I have multiple numbers, and most of them carries a monthly cost to them. However, my bill is still less than $50 per month which is about the same price as many people’s budget phone service. With that said, I am not spending as much as some people might think I would be spending. Below are the telephone numbers I have, and why. In the end, I pay $15/month for most of my numbers.
All Phones ($6.00)
This telephone number is set-up to ring my home phone, and both of my cellular phones. The carrier for the home phone lines is also the carrier for this line. This means, I can have my home phone be directly rung when calling without using my toll-free number. This would mean that the only reason I might get charged for answering the call is 2¢ per minute for call forwarding. Obviously, if I was home, I would answer with my home line.
Home 1 ($4.00+), and Home 2 (4.00+)
This may seem silly, but I have two home phone numbers, and they ring the exact same phone so it isn’t so much a second line. However, there is method to my madness, and I will try to explain it here. Both telephone numbers are toll-free telephone numbers, and therefore will cost me between 2¢ and 23¢ per minute depending on the origin number. A call with an Alaskan number will cost me 23¢ per minute even if the caller is technically in the same building as I am. This is applied to either of these numbers.
The Home 1 number is my primary home telephone number. When I make an outgoing call, it would show this number as the calling number. The reason I want to keep this number is that the 4th – 10th digits of the phone number is the same as my primary cellular number. While this number is public, most scammers are not going to go investigating to try to find a more immediate number.
And this is where the second home number comes in. I have domains (such as fsp.ws), and all domain registries requires a telephone number in the contact information. In the past, I had scammers that would call this telephone number, and it used to be my main telephone number. It was several calls a day, and this had to do with web design and SEO services. I eventually had to change my phone number, and drop the number that I had for decades. If the second home line gets infected with scam calls, then I can change it to voicemail only, or delete the number entirely. No matter what, I will not list my personal phone numbers for domain registries again.
iPhone (annual bill)
The carrier for the iPhone charges less when paying for a year in advance. This is my primary telephone number, and the one that people will likely call. However, for budgetting reasons, this number is considered an annual bill.
Razr (Free)
I qualify for Lifeline phone services. They give me 3,000 minutes, unlimited domestic SMS, and 4.5GB of data. Everyone I know has an smartphone and likely will be using RCS rather than SMS. Being that I qualify, this phone line is free. I do not have to pay anything, and just had to buy a phone that had a SIM card to install the carrier into.
Voicemail ($1.00)
This number was the number I provided for domain registries. Considering this telephone number is $1, I am keeping it in case I would need it again for the domain registries. As the name implies, the number rings directly to a voicemail line. This voicemail box is the same one for my home phones, and all phones phone number.