Phone bills in the US

[Mahone]

I'm under the impression that most phone packages in the USA include charging you for receiving a phone call, or otherwise deducting it from your free minutes? This is on top of charging the caller? Is this accurate?

it just seems a little odd to me. I'm used to phone packages in the UK where you only get charged for making phone calls, not receiving them.

[john doe]

It depends on the plan. My plan is for a certain amount of minutes, no matter who initiates the call. However, nights, weekends, and calls between myself and others with the same carrier are free and unlimited. I also get free roaming inside the US. Some carriers have 'rollover' minutes, where you can carry your unused minutes from one month over to use in another month.

Generally though, you will be charged for the minutes you are on a call on that phone. It does not matter who called whom, it counts against your plan.

[Sali]

As John Doe said. It is different, plus you have to buy your phones and have to buy upgrades. Stick to the UK, cell phones and usage are a lot cheaper there.

[Blocky]

Are we talking land line or mobile? I've never had a land line that charged for in coming. As for mobile, most people I know have unlimited minutes that run 40-100 a month.

[Nelly]

It depends on the plan. My plan is for a certain amount of minutes, no matter who initiates the call. However, nights, weekends, and calls between myself and others with the same carrier are free and unlimited. I also get free roaming inside the US. Some carriers have 'rollover' minutes, where you can carry your unused minutes from one month over to use in another month.

Generally though, you will be charged for the minutes you are on a call on that phone. It does not matter who called whom, it counts against your plan.

I don't know how many times I have told Mahone that, he seems not to believe me and have to ask other people :).

[john doe]

Are we talking land line or mobile? I've never had a land line that charged for in coming. As for mobile, most people I know have unlimited minutes that run 40-100 a month.

Land line? People still have those in their homes?

[LDSJewess]

Land line? People still have those in their homes?

I have both. My land line, internet service and e-fax are all connected to one package rate which includes unlimited long distance, unimited minutes, caller ID, Call waiting, conference calling, voice messaging, caller id, distinctive ring and two additional rotating lines which I need for business purposes. This service is in some ways less expensive than my mobile phone which I about 1,000 minutes on a two person family plan but that usage is used mostly by my husband. The charges on the minutes I believe are for both incoming and outgoing calls. Where the mobile phones can add up expense wise are for roaming for international or at sea calls. If we call international from the home base though we can use a magic jack, but the qualtiy of the service is inferior albeit a savings.

[Blocky]

Land line? People still have those in their homes?

I do! We only have a cell phone in the car for emergencies, I never use it. I don't really like talking on the phone. If the phone rings I probably won't see who it is until later. My husband is either at home, work or out with me. If I go out, I don't really want to be talking to someone on the phone, I'd rather be doing what I'm doing.

[Guest Sachi001]

Land line? People still have those in their homes?

Yes JD it's true. It's so very true. In fact I've seen the mythical rotary dial, black, lead bottom, beat your head over with a knot heavy handed receiver, party line, and Dial M for Murder version dinosaur in my wifes 90 year uncles old grass shack by the ocean.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSAf24lmakcF11WUKgCyn28gZ3TA7Q1tgebWnnx64SqR5fCcqKqFA

Edited July 20, 2011 by Sachi001

[KrazyKay]

Land line? People still have those in their homes?

My grandparents still have landlines... in fact my dad's parents ONLY have a land line. They refuse to get cell phones. They are scared on cell phones. My mom's mom (my mom's dad passed on in 1999) has both a land line, and a cell phone, but she only uses her cell phone in an emergency as her car phone.

As for cell phone plans... as people said before it depends on the plan. On my plan, I have verizon with the family and friends plan. The people who I add as family/friends, it doesn't matter who their carrier is or even if its a land line or cell phone, I have unlimited anytime/anywhere with them. I also have unlimited anytime/anywhere minutes when I call or receive a call from another verizon user. I also have unlimited downloads on my smartphone :)

[Gwen]

I still have a land line (with a cord).... y'all are making me feel bad. But I am slowly moving into the same world as the rest of you. lol

[Guest Sachi001]

I still have a land line (with a cord).... y'all are making me feel bad. But I am slowly moving into the same world as the rest of you. lol

Don't feel bad. When we had a large Earthquake a few years ago. No one could make a cell phone call. Those with landlines (not cordless version) were able to still communicate.

[slamjet]

Lets see,

Land line... Check

Cell Phone... Check

Internet Phone... Double check

I have a bare-bones land line for DSL only so I don't know if that counts but I have the internet phone (nettalk) because I'm calling all kinds of insurance companies that are out of state. So that alone saves me a boatload of $$$.

The cell phone is because, for some reason, I like to be bothered when I'm out and about.

And yes, I remember those rotary dial days. When we got our first push-button phone, we thought we were styling! But we could never figure out why there were letters on the buttons.

[mordorbund]

Is there an app to make your smart phone a rotary dial?

And is that what the local Rotary Club is? A group of old fogies that get together and reminesce about when phones used to make sense?

[LDSJewess]

Is there an app to make your smart phone a rotary dial?

And is that what the local Rotary Club is? A group of old fogies that get together and reminesce about when phones used to make sense?

Actually the Rotary Club is a fraternal organization to raise funds for crippled and physically disabled children.

That being said I had to laugh because I guess am am one of those old fogies LOLOL

I was raised in the city and in the 5th grade we actually had a class on how to dial a rotary phone. This was because prior to rotary phones coming on the scene, our black ophones had no dial piecde on the, We just picked it up and pressed the little button thingies that the receiver rested on and then the operator answered and we told her to commect us with the nunmber we were trying to reach. Back then all numbers had what was called "exchanges" with words like Lakeview, Townsend, Woodward, Beechwood etc: to signify the area of the city you were calling. The first two letters of the word were the exchange. Such as Lakeview 12345 was LA-12345.

My husband grew in the country where when you reached the operator you just told them whose home you were calling. And if the person you were calling was not at home the operator usually KNEW where they were. Such as: "Sorry Jim, Fred is over at the feed store picking up some grain. You may want to try and reach him at supper time." Or "Sorry Mary, Susan is at Nancy's house getting a Lilt home permanent, so do you want me to try her over there instead?"

Don't know if you ever go to a Rotary meeting, but if you do you can have some knowledge of their conversations.

But hey by the time some of you here are my age, think of how your grand kids will be talking about your funny antique Blackberries and cell phones.

[slamjet]

But hey by the time some of you here are my age, think of how your grand kids will be talking about your funny antique Blackberries and cell phones.

Already happening. I had one of these:

[Guest Sachi001]

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTrXFPtBDVS4uwoGfUBbACBzs4iVTYyYVurujO0EZBOyzYUnymV

Best phone they ever made. You could go off shore 200 miles with direct line of sight from Hawaii and make a call.

[Mahone]

As John Doe said. It is different, plus you have to buy your phones and have to buy upgrades. Stick to the UK, cell phones and usage are a lot cheaper there.

Not so sure about that. We don't always have to buy our phones here, but they simply charge you more per month in your contract instead. Back in 2008, I paid $525 (US) for my iphone 3G simply to get it on pay as you go (I tend to use voice over IP rather than using the standard telephone networks, so i didn't require a contract). The cheaper/free options where all high price contracts. They always get the money off you somehow.

It depends on the plan. My plan is for a certain amount of minutes, no matter who initiates the call. However, nights, weekends, and calls between myself and others with the same carrier are free and unlimited. I also get free roaming inside the US. Some carriers have 'rollover' minutes, where you can carry your unused minutes from one month over to use in another month.

Generally though, you will be charged for the minutes you are on a call on that phone. It does not matter who called whom, it counts against your plan.

It just seems odd to me that both people could end up getting charged, almost unfair. In the UK, it's unheard of for the recipient of the phone call to get charged.

The only time this would occur is when using a mobile phone with a sim card for a UK network when abroad. In this case, the person calling the phone gets charged a national rate, and the owner of the phone gets charged the international rates. This is, I assume, because the caller doesn't necessarily know the recipient is abroad, therefore it's unfair to charge them international rates.

Edited July 20, 2011 by Mahone

[john doe]

It just seems odd to me that both people could end up getting charged, almost unfair. In the UK, it's unheard of for the recipient of the phone call to get charged.

I think the idea is if you are using the company's cell tower and equipment, you should pay for it. If it were a caller-pay plan, I can envision people with few minutes making a short call to someone with a lot of minutes on their plan and having them call back, thus putting all the charges on the second person's plan. I don't know UK rates vs. US rates, but it seems to me that if both the caller and receiver are paying for the calls, the rates for both would be shared, and thus flattened overall, instead of having the initiator of the call get stuck with a large bill and the recipient paying nothing, when the call was likely for the benefit of both people.

It seems to me that when cell phones were new to the market, most plans were similar to what you describe, the caller paid the charges, the recipient didn't pay for calls not dialed. That has largely disappeared from the US market at this time in favor of the current system where everybody pays for their airtime. I think the main problem was that if someone called a cell phone from a landline, they would not get charged for a call to the cell phone, and the cell phone call recipient would not get charged for a call they did not dial, thus enabling them to use the cell phone company's resources without anyone paying the cell phone company for using its equipment. This would put an unfair burden on the cell company.

[Mahone]

I think the idea is if you are using the company's cell tower and equipment, you should pay for it. If it were a caller-pay plan, I can envision people with few minutes making a short call to someone with a lot of minutes on their plan and having them call back, thus putting all the charges on the second person's plan. I don't know UK rates vs. US rates, but it seems to me that if both the caller and receiver are paying for the calls, the rates for both would be shared, and thus flattened overall, instead of having the initiator of the call get stuck with a large bill and the recipient paying nothing, when the call was likely for the benefit of both people.

I can see what you are saying, although the disadvantage of this method is receiving calls from people you don't really want to talk to, but feel you have to, in order to remain polite. Or any similar scenario.

It seems to me that when cell phones were new to the market, most plans were similar to what you describe, the caller paid the charges, the recipient didn't pay for calls not dialed. That has largely disappeared from the US market at this time in favor of the current system where everybody pays for their airtime. I think the main problem was that if someone called a cell phone from a landline, they would not get charged for a call to the cell phone, and the cell phone call recipient would not get charged for a call they did not dial, thus enabling them to use the cell phone company's resources without anyone paying the cell phone company for using its equipment. This would put an unfair burden on the cell company.

In the UK, if a landline user with the phone company British Telecom calls a mobile phone user with the mobile network T-Mobile, T-Mobile will charge BT for using their network, and BT will ultimately pass that charge onto the customer who made the phone call. There are regulations in place to keep this system fair.

[slamjet]

First, it's my phone. I don't like you, I don't answer. Power, it's intoxicating.

Second, VAR for the cell phone. At least I think.

In any case, I have one of those plans that I can call and receive calls from any mobile phone from any mobile carrier and I don't get charged. It's only if I call/receive from voip or land-lines. Plus, I don't pay for my phone plan anyway so who am I to say.

[pam]

Actually the Rotary Club is a fraternal organization to raise funds for crippled and physically disabled children.

That being said I had to laugh because I guess am am one of those old fogies LOLOL

You will learn Mordorbunds humor. His comment about the Rotary Club were totally tongue in cheek.

Edited July 20, 2011 by pam

[john doe]

I can see what you are saying, although the disadvantage of this method is receiving calls from people you don't really want to talk to, but feel you have to, in order to remain polite. Or any similar scenario.

We in the US have a different philosophy. If we don't want to talk to you, we say goodbye and hang up the phone. If it is a vendor, we can tell them to put us on their 'do not call' list, and they are not allowed to call again. If it's your mom, and you just don't want to waste your minutes on her, tell her you are driving and will call later, then conveniently 'forget' to call back.

In the UK, if a landline user with the phone company British Telecom calls a mobile phone user with the mobile network T-Mobile, T-Mobile will charge BT for using their network, and BT will ultimately pass that charge onto the customer who made the phone call. There are regulations in place to keep this system fair.

So BT charges the landline user for calling a cellphone? How do they know? Are cell numbers different?

[pam]

If it's your mom, and you just don't want to waste your minutes on her, tell her you are driving and will call later, then conveniently 'forget' to call back.

Don't you DARE tell my mom that is exactly what I do.

[KrazyKay]

My mom and I have a close relationship - I can talk to her about anything and everything.

Now if it is a certain friend of mine - sometimes I do that... I tell her I'm driving and that I'll call later when I'm not in the mood to talk to her. This is a friend who is a bit crazy. She honestly believed the fires that were near Plantersville, TX (where the Renaissance Festival is held each year) was caused my God because of the people who run the Renaissance Festival were doing witchcraft. I don't know if any of you have seen the Hairspray movie... but this friend of mine reminds me so much of this mom in the movie