Should I ditch my Landline Now or Later?

ScratchyCat

We had landline through EE. Was paying £11 for the service. Enquired about upgrading the very old router plus our broadband was so slow. If I upgraded to a new router EE would also charge me more for the landline, £12 was quoted. I sat and looked at the itemised phone bills and worked out it would be cheaper to use my payg mobile than pay £144 for the landline.

It felt awful getting rid of a number we had for 50 years. Even though I didn't use the landline much really found it difficult to start with, a year on still miss it but financially I'm so much better off, as I have a good payg mobile deal. I did look into using other companies for the landline but there were set up charges which meant I'd still have to pay similar the first year but after that just the calls.

I also had an elderly parent living in the house and they found it impossible to use the mobile. Most calls in the last year had been to care services, drs and phone banking. When they passed all those outgoing calls stopped.

I think you just need to decide how much you use the landline. If you have mobile reception where you are. Your circumstances for the people in the household.

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038941#Comment_82038941

If you were paying £11-£12 a month that is the price charged for Unlimited Minutes (after a little negotiation) , for the occasional outing call and to maintain an incoming service (so others can call you ) and to keep ‘999’ access from a landline type phone , £3 to £5 is the monthly fee for a PAYG call plan , if someone were on the Unlimited Minutes call plan and then made very few outgoing calls that’s a waste of money , but that’s not the ISP’s fault , its the consumer picking the wrong call plan .

ScratchyCat

At the time we set up the original plan changing from BT we were never offered payg. In fact the original landline for unlimited was only about £9 a month.

I looked at what they call payg landline last year and worked out what I would spend per month and compared it to mobile payg and it was stupid money. As I was about saving money I decided to scrap landline altogether.

iniltous

Clearly using a mobile for outgoing calls is the obvious choice when it comes to cost , most people will already have a mobile with a call allowance , keeping a landline type service for telephony is really only if someone wants a convenient way to keep a longstanding landline phone number , has no mobile , or prefers the traditional way of calling (I suspect mainly relatively older people) , I kept my landline (£3 PAYG) and have not made a call for years , it very occasionally ‘rings’ and even then the majority of times it’s a sales call or someone claiming my internet is hacked , but every now and then it’s a legitimate call that was worth answering….I may not bother next renewal to keep it , but for now as it’s a relatively small amount per month to keep a number I’ve had for 30+ years active,

ThatITGuy2023

As the landline switch-off in the UK is January 31, 2027 I have decided I may as well just ditch the landline now.

Its hardly used anyway now and i have Unlimited Fibre Extra inc. Line rental with my ISP.

I will need to contact my ISP and find out what the next steps are about just keeping the Broadband on its own without landline.

Oddly in my area they fitted more landlines a while back year from new poles to neighbours houses.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043737#Comment_82043737

It's PTSN that's getting turned off and the lines from the poles are more likely to be FTTP (mine comes in like this).

ThatITGuy2023

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043767#Comment_82043767

I knew about the PTSN bit. That makes sense never thought of that with the lines lol.

However

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6672911/should-i-ditch-my-landline-now-or-later

I was in the same position as you last month. I went with EE being the line of least chaos. I too have an 'old' Panasonic cordless with answering machine. Make sure EE's Voicemail has a higher number of rings before it kicks in (e.g. 10) than your answer-machine (e.g. 6).

If you use PlusNet's offer code that should have come with your 30-day notice email, you can order a DVA (Digital Voice Adapter) for free into which you can plug your current phone rather than the back of the router. You do not get a whole phone - you get the means of continuing with your current phone.

EE charges £2 pm which keeps your current phone number and allows inbound calls - outbound are PAYG.. Means you don't have to inform dozens of dozy organisations of a phone number change (e.g hospitals). Our mobile coverage is anyway wholly substandard so that's another reason to keep a landline.

My EE Part Fibre Broadband plus phone is £2 cheaper than PlusNets non-Fibre (and PlusNet's in-contract termination penalty was indeed waived) so in that sense there was actually a slight cost incentive for me.

Hope that helps.