Full timing Internet, entertain, communication on the cheap

[WilliamKorn]

We use cell phones for both voice, messaging and limited internet through the Verizon pay as you go plan. ($1.99 / day for voice / messages, $.02 per text sent or received and $.99 per 24 hour period for web access). Magicjack provides access to our cell phone messages without charge and phone service when internet is available. Magicjack costs $99.75 for five years. With the free internet access available in so many locations we never even think about any other source and when available, we download free programs / movies / music to entertain us when we not connected. A cheap wifi antenna allows us to sit outside in our RV and receive internet (Signal King on Amazon, SK-950WN, $21.89 delivered is a great unit)

Cell phone service for both phones was $1284.00 a year with a “plan” and now cost just $200.00 per year for both phones. Verizon service is active for a year with a $100.00 annual payment. We ended our first year with a carry over credit of $42.00 on one phone and $86.00 on the other. We average cell phone use about 35 days a year.

Voice mail on the cell phones is retrieved and answered via Magicjack if it is available through free internet otherwise messages from both phones is retrieved and answered on one cell phone.

So, to sum up our annual costs incurred when full-timing are either $120.00 for Magicjack and one cell phone or $220.00 with two cell phones.

[olderunner]

Can you watch movies on the .99 daily plan?
Thanks

[FlatBroke]

Google Hang out is good for free phone and text with wifi. Save minutes on your air card. Had to manually put in phone numbers that weren't in my iPad contacts because it wouldn't blue tooth with my ZTE Valet phone. No biggie, ain't got many friends. LOL

[Skid_Row_Joe]

Tiger4x4RV wrote:

Skid Row Joe wrote:

Google phone is free and unlimited calling. No one needs to spend a dime on any phone again. It's impossible to beat free.

Did you mean Google Voice? link to info about Google Voice It says it is not a phone, it is a "phone manager."

You'd still need internet connectivity, which sometimes is free and sometimes not.

It's a telephone connection 24/7 provided by Google, with your own untraceable telephone number. Call anywhere, anytime. Pretty simple, and of course it's FREE. Is a free telephone anywhere, anytime, something you are objecting to?

[FlatBroke]

This kind of full time posts are right up my ally. Most I see are solutions given by folks that pockets are a heck of a lot deeper than ours.

[Tiger4x4RV]

Skid Row Joe wrote:

Google phone is free and unlimited calling. No one needs to spend a dime on any phone again. It's impossible to beat free.

Did you mean Google Voice? link to info about Google Voice It says it is not a phone, it is a "phone manager."

You'd still need internet connectivity, which sometimes is free and sometimes not.

[Skid_Row_Joe]

WilliamKorn wrote:
We use cell phones for both voice, messaging and limited internet through the Verizon pay as you go plan. ($1.99 / day for voice / messages, $.02 per text sent or received and $.99 per 24 hour period for web access). Magicjack provides access to our cell phone messages without charge and phone service when internet is available. Magicjack costs $99.75 for five years. With the free internet access available in so many locations we never even think about any other source and when available, we download free programs / movies / music to entertain us when we not connected. A cheap wifi antenna allows us to sit outside in our RV and receive internet (Signal King on Amazon, SK-950WN, $21.89 delivered is a great unit)

Cell phone service for both phones was $1284.00 a year with a “plan” and now cost just $200.00 per year for both phones. Verizon service is active for a year with a $100.00 annual payment. We ended our first year with a carry over credit of $42.00 on one phone and $86.00 on the other. We average cell phone use about 35 days a year.

Voice mail on the cell phones is retrieved and answered via Magicjack if it is available through free internet otherwise messages from both phones is retrieved and answered on one cell phone.

So, to sum up our annual costs incurred when full-timing are either $120.00 for Magicjack and one cell phone or $220.00 with two cell phones.

Google phone is free and unlimited calling. No one needs to spend a dime on any phone again. It's impossible to beat free.

[Skid_Row_Joe]

BarbaraOK wrote:
Not sure how this will help unless you are always close to your computer - which we are not. Heavens, we've been known to call each other from the middle of Costco when we each go our separate ways to find things. Or someone in the family calls as we are out geocaching - and we use our smart phones for geocaching. Look up restaurant reviews while out and about, etc. And park WiFi is usually horrible and getting on at Starbucks has become a real problem. Where is everyone finding all of this good, high speed wifi for free?

Barb

You need to buy a signal boost for your WiFi reception. Jefatech sells 'em - that's the one I use.

[WilliamKorn]

For free internet locations and information just search "free internet locations". I just did and got between 150,000 and 296,000,000 hits depending on the search engine!
We camp in National Parks, Forests, Grasslands and BLM areas where internet and cell service is rarely available. We will have periods of 6-8 weeks when no service is available so for us paying when not using seems weird. Private campgrounds are not our "cup of tea" so poor management of paid internet systems is a non issue. "Barb" if the Starbuck's offers free internet then I don't understand the problem as I've never had your experience. We have an internet locator / antenna (about $20.00) which I can plug into the computer USB port and just drive through a commercial area and I will normally find a wifi spot within 2 minutes. With so many wifi spots available we find that we use it less and less.

[restlesswind]

We pay right at $200 per month to VZN.We have:
Unlimited data (with an old grandfathered plan)
1 smart phone (used hardly any for voice)
1 "dumb" phone (Used for voice and text)
1 Mifi (Internet access)
700 shared minutes,voice,and a bunch of text time.

I know that we could cut that way down,but I/we just don't want to limit our
on line or phone time.

[BarbaraOK]

Not sure how this will help unless you are always close to your computer - which we are not. Heavens, we've been known to call each other from the middle of Costco when we each go our separate ways to find things. Or someone in the family calls as we are out geocaching - and we use our smart phones for geocaching. Look up restaurant reviews while out and about, etc. And park WiFi is usually horrible and getting on at Starbucks has become a real problem. Where is everyone finding all of this good, high speed wifi for free?

Barb

[hitchup]

TechWriter wrote:

WilliamKorn wrote:
WWith the free internet access available in so many locations . . .

This hasn't been my experience.

Nor ours. In many RV Parks, IF they have Wifi and we are on a monthly rate, then we would have to pay for it. Or they don't have enough repeaters and it constantly knocks you off.

[TechWriter]

WilliamKorn wrote:
WWith the free internet access available in so many locations . . .

This hasn't been my experience.

[arhayes]

That's terrific info as we are becoming full-timers within the next 60 days. We use ATT for cell but I'm sure they have something similar. We've used a Magic Jack for our "land line" for several years and it works great as you indicated. I'll have to check out the Signal King. Appreciate the information!

Any other tips for newbies to full-timing are appreciated.

Alan and Kathleen

[gbopp]

Thanks. I don't full time but, I want to lower our cell phone bills.