Why the insistence on having a 'Home' phone number?

Forums › Off topic › Why the insistence on having a 'Home' phone number?

MurrayC

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#86351 5-Jul-2011 12:22

Oh great, Visa Debit are running a competition with a $5,000 prize!

Filled in the form and got to the part <must have> Home Phone Number. Do people still actually have a phone tethered to the wall and connected to copper wire these days? I haven't had one since 2001.

So why the insistence that you need one to enter a competition? Visa certainly didn't insist on one when I got my Visa Debit Card...

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#489618 5-Jul-2011 12:23

Just put your mobile in?

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Behodar

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#489621 5-Jul-2011 12:27

Yeah, I always just put my cellphone number in, regardless of the field's title.

Edit: I'm looking at the actual form and it won't accept my 021 number (I've tried three different ways of entering it and it says that it doesn't appear to be valid). It won't let you proceed if you leave the field blank.

MurrayC

79 posts

Master Geek

#489624 5-Jul-2011 12:39

Yeah that's what I found. It would not recognise my Mobile as my Home Phone (which it is of course!)...

SandyJ

152 posts

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#489626 5-Jul-2011 12:40

Its a pain.. I just put my brothers home number in since Im on the move most of the time.

Behodar

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#489627 5-Jul-2011 12:40

I can't find any contact details anywhere on that site either!

myopinion

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Ultimate Geek

#489633 5-Jul-2011 12:59

Was just talking with my Wife about the very same thing last night. Home phone numbers are a spammers delight - we get around 3-4 calls a day at present from those PC service scammers! Driving my Wife insane! Get rid of the home phone and get rid of spam callers I say!

wreck90

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#489642 5-Jul-2011 13:13

It doesn't cost people to call my home phone.

And, home phones have cheaper calling.

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kyhwana2

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#489645 5-Jul-2011 13:18

wreck90: It doesn't cost people to call my home phone.

And, home phones have cheaper calling.

I don't think that's still true. You're paying close to $50 a month for a landline which gets you what? unlimited local calling minutes..

jtbthatsme

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#489687 5-Jul-2011 15:17

I have to agree with the above comment it certainly does cost to have people ring you. Add to the simple fact you can avoid a lot of time wasting by not having a land line.

This is quite simply due to most people are more than likely to only ring you for the important stuff if they have to ring a cell phone.

So why pay $40 - $50 a month for a landline and then you've got your cellphone charges on top. I have Naked DSL which comes with a free voip phone line and I would be lucky if there's 20 - 30 calls a month (and I think that's being generous too) to it.

Home phones are nearly obsolete it's ridiculous that you have to have one for any form too.

Now i'm off to the visa website to see if i can win me a $5000 prize pack lol.

Behodar

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#489689 5-Jul-2011 15:22

jtbthatsme: Now i'm off to the visa website to see if i can win me a $5000 prize pack lol.

Good luck :)
I ended up putting 07 1234567 as my number since I couldn't get my real number to be accepted in any format!

oxnsox

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#489709 5-Jul-2011 16:24

MurrayC:
So why the insistence that you need one to enter a competition?

How else are they going to build/generate a call list thats cheap to operate

dclegg

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#489711 5-Jul-2011 16:26

wreck90:

And, home phones have cheaper calling.

Not always. My wife is on a 2 Degrees plan that gives her more talk time minutes than she can currently use up. As a result we never use our home phone for national toll calls anymore, and she'll often use it for local calls too. The only reason we keep the home phone is to make it easier/cheaper for people to call us.

tdgeek

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#489729 5-Jul-2011 17:06

Free local calls, dirt cheap international calls, and I dont expect others to have to pay to call me. Many 0800 numbers arent free on mobiles too. On naked DSL the cost is the Gb plan you are on plus an amount for the landline beng connected.

Depending on your uses, a paid landline may be a money saver, or not be much in it.

BurningBeard

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#489756 5-Jul-2011 18:16

Reasons I've kept my landline:

- I don't expect people to have to pay to call me
- Mobiles are great when I'm out and about, but they just sound horrible for a long conversation
- Before the power came back on after the ChCh earthquakes, an old phone got me back in touch with some people

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alasta

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#489763 5-Jul-2011 18:39

It astounds me the number of people who still believe that mobile phones are more expensive than fixed lines for a typical user. Yes, a fixed line can be cheaper if you make very large volumes of local or international calls, but for me personally a fixed line would be significantly more expensive and having both fixed and mobile would cost an absolute fortune.

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