Lingo Home Phone Service Offers the Lowest Prices in My Area

It's been a while since I've checked on prices on home phone service in my area, and I've avoided having a home phone since my bad experience with Charter.  But recently with cell phone bills rising and cellular companies requiring customers to have date plans etc., I've thought about getting a home phone again. 

I used our local provider quote tool (located above) to see what was being offered in my area.  Of course Charter, AT&T, and a few others had some different packages to look at, but another company grabbed my attention since it was the lowest price offer I saw.  For only $9.95 a month, Lingo offers home phone service with 250 minutes.  For me, this is exactly what I had in mind as far as minutes go because I don't actually talk on the phone very much.  For anyone that may need more minutes, they do have other offers with more minutes at decent prices.  They even offer America and World unlimited packages.

As far as how it works, Lingo is a VOIP service which means it uses your Internet connection for calls, but the set up looks pretty easy with just a couple of things to plug in.  For the $9.95 250 minute plan, there is a $14.95 initial charge then it goes to the $9.95 which seems reasonable. 

I plan on giving Lingo a shot, but I'm not sure how good the service quality is yet.  If anyone has or has used Lingo, we welcome any opinions on their service.  If you want to check the home phone service offerings in your area, simply enter your address in the phone provider quote tool above.

Using Your Cell Phone as Your Home Phone

While we write about the best deals in home phone services, including traditional landline phones, we are aware that many households only use cell phones. The percentage of households with no landline and "cell phone only" home phone service continues to increas. According to this article at CBS News, the number of houses with no landline has doubled since 2007. Around a quarter of households use cell phones but do not have a regular home phone. I am sure the number is much higher among younger users. I even know a lot of older people who have ditched the home phone completely for a cell phone or switched to a cheap voip phone service. I know at least one person who uses a prepaid cell phone and a very limited home broadband connection.

While it may make sense for some to drop their home phone service, there is good news. There are still many good deals for home phone service, traditional and voip. If you want to see what all your options are, I recommend running a quote through our local phone service tool at the top of the page.

If you are interested in switching to cell phones or expanding your current wireless service, our recommended vendor is below.

As for me personally, I AM in the process of switching my landline over. I am going with the Verizon Wireless Home Phone Connector. We wrote before about something called the Verizon Hub. This is not the same thing. The Hub was used over a broadband internet connection and seemed a little redundant for the price. If my Home Connector works correctly, I will be able to plug my cordless home phone into a wireless device and connect over the Verizon Wireless network. I am only paying $9.99/mo to keep my home phone number in service, as I am adding it to my Verizon Family Plan. I am still keeping my AT&T Uverse service, for tv and internet. The phone just wasn't a very good deal. I was paying $25/mo for limited minutes and they raised the price. I think their high speed internet is a very good deal and their tv plans are decent, but it just didn't make sense to keep my phone with them.

I added my Home Phone Connector directly through Verizon, but when I got my regular cell phones this is where I found the best deals:

AT&T Home Phone Customer Service Problems

Today we have yet another negative review on AT&T's home phone service, which is becoming a regular thing around here.  This review posted by an anonymous user, describes the trouble they had trying to move their service after moving.  I personally had some trouble with customer service when I first got the service, as their technician showed up earlier than the time they gave, and then tried to blame us for not being there for the installation.  After threatening to go to another service, the situation was resolved.  Here is our anonymous poster's experience with AT&T customer service:

"I cannot believe the problems that I have had with AT&T. After several minor incidents with AT&T that I looked over, this last one I am not so sure that will be possible with. We recently moved. I called AT&T on the 19th of the month to schedule having my service transferred to my new address. I had them turn off my home phone and DSL on the 28 at my old address and turn on my phone and DSL at my new address the same day. Well by Saturday it still was not on. I spent several hours on the phone being sent from customer service to repair and repair to customer service. Repair tells me that they cannot help me because my phone has not been turned on and that they cannot repair the line until it is. Customer service says that it is on and that it needs repair. Finally someone in customer service tells me that I live on a line where the city I live in recently changed the way it works and that my new number does not match with the side of the line I live on. They tell me that between one and two p.m. on June 1st it will be turned on. They said I should be home in case they need to come in to see if there is an issue but that there should not be. Well at 1:45 p.m. I call because low and behold there still is no phone line. They tell me that they are unable to give me a time frame in which it will be turned on but that by the end of the day it will be on. I have an appointment for between 1 and 2 p.m. on the 2nd just in case it does not work once they turn it on. Well at 7:30 p.m. still no line. I call the repair center because customer service is closed just to see if it is showing as complete, because if it doesn't then repair won't touch it tomorrow because it has not been turned on. Needless to say, they tell me NO, it has not been turned on. Needless to say I will be calling them tomorrow to give them a piece of my mind and letting them know I will be contacting a lawyer if they do not complete their part of our agreement. They have cost me over $500 dollars because they cannot do their jobs and turn my phone and internet on and they are fixing to lose some of their money when I call my lawyer tomorrow if it is not turned on."

Feel free to share your experiences or thoughts in the comments below.

Verizon Fios Reviews Needed

For the past couple of years, we have gathered a diverse collection of AT&T U-Verse reviews.  While we've covered other companies and services, even featuring reviews on services like cable and cellular service, we haven't been able to get much info. on Verizon Fios service, which we believe is regarded as another good service overall.  The main problem with Verizon Fios seems to be that the service isn't available in enough areas yet, well actually it hasn't been since we first heard about it which was at least 4 years ago.  We know Fios offers high speed Internet, cable tv, and of course home phone service, so we're asking any of our readers to contribute your thoughts on Verizon Fios if you have had any experience with any of their services.  If we get enough feedback we will feature a follow up post similar to our coverage of U-Verse service, in which we will feature both the positives and negatives of the Verizon Fios services.  Please leave any reviews or thoughts on the service in the comments below.

Cheap Home Phone Service

Being I was finally able to cancel the horrible Charter Service, I was able to use our free tool here on this site to shop for cheap home phone service, and wanted to report my results here for anyone that is curious on the shopping process.  I entered my information in the boxes above, and right away I got offers from both regular AT&T and U-verse, along with Verizon, and unfortunately Charter.  Well Charter was out right away for obvious reasons, so it was going to be some form of AT&T or Verizon.  We've featured a pretty wide variety of AT&T U-verse reviews, ranging from great to rip off, but I have some friends who have U-verse and I've checked it out before, and I liked what I saw and heard about the service.  I also have high opinions on Verizon service, and use them as my cellular provider.  On the price side of things, Verizon was a bit higher, but I was OK with that fact being I know that their service has been great the past few years.  The one drawback for me was that Verizon Fios TV isn't offered in my area, therefore I couldn't package my Internet/Cable/Home Phone through Verizon, but thankfully U-verse did offer all three services, and on top of that offered a $200 reward card back with their offer.  So AT&T U-verse gets my service, with a great price on bundled service, and $200 back on top of that.  So I can now tell you all first hand, that our free local provider quote tool is the best way to shop for home phone service and even bundling it with other services you may need.

AT&T Wireless Smartphone Holiday Sale Gift Card Offer

Usually our site features news and reviews on home phone services, and recently we've written a lot about AT&T home phone service, as well as AT&T Uverse, so we figured some of our readers may also be interested hearing about a special holiday offer on AT&T cell phones as well considering many people now use their cell phone as their primary line.  Starting today, and for one week only, AT&T through LetsTalk is offering a $50 Visa gift card with an AT&T smartphone purchase.  The offer is valid from 12/22/09 through 12/28/09.  With holiday shopping in full swing, this is a great offer to help out with a little more Christmas cash, on top of getting a smartphone that can do it all.  We also welcome any reader reviews of AT&T wireless service along with our usual home phone and cable service reviews on our site.  Click below to take advantage of the $50 gift cart with smartphone purchase deal:

West Palm Beach ATT Customer Not Happy with Service

We got another very negative review on AT&T service from Aleida in West Palm Beach, Florida.  It seems Aleida experienced a major problem with AT&T customer service not following through on waiving fees, and is now stuck with a big bill.  Check out her full (and unedited) review of AT&T service below:

AT&T/Bellsouth WPB FL They are liars, thieves, communists and they suck!!


I moved to the apartment next door. Everything was working fine until I found out that the jack in the room that I chose to use for my office was not working. When I called AT&T/Bellsouth, I told them the situation and they told me it would be a $99 charge to make the one call and an $85 charge to re-wire the line for the jack in that room. A woman named Sarah told me that they were going to waive all these charges. She promised me this. I even called several other times over and over and again I was assured that these charges would be waived. Then I received the bill. The bill stated that I owed $305!! $305!! You can just imagine how I felt. I was not expecting these charges as I was told it would all be waived. So now I contacted them again to see what was going on. I was on the phone from 11:30AM-2:30PM. Which they kept transfering me from one dept. to another. What it came down to was that they told me "No matter what they said to you we don't care and you have to pay these charges". A big communist lie! I am now stuck having to pay $305! AT&T/Bellsouth LIED TO ME!!! AT&T SUCKS!!!! Thinking seriously about going to Comcast!! AT&T SUCKS CANAL WATER!! Everybody in their little depts. are liars and thieves! Do not choose AT&T for your service provider. They do not stand by their word!! Again AT&T sucks. EVERYONE OF THEM CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL FOR ALL I'M CONCERNED. Aleida - West Palm Beach, FL