How can I conserve talk minutes on my phone?

[Andrew Joiner]

My phone plan has been fine for the 3 years I've had it. Lately with the pandemic I found I use up my 1000 talk minutes.
Frustrating at first but it turned out to be a good learning experience.
Text and facetime is free and works when I run out of minutes. I'm using that more.

Now I want to save talk minutes for medical , banking and urgent stuff that won't do text or facetime.

My voicemail seems like a waste of minutes and time. I'd like to turn that off.
Any other ideas on saving minutes. Not ready to get a new phone or plan right now.
Thanks

[Frank Pratt]

Huh, I thought unlimited ( or nearly) minutes were the standard thing now. My plan has 2500/mo, but I've never needed that many. It's an old plan but all the new plans my carrier has are unlimited.

[Doug Garson]

Assuming you are calling from home or another place with WIFI, you could use WIFI calling. I don't have your problem so I haven't had to use it but here's a link which explains it. https://www.verizon.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/

[glenn bradley]

I'll assume this is a geographical issue and that you have limited carrier choices. On the left coast, Consumer Cellular is under $20 for unlimited (https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/choose/plan?bidkw=%2Bcellular%20%2Bplans&dvc=c&h=https%3A%2F%2Fclickserve.dartsearch.net%2Flink%2 Fclick%3Flid%3D43700014650348940&ds_s_kwgid=58700001894619944&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0-6ABhDMARIsAFVdQv_YcxBcPM1GBxAnkgI9YXr_A9gn0vgBltIh GbE8Y7y8iQOkc3Ib5-8aAgBpEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)talk. There should be a similar reseller in your area but, maybe not.

[Stan Calow]

Try and substitute texting as much as you can, unless you have a limit on that. I found it much more convenient and efficient for most things. Just not as sociable.

[Jim Becker]

If you have data bandwidth available, you could certainly use, in addition to Facetime, WhatsAP, Facebook Messenger, etc., to do calling via IP rather than use "phone minutes". But yea...limits on voice minutes is something strange to me, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO uses WhatsAp to speak with her sister in Spain all the time.

[Frank Pratt]

If you have data bandwidth available, you could certainly use, in addition to Facetime, WhatsAP, Facebook Messenger, etc., to do calling via IP rather than use "phone minutes". But yea...limits on voice minutes is something strange to me, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO uses WhatsAp to speak with her sister in Spain all the time.

The audio quality with WhatsAP is usually much better than regular telephone too.

[Curt Harms]

If you have data bandwidth available, you could certainly use, in addition to Facetime, WhatsAP, Facebook Messenger, etc., to do calling via IP rather than use "phone minutes". But yea...limits on voice minutes is something strange to me, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO uses WhatsAp to speak with her sister in Spain all the time.

Limited minutes may not be common but such plans exist. SWMBO has it on her phone, she hates cell phones. 10 cents a minutes for voice calls, 10 cents per text. $10 good for 3 months so it costs her $40/year for cell phone service. It's more of an emergency, "hey where are you?" type usage. The same company offers unlimited talk & text for $18/month with autopay.

[Jim Matthews]

I switched to Mint mobile. No conservation or special phone required,

https://www.mintmobile.com/plans/

[Zachary Hoyt]

Or you could talk very fast, when you have to talk. This would depend on the hearing ability of your listener too, I imagine.

[Peter Kelly]

Tons of VOIP options on the App Store that allow for calls to land lines (eg: Vonage). Can’t imagine any of them cost more than $8/mo for unlimited talk time.


Could also call your mobile provider and demand to know why your plan doesn’t include unlimited minutes. Pretty common these days..

[Michael Weber]

If you have data bandwidth available, you could certainly use, in addition to Facetime, WhatsAP, Facebook Messenger, etc., to do calling via IP rather than use "phone minutes". But yea...limits on voice minutes is something strange to me, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO uses WhatsAp to speak with her sister in Spain all the time.


I'll assume this is a geographical issue and that you have limited carrier choices. On the left coast, Consumer Cellular is under $20 for unlimited (https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/choose/plan?bidkw=%2Bcellular%20%2Bplans&dvc=c&h=https%3A%2F%2Fclickserve.dartsearch.net%2Flink%2 Fclick%3Flid%3D43700014650348940&ds_s_kwgid=58700001894619944&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0-6ABhDMARIsAFVdQv_YcxBcPM1GBxAnkgI9YXr_A9gn0vgBltIh GbE8Y7y8iQOkc3Ib5-8aAgBpEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)talk. There should be a similar reseller in your area but, maybe not.I have consumer cellular here in Arkansas and believe it’s available everywhere. Besides the price point I went with them as I could have multiple phones added to my account for a few bucks more. No limit talk/text and no contract. SIM is free for your existing phone.

[Jerome Stanek]

Limited minutes may not be common but such plans exist. SWMBO has it on her phone, she hates cell phones. 10 cents a minutes for voice calls, 10 cents per text. $10 good for 3 months so it costs her $40/year for cell phone service. It's more of an emergency, "hey where are you?" type usage. The same company offers unlimited talk & text for $18/month with autopay.

My sister in law has Page Plus and she gets 4 months 166 minutes for $10 she is just like your SWMBO only for checking in and emergencies. I probably had my cell longer then most of you got it in 1988 and still have the same number. I used it a lot when I was working but now I only use it for when I am away from the house.

[Andrew Joiner]

My sister in law has Page Plus and she gets 4 months 166 minutes for $10 she is just like your SWMBO only for checking in and emergencies. I probably had my cell longer then most of you got it in 1988 and still have the same number. I used it a lot when I was working but now I only use it for when I am away from the house.
Wow, I feel like she's drilling holes with a gimlet, I'm happy with a crank drill, but you all have electric drills:)

Thanks for the replies. Great info.

[Brian Elfert]

The audio quality with WhatsAP is usually much better than regular telephone too.

The quality with voice over LTE or WI-FI calling is pretty good these days. I suspect a lot of folks with limited voice minutes also have a flip phone which mostly don't do voice over LTE.

Verizon was supposed to shutdown 3G/CDMA at the end of 2020, but they postponed it again and are not giving a new date. I wish they would just kill 3G so they can install more LTE and 5G. Verizon sells new flip phones with voice over LTE.

[Frank Pratt]

The quality with voice over LTE or WI-FI calling is pretty good these days. I suspect a lot of folks with limited voice minutes also have a flip phone which mostly don't do voice over LTE.

Verizon was supposed to shutdown 3G/CDMA at the end of 2020, but they postponed it again and are not giving a new date. I wish they would just kill 3G so they can install more LTE and 5G. Verizon sells new flip phones with voice over LTE.

What exactly is voice over LTE? I've heard of WiFi calling, but never used it. It makes sense that almost anything sounds better than old school phone quality.

[Brian Elfert]

Voice over LTE is how they do voice calls over a 4G/LTE cellular network. It is the way the majority of cell phones with 4G/LTE do voice calls these days if the phone has 4G/LTE service.

[Rob Damon]

Years ago when I got my first smart (late starter) I signed up for 2gb plan. Ran out and up it to 4gb plan. Ran out again and up it to 8 gb and ran out. Then made the jump to 32 gb and came close (31gb) to running out. Final fed up went with the unlimited 75gb at LTE and 3G after 75gb. It is funny but I surfed more, played tons more movies and still ended using less than 12gb on the unlimited plan and rarely went over that unless I was on vacation for a week in that month. It is some kind of game the companies do to get to upgrade to larger usage plans. So we have a flip phone for just talking and a smart phone for internet.

[Rob Damon]

The quality with voice over LTE or WI-FI calling is pretty good these days. I suspect a lot of folks with limited voice minutes also have a flip phone which mostly don't do voice over LTE.

Verizon was supposed to shutdown 3G/CDMA at the end of 2020, but they postponed it again and are not giving a new date. I wish they would just kill 3G so they can install more LTE and 5G. Verizon sells new flip phones with voice over LTE.

The reason they don't shutdown the 3G is because they have millions ADT alarm systems still using the wireless 3G for home/business alarm systems. I have one. This was according the ADT tech that stopped by.

[Brian Elfert]

The reason they don't shutdown the 3G is because they have millions ADT alarm systems still using the wireless 3G for home/business alarm systems. I have one. This was according the ADT tech that stopped by.

The ADT contract must be worth a lot to Verizon for Verizon to keep postponing the 3G shutdown. I found some other articles that stated that Verizon has now set Dec 31, 2022 as the new date which is three years past when Verizon originally said 3G would shut down.

I would assume Verizon is shutting down 3G to free up space for more 4G and 5G. You would think 4G and 5G would be pretty important to Verizon's future revenue.

[Jim Becker]

T
I would assume Verizon is shutting down 3G to free up space for more 4G and 5G. You would think 4G and 5G would be pretty important to Verizon's future revenue.


Yes, that is one of two reasons for finally killing off the 3G stuff...it frees spectrum (frequencies) for more current technologies, both to use and to trade, and also eliminates older gear that has to be maintained and takes up space. In many base station (tower) locations the "gear" takes up a lot of what is limited space, especially since a very large percentage of towers are shared with multiple carriers.

[Tom M King]

We have unlimited, but I still have my phone set to only ring if the caller is in my Contacts list. People tell me that my Voicemail box is full. It is because I've never used it, and don't intend to. That, of course, won't work if you answer your phone regardless of who calls, and use voicemail. It does work wonderfully, for cutting down on unwanted calls though.

[Alex Zeller]

Voicemails can be funny. For about 2 months I was getting one from a collection agency saying that they were going to court to attach my wages if I didn't contact them. At first they were robocalls and then it was a live person. Not sure where they got my number from but it was still funny. Sometimes they would try to act all nice and use the woman's first name, like "Marie, just call us and we can work this out" and other times it was "Mrs Jones, you need to call us now. Once we file the paperwork in court it's too late". Amazing how many lawyers do this kind of work. I assumed it was because they weren't very good at their job. With unlimited minutes I didn't really care but back in the day when I had a plan that limited me I could see how having a lawyer calling the wrong number repeatedly would be an issue.

[Jim Matthews]

Wow, I feel like she's drilling holes with a gimlet, I'm happy with a crank drill, but you all have electric drills:)

Thanks for the replies. Great info.

Lasers, AJ. Mounted on safety glasses.

[Matt Day]

Go unlimited and no more worrying. Surely your carrier would be happy to switch you over. They don’t like the old minute plans I don’t think.

[Jerome Stanek]

Go unlimited and no more worrying. Surely your carrier would be happy to switch you over. They don’t like the old minute plans I don’t think.

If he doesn't need that many minutes why go unlimited. Why pay for something you rarely need. That is like buying a race car to go 1/2 mile to the store.

[lowell holmes]

I have a phone, but seldom use it. It has a pedometer app I use when I make my morning walk.

SWMBO pays for it so if I ever need help, I can call her.