Anyone have a Magic Jack?

[cecaic0609]

I just moved into a new apartment and need a phone hooked up. We are currently living on a limited income and I was talking to my mom about phone companies and she suggested looking into buying a magic jack. She said she thought they were $40 to buy and $20 a year after that. Does anyone have one of these or know more about it? I want to know how they work and if it's worth getting one

Thanks!

[Jessi]

If you go to your health department, they have a number you can call from right there in the health department about getting a free phone, and no monthly payments.(atleat here in TN they do.) You might want to call the health department and check into it.

[joshmamabear]

if you have cable internet or DSL, you can use the MJ. I've had it since May '09 and its one of the best purchases I've made in '09. your pc has to be on all the time or you can't make/receive calls. But from observation, even with the pc on all the time, the increase in electric bill is almost negligible, if any.

I bought these for 39.99 at WAG while using RRs from meter deal last year. I just paid for the small fillers plus tax. After a year, the service fee is just $20. they are advertising B2G1F so you pay $40 for 3 yr service. I'll keep on monitoring this for now and see if its worth paying for 3 yr service.

Overall, I am very satisfied with it. No more telemarketing calls, free long distance calls anywhere in the US, if someone overseas has a MJ with a US number, you can call them for free!

Only disadvantage, if its a disadvantage at all, is YOU CAN'T keep your old landline number.

[lbrown1618]

I think it slows down our computer and we rarely use it, but I'm still happy to have it. We only had cells and figured with our kids getting older, it would be iwse to have a "regular" phone for them to use at home.

[cecaic0609]

Jessi - It's worth a try, I'll have to look into it. I know you can get a phone through our local Social Services for $10/mo but it is always packed and I hate sitting there for hours!

Joshmamabear - I've heard you need the computer on all the time, that's no big deal for us, we never shut ours off. We're not concerned with the electric as we are very lucky to live in an apartment where are heat/electric are included (best thing in the world). I didn't realize you don't get telemarketer calls, that's cool. I thought you didn't get long distance with this, so that's a plus. And we don't have a phone yet, so we won't lose our old number anyway. Thanks for the review! I'm highly considering this. I've read users have had problems calling 911, getting customer support and that you have to dial the area code for local numbers...have you dealt with any of these issues?

[cecaic0609]

Yeah, that's going to be our problem. I was looking for some reviews because this will be our ONLY phone. Neither of us have cell phones and we have 2 small kids. I'm looking for something cheap and reliable.

[loaslaen]

Yeah, that's going to be our problem. I was looking for some reviews because this will be our ONLY phone. Neither of us have cell phones and we have 2 small kids. I'm looking for something cheap and reliable.

It's definitely worth the $40 to try. We just had cable phone installed after having magicjack for a few months. Sometimes the service was excellent and sometimes we had dropped calls, skipping, or echoing in the calls. This could be a computer issue and not just the magicjack, as the problems seemed to occur mostly when we hooked it up to the desktop, and not on the laptop. Those are also similar problems that cell phones run across, so $40 per year for MJ vs over $40/mth for cell phone for similar problems is still good.

I agree, no telemarketing calls is a plus as well. You do have to enter area code for all phone numbers, even local, but I usually used the software on the computer and doubled-clicked the number in the "Calls" section to dial numbers I've already called before. You can also just stay on the line and click "end call" on the computer and it will hang it up without you having to actually hang the phone up, and you can make another call. You also get calling features for FREE that most phone companies charge extra for, like caller id, call waiting, and voicemail.

You really don't even need a phone to use magicjack. You can plug in magicjack and just use your computer's mic and speakers to talk. Or buy a headset for the computer for better quality. If you don't have a cell phone, but have a laptop, you could use this to call people from various Wi-fi locations.

If you have teens that want their own phone line or hog the home phone too much, you could also use this as a cheap secondary phone line. Or to have a phone number you can give out for various reasons without giving out your personal home phone number. (something like craigslist, or a business line, or for websites that ask for a phone number when you fill it out for coupons/sweepstakes or other things)

[JrandMdB]

My neice has it and the primary issue is we cant call her without being charged long distance fees.. the reason is MJ doesnt have coverage everywhere so they will give you the closest local number which may or may not be local. She can call out on it without cost but we cant call her.. so personally I wouldnt want it. GL!

[cecaic0609]

My neice has it and the primary issue is we cant call her without being charged long distance fees.. the reason is MJ doesnt have coverage everywhere so they will give you the closest local number which may or may not be local. She can call out on it without cost but we cant call her.. so personally I wouldnt want it. GL!

Hmmm....that's a real downfall. I ended up buying one at Walmart yesterday, but haven't opened it yet because I'm still debating to use it or not. This would be our only phone so I'm worried about it being reliable enough for emergencies etc.

[aspen'smom]

We decided not to go with magic jack as we wanted to keep our current ph#, and didn't want to rely on a computer to use the phone.

I found ooma. Yes, it sounds like a strange name, but it is an awesome system. Just google it. I found many people who used it and posted about it on SD before buying. It is a voip phone that uses your current phones in your house. You connect it between your cable modem and your phone. You also plug it into a regular phone jack in your house to send the phone signal to all the other phones in your house. We bought ours on amazon for $200, but received an ipod with purchase, sold it for $60, so net $140. Free long distance, free voicemail, free caller ID, and no bills. Yes, that is right, no more bills ever! (you would need to purchase the Ooma Hub & Scout model for no fees. The new Telo model has a yearly regulatory fee of about $12). We were able to port our old number for a 1x fee of $39.99. We figured the system would be paid for in 6 mo with the $$ we are saving. PM me if you would like more info. Frankly, most of the time we can't tell any difference from our old land line.