May 27, 2009
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Cell Phones — Are they worth the money?
Cell phone…..Do you have one? Why or why not?
Is it worth the money?Our contract on our cell phone is expiring soon and we are trying to decide if we should continue to have one or not. I would love to hear from people on both sides. The pros and the cons of cell phones.I have had a cell phone since I was 16 (11 years) so it would be weird not to have one but is it worth the money?
Comments (11)
They are totally worth it in my book…I’m always out driving somewhere and the view times I’ve had car problems they have been a life saver. We don’t even have a home phone, either. I’m home so rarely.
I do have one, because I probably wouldn’t be able to survive without one – I’m the sort of person that needs to know the EXACT time a Metro Bus comes, for example, and there aren’t pay phones near the bus stations that I go from. So I just flip open my handy dandy cell phone with over 200 numbers and call the Metro line, which tells me exactly when the next bus is going to come and therefore how much longer I have to sweat under the Houston sun. Besides, having a cell phone helps me keep in touch with people – and it helps me remember people’s numbers, which I probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Also, it helps others be able to talk to me as soon as they need me – my family lives in Belgium right now, for example, while I’m here in Houston doing an internship. The time difference is 7-ish hours. If I don’t answer when my mom calls me, then it’s like another few days before we can talk again because of that time difference and our equally busy schedules.
As for the bit about being worth the money – definitely. You don’t need a fancy schmancy cell to do the job right. I had my first phone for three years, and my second phone for two… that recently broke, but since I had it so long, I was able to upgrade to a new phone. It cost me less than 30 dollars to get a new phone – a really cool Sony Ericsson one (which without the upgrade would’ve cost 150 dollars). It’s not a Blackberry or an iPod touch or whatever else, but it’s super handy, and I know that I probably won’t break it for another two years… just enough time to get a new upgrade on my next phone.
If you don’t use it very much, try a pay-as-you-go plan. That’s what I have, and it works out great for me. I have the security of the cell phone (important if you’re a female that lives alone and/or travels alone at night in a big city), but I don’t pay a big monthly bill for features I don’t use.
Depending what your lifestyle is. Think on what you’ll need to cope with if you’re without cell phone. Then decide on how much of it is what you considered impossible to live without.
For me, I wished for a cell phone when I travel with girls without my husband. So far, I’m able to borrow my dearest’s work cell phone with internet connection (very very basic such as most of emails, weather, news). I’ve been thinking about getting a laptop with wi-fi connection. I’d then use it for my pictures back-up when not traveling. I don’t travel alone often. I’m deaf so I find the regular phone option useless BUT I love email, text, and IM! Givemee any cell phone with these features and I’m good when traveling. Around home, I have no use for cell. Broadband Internet gives me all my communication needs, including videophone. I’m stay-at-home mama who doesn’t go away often. I shop average every three weeks (has gone as long as 6 weeks). I feel confident enough to do local errands without a cell phone.
I just use mine for TXTing, but my boyfriend has Cricket, where you get unlimited talk, txt and pix for 50 dollars a month, the most you pay is mainly in the phone itself. It’s useful for us because his family can’t afford a land line. I think cell phones are useful for safety, but all the glitz and glamour of the added features such as internet browsers and MP3 players is silly, to me anyway.
If you want to keep your phone but are concerned about the costs, I would suggest a pre-paid plan.
I think it would depend. How often are you away from home? Are there people who may need to reach you in an emergency situation even if you aren’t home? (for example a sick relative that goes to the hospital often or something like that). Do you use your cell phone more at home or on the go? Do you have a house phone? Would it cost more to get rid of the house phone or the cell phone? Is the house phone or the cell more reliable? (My cell was more reliable than the house phone, weird as it sounds…they would like to interrupt service for no reason and then pretend they hadn’t…we switched phones six times before we finally set the blame on them) Do you need it for work of some sort? What do you use your phone for? Is it only calls? Could those calls wait until you are home? I think there is a lot to go into deciding whether a phone is worth the money or not. For me, a cell phone was definitely worth the money because my dad wanted to be able to reach me whenever he wanted and know that I was safe and when i was in college and for a while after that I was rarely at home. If I had the cell phone i could at least answer it, tell him what state I was in, who I was with, and he would quit worrying. So he was willing to pay a little extra for me to have a cell phone (I told him i was not paying for a cell phone bc he was impatient) so that he could reach me. Maybe you could turn the phone off for a week or so while you are away from the house to see what difference it makes only getting the calls at home or only being able to call at home. Don’t forget the added bonus of being able to contact the authorities when you need to if you have a cell phone.
But in my personal opinon, having a house phone and a cell phone is redundant. If you have a cell phone, there is no need for the house phone, it’s a waste of money. And you could look at it vice versa depending on what you really need the phone for. I would definitely shop around for different plans. They change so much so quickly. ATT was definitely not the best deal in my area even though everybody that I asked who had a cell phone told me they were the way to go. I would have ended up wasting money going with them. So if you do decide to keep the cell, I would definitely shop around for better plans.
Hope that helps
We were just talking about this today with friends we ask are self what did we do many years ago before we had them? I do believe that they have help us in many ways, but then there are some who abuse them and they can be a danger to others are there self we had a young girl last year that killed while driving and texting the same time. so if they are use for the right purpose then i think they are good to have.
A year ago I couldn’t have lived comfortably without my cell phone. Then I just couldn’t afford it anymore and it has been really nice not to have one. I pay a lot more attention now.
my husband works at one end of the state and I work at the other almost 2hrs away – we live somewhere near the middle- every phone call we made on a land line was long distance. If I get a flat or get stuck out in the middle of “Corn Field County” I don’t want to have to hike for 6 or 7 miles to get to a phone- in the middle of the night… in a blizzard or dump down rain… if you know what I mean!
Could I live with out one? Sure! Would I want to or would it be safe for me not to- NO WAY!
We have to have a cell phone for me and my hubby to keep in touch, so we got rid of our house phone. I’ve had some people complain because now I’m long distance for them to call, but I was doing it to save our family money, not everyone else’s is how I figure it. Plus getting rid of the house phone has also saved so much time because we no longer get all those annoying sales calls.