AT&T phone charges - check your bill!

[Dana]

We have a home phone for local calls.

We don't use long distance since we use our cells for that.

Apparently (according the service rep I spoke with) they had a statement on a prior bill that they'd be making a change.

 

Either you have long distance service with them for $4.77 per month if you don't make long distance calls, or you can have long distance blocked for $6 a month.

 

Getting transferred to a supervisor just enabled me to leave a message.

 

Check your bill if you do automatic payment.

 

I don't know if keeping a home phone is worth it anymore. :glare:

[DarcyB]

That's extortion, honestly. THe only reason we're keeping our home phone is emergency service - so that the kids can call 911. Otherwise, we'll have to buy a dedicated cell phone just for them for that reason. We're not even sure keeping a land line is worth it for emergency power downs and a non-electrical phone since we have cells now.

 

We're still debating that switch. We want to go with just googlevoice for the 911 issue, but if there's a power failure at the same time, then we're out of luck.

[Supertechmom]

In our area, you can call 911 without a phone service. Call them and check. Ours said that as long as the wires are there, you can plug in the phone and reach 911. Some kind of law they passed around here. I think we even were allowed to try it out to make sure the wires had not been cut. We dropped the landline after that. Might be worth checking on. I keep a phone plugged in just in case.

[T'smom]

In our area, you can call 911 without a phone service. Call them and check. Ours said that as long as the wires are there, you can plug in the phone and reach 911. Some kind of law they passed around here. I think we even were allowed to try it out to make sure the wires had not been cut. We dropped the landline after that. Might be worth checking on. I keep a phone plugged in just in case.

 

Wow! I did not know that....thanks for that info!

[laundrycrisis]

This is why we got rid of our land line. It was just a way for the very corrupt conventional phone companies to rip us off. We have a VoIP home phone and it has 911 service (we did the test call for them when they got it established - it was fun !). We also have 911 service on our cell phones. With our VoIP service and our cell phones we have very well defined packages so there are never any funny money charges.

 

I came back to add - we live in an area where local calls are not free because all the cities and villages here don't have a prepaid agreement with the phone service. So we had all these unpredictable charges for local calls every month, with different rates depending on what zone they were in etc. I had a long distance set up which involved dialing a code first - it was through a calling card program to get a consistent LD rate...that was okay, except that once my mom visited and used our phone to call out of state without asking first, and she talked about 20 minutes. I almost fainted when I got the bill for that one call. That was the end of it for us. Every phone bill felt like we had been robbed. Going no land line was a huge relief. We pay more each month for good internet service from a wireless canopy network. But at least the good internet service is useful for more than just the phone.

Edited July 18, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[cjzimmer1]

I just posted the other day looking for other long distance providers because I discovered the same charge on my bill and was not happy about it. Our house is in a low coverage zone for cell phone (so connectivity is sporadic) and our internet service is sometimes spotty so our landline is our only reliable option for a phone. I went hunting for a different long distance provider. Someone recommend Pioneer and I just submitted the stuff last night to get switched over. So if you still want your landline but not their long distance, I'd look into finding a cheaper long distance provider (and there are lots to choose from).

[starwarsmomma]

Yeah, we got rid of our home lines because we were getting similar threats from our phone company.

 

Because of the area of town we live in (suburb of Dallas, NOT out in the woods!) they were charging us a sur-charge... cheapest service we could get was $90 a month, no long distance.

 

We use our cells completely now.

 

Best decision we ever made!

[gardening momma]

Either you have long distance service with them for $4.77 per month if you don't make long distance calls, or you can have long distance blocked for $6 a month.

I think a reasonable explanation for this is that if you do want long distance, it costs $4.77 plus the cost of the calls you make (so it will usually be more than $6/month if you make calls). It's $6 if you want it blocked, which would be because you want to prevent people making long distance calls from your phone, thus saving money. If you kept the $4.77 service and never intend to make calls, someone (a teenager, a visiting friend, an acquaintance at a social event at your house, etc) could make a long distance call, and your bill could come to more than that $6 you could have spent to block calls.

[Dana]

I think a reasonable explanation for this is that if you do want long distance, it costs $4.77 plus the cost of the calls you make (so it will usually be more than $6/month if you make calls). It's $6 if you want it blocked, which would be because you want to prevent people making long distance calls from your phone, thus saving money. If you kept the $4.77 service and never intend to make calls, someone (a teenager, a visiting friend, an acquaintance at a social event at your house, etc) could make a long distance call, and your bill could come to more than that $6 you could have spent to block calls.

 

If someone makes long distance calls from my phone, I'd pay for them. But now I'm being charged to make long distance calls...without making the calls. I don't want long distance but they're adding it to the bill whether I use it or not

[gardening momma]

If someone makes long distance calls from my phone, I'd pay for them. But now I'm being charged to make long distance calls...without making the calls. I don't want long distance but they're adding it to the bill whether I use it or not

Yes, because you have a landline, you're paying for the ability to make a call. You are paying for maintenance of the physical lines, regardless of how far your call goes, and whether or not you choose to use the lines. You can't choose to have a landline and not pay for the physical phone lines.