Getting Rid of Many Landline Unwanted Calls

If you have Caller ID service with Verizon (not sure about other companies), you can dial *77 on your phone and you will hear a message that anonymous caller blocking has been enabled. People who call you and block their phone number will hear a message that you do not accept calls from people who block their numbers.

I enabled this feature last month and it dramatically cut down on unwanted callers.

You Don't Need Long Distance

I got tired of seeing a $5 charge per month on my Verizon landline phone bill as a penalty for not using any long distance (also a charge per month for having the service). I do all of my long distance calling on my cell phone. Called Verizon today--they helped me remove both the service and the non-use charge.

Many people have dropped their landlines altogether. I'm keeping mine for two reasons: 1) Sometime cell phones may be down and I don't want to be without a phone, and 2) my Directv Tivo doesn't have an ethernet port so it needs to connect through the phone.

If I ever need to make a long distance call on my phone, I can still use a service like 10-10-220 in case of an emergency.