward, the phone bill came across the radar next! We researched, read reviews, compared plans and we ultimately found a super deal that has saved us at least $400 annually! And we have been using this company’s phone service now for over 18 months. We didn’t want to really switch as we were happy with our service…except the cost. And we really wanted to find the next way to cut our budget and be paying out less in our living expenses and everyday bills. This really did save us a ton of money.

You have probably heard of this company – Vonage. Honestly, we saw their advertisements for the $9.99 a month phone service for quite some time before we really looked at it because sometimes when something seems “too good to be true” or the ideas of a “you get what you pay for” phone service come to mind. And that was our exact thoughts. But over time, we decided that we really couldn’t know for sure without giving it a go – and knowing many of our personal friends that used them was good reference as well.

So we did try them and they delivered! Not only did we get the $9.99 price promised for the time period promised, but the service has been just as good as the big guys but just uses our current internet connection to connect our phones (no special installation required as they send everything needed to hook up your phone). But then there were other benefits that we didn’t have before that we actually have grown to really like!

For one, as part of their service, they have what’s called “Vonage visual voicemail.” At first we really didn’t care about this extra included feature, but as soon as we started to use it we found out just how awesome it is.  That is, your telephone messages are emailed to you – each message is transcribed so you can see/read what the person leaving the message has said. It’s also quite funny too as some of the messages do get messed up in the transcript and so they become funny reads as well. But, at the end of the day, we haven’t had to actually check our messages, just read the email and return the call if we need to. This is nice because whenever and where ever we can access email, we can get our messages – not just when we are home.

They also have other great features that you may or may not care about (e.g., answer calls to your home on your cell phone, forward calls to multiple phones and more!) but they are helpful. However, the more common benefits that most of us are concerned with are the calling area.  That’s the great news! Vonage is free unlimited long distance to landlines in 60+ countries (probably will meet nearly everyone’s worldwide landline calling needs), as well as to mobile phones in 10+ countries (including US, Canada and Puerto Rico).  That means that for one flat monthly fee, you don’t have to worry about your minutes being used in nearly every calling situation.  That is awesome, especially when we live in an age where many of us are accustomed to watching our minutes (from cellphones) like crazy!

At the time of writing this post, after the promotion is over, the monthly service is $27.99 per month (plus taxes and fees). This is a great price compared to many phone companies – especially for the vast services that are included.

But they also have a promotion where you get the first 6 months for only $9.99 per month! That’s AMAZING. When we signed up 18 months ago, the $9.99 monthly charge was only for the first 3 months, which was a HUGE reduction from our old phone company and a big blessing for our budget. But even when it went up to the normal price of $27.99 (plus taxes), we still were saving a great amount that we could count towards finding ways to drop your monthly expenses by 2% each month.

Finally, right now they are offering a promotion where if you use this referral link from us, we will both get a $50 e-gift card to use at over 50 retail stores like Amazon, Lowe’s, Target, etc. So if you want to make your savings even greater, then use this link to sign-up for this phone service and after you’ve been a customer for 60 days, you will receive your e-gift card! Then make sure to share your link with your friends to earn even more (there is a maximum number of gift cards for referrals).

For those of you that have tried an internet phone service, what has your experience been and would you recommend it to others?