Anyone use Majic Jack??

[cdngal75]

I abhor Bell, and have gotten rid of all things Bell except for the landline. We are far enough out in the country that Rogers is not available for home phone. Anyone use Magic Jack? I am interested in it if it means I can say good bye to Bell.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[cheekysaver]

Yes i have used magic jack! I have a tip.... get the new model that plugs into the wall and plugs directly into your internet connection... if you don't your computer has to be on and if your chatting online or using your sound card it can mess up magic jack. I didn't like having to leave my pc on all the time for magic jack to work and the new model is a much better option. If you pay for more then one year make sure to hold on to your payment info... i paid for 2 years and they lost my info and i paid with a prepaid master card i threw away when it was empty (doh me! *face palm central*)

[anisa]

i do!

we have used it for over a year. i have the computer one, and it works just fine for me. we have a very fast internet connection, which is great for surfing, and works well with the magic jack as well.
with he computer one you have to leave the computer on 24 hrs, but that's ok because we did anyways! (bad habit, i know, not very frugal, so unlike me! lol)

it's great not having to pay a monthly bill.

i was reading a bit about the wall plug one, and i saw some ppl had given reviews in various places online saying it didn't work very well. i don't know what the issue was, but you might want to do a little research on opinions of the 2 dif models by searching reviews online.

good luck!

[cdngal75]

Yes i have used magic jack! I have a tip.... get the new model that plugs into the wall and plugs directly into your internet connection... if you don't your computer has to be on and if your chatting online or using your sound card it can mess up magic jack. I didn't like having to leave my pc on all the time for magic jack to work and the new model is a much better option. If you pay for more then one year make sure to hold on to your payment info... i paid for 2 years and they lost my info and i paid with a prepaid master card i threw away when it was empty (doh me! *face palm central*)

Thanks for the information. I just found an ad for a free month trial of the new Magic Jack Plus which I think is the new model you are referring to. I think I will try it.

[cdngal75]

i do!

we have used it for over a year. i have the computer one, and it works just fine for me. we have a very fast internet connection, which is great for surfing, and works well with the magic jack as well.
with he computer one you have to leave the computer on 24 hrs, but that's ok because we did anyways! (bad habit, i know, not very frugal, so unlike me! lol)

it's great not having to pay a monthly bill.

i was reading a bit about the wall plug one, and i saw some ppl had given reviews in various places online saying it didn't work very well. i don't know what the issue was, but you might want to do a little research on opinions of the 2 dif models by searching reviews online.

good luck!

Thanks so much for the info. I will make sure to review both types....sounds like the original is the way to go maybe?

It physically pains me to send Bell $45 a month just for the privilege of having a landline. We never make long distance calls and the majority of calls we receive are from telemarketers or my work asking me to pick up extra shifts......neither worth paying $45 a month for

Hear yah on the leaving the computer on all the time. I am bad for leaving it on all day too.

[idonovan]

45 a month? crazy !!! i wanna look into this myself i pay 20 a month for my landline but we barly use it so this may be better

[cdngal75]

45 a month? crazy !!! i wanna look into this myself i pay 20 a month for my landline but we barly use it so this may be better

Yep, $45 a month. I just gave them my 30 day notice that I am switching to Shaw Direct for my satellite. I gave them 2 chances to match Shaw and they wouldn't come close.

$45 a month for a landline is robbery, plain and simple. How did you luck out paying $20??

[anisa]

Thanks so much for the info. I will make sure to review both types....sounds like the original is the way to go maybe?

It physically pains me to send Bell $45 a month just for the privilege of having a landline. We never make long distance calls and the majority of calls we receive are from telemarketers or my work asking me to pick up extra shifts......neither worth paying $45 a month for

Hear yah on the leaving the computer on all the time. I am bad for leaving it on all day too.

oh another bonus... you will never get a telemarketing call again! well almost never, unless a company that you have given your number to gives you a call.

most of these telemarketing morons were looking up numbers on canada411.ca. dialing random numbers over and over. that was one bonus i am so ever thankful for, because i kept having morons call me a few times a day. your magicjack number is not listed in the white pages, hence it will never be on canada411.ca.

[ninna]

magic jack rocks! You won't regret it, I promise.

We have two of them- one that DH uses for his business line. It was the first one we ever got, so it's the kind that plugs into the computer. I used it for a bit as an experiment before making the switch. I wanted to be sure it would be reliable enough.

Last Christmas, I asked for a magic jack for the house line so I could give Bell Canada the old "kiss off.' So we got a second one for the home phone. Mine is the kind that plugs directly into the wall and I personally prefer that because I liked having the USB ports available on my computer for other stuff.

We have the occasional time when the magic jack isn't reliable. That is, we sometimes have calls that we need to end because the connection is bad and it sounds like we are talking through a tunnel. But honest to god...for the savings each month, it's totally worth it to me to have that small incovnenience every once in awhile.

A small word of warning though-- if you do sign up, be careful to get a number that is local to you. My father-in-law got a magic jack and when he registered, he wasn't really paying attention to the fact that there weren't any available local numbers at the time and he chose a number that is long distance (we live in London and he chose a Windsor number).

and as if the magic jack hadn't already paid for itself anyway, we also took it with us on our trip to Florida and used the wi-fi in our rental house and our laptop to make free calls to family back home in Ontario.

yup. magic jack is totally worth it!

[cdngal75]

oh another bonus... you will never get a telemarketing call again! well almost never, unless a company that you have given your number to gives you a call.

most of these telemarketing morons were looking up numbers on canada411.ca. dialing random numbers over and over. that was one bonus i am so ever thankful for, because i kept having morons call me a few times a day. your magicjack number is not listed in the white pages, hence it will never be on canada411.ca.

Cool, that is a major selling feature. I am going to try it. One question.....do I call Bell and tell them not to bill me anymore???

[cdngal75]

magic jack rocks! You won't regret it, I promise.

We have two of them- one that DH uses for his business line. It was the first one we ever got, so it's the kind that plugs into the computer. I used it for a bit as an experiment before making the switch. I wanted to be sure it would be reliable enough.

Last Christmas, I asked for a magic jack for the house line so I could give Bell Canada the old "kiss off.' So we got a second one for the home phone. Mine is the kind that plugs directly into the wall and I personally prefer that because I liked having the USB ports available on my computer for other stuff.

We have the occasional time when the magic jack isn't reliable. That is, we sometimes have calls that we need to end because the connection is bad and it sounds like we are talking through a tunnel. But honest to god...for the savings each month, it's totally worth it to me to have that small incovnenience every once in awhile.

A small word of warning though-- if you do sign up, be careful to get a number that is local to you. My father-in-law got a magic jack and when he registered, he wasn't really paying attention to the fact that there weren't any available local numbers at the time and he chose a number that is long distance (we live in London and he chose a Windsor number).

and as if the magic jack hadn't already paid for itself anyway, we also took it with us on our trip to Florida and used the wi-fi in our rental house and our laptop to make free calls to family back home in Ontario.

yup. magic jack is totally worth it!

Great info, thanks! It says on their ads that you can keep your old phone number....so maybe that is new since you signed on??
I can put up with a few glitches a month if it means saying farewell to Bell. How do I go about getting rid of Bell anyways? Do I call them and tell them I am using magic jack??

[ninna]

Great info, thanks! It says on their ads that you can keep your old phone number....so maybe that is new since you signed on??
I can put up with a few glitches a month if it means saying farewell to Bell. How do I go about getting rid of Bell anyways? Do I call them and tell them I am using magic jack??

Yup. Just tell them you got a magic jack and you want to cancel your bell landline. They will try to talk you out of it (naturally) by offering you many deals. Their CS reps are very well trained too so it might be hard to cancel. Just about every time I've asked DH to call them and get rid of stuff they end up talking him into MORE things instead. lol. Not sure how they do it??!!

We have tried to cancel Bell Canada 2 times in the past year and on both occasions, DH got talked into keeping it. The first time, they knocked our bill down to $17/month...but it still wasn't enough for me, so I sent him back in again to cancel it. Bell talked him into keeping the stupid thing AGAIN! Bell is also the cell provider for one of us so they bundled the cell and the home phone and when we added it up the other day, we realized that with all the discounts factored in, we are paying something stupid like .12 cents a month to keep that silly old land line that no one even uses. Ugh.

[cdngal75]

Yup. Just tell them you got a magic jack and you want to cancel your bell landline. They will try to talk you out of it (naturally) by offering you many deals. Their CS reps are very well trained too so it might be hard to cancel. Just about every time I've asked DH to call them and get rid of stuff they end up talking him into MORE things instead. lol. Not sure how they do it??!!

We have tried to cancel Bell Canada 2 times in the past year and on both occasions, DH got talked into keeping it. The first time, they knocked our bill down to $17/month...but it still wasn't enough for me, so I sent him back in again to cancel it. Bell talked him into keeping the stupid thing AGAIN! Bell is also the cell provider for one of us so they bundled the cell and the home phone and when we added it up the other day, we realized that with all the discounts factored in, we are paying something stupid like .12 cents a month to keep that silly old land line that no one even uses. Ugh.

I just cancelled my Bell Expressvu because they would not match an offer from Shaw Direct. They did try to talk me into staying....but I told them, unless they would match the monetary offer instead of offering me extra "services" , I was cancelling. They wouldn't budge and neither would I.
I might see what Bell offers me when I tell them I am going to go with magic jack.

[kerrylj]

I am looking into this because I am sick of bell raising my rates when I have the lowest rate around and no service.

I have DSL so it seems that I will have to pay for dry loop for the DSL.

Does it run like a program on your computer when it is plugged in?

[gunsguy]

I have it, cheap yes but remember do not rely on the thing

- constant people say they can't reach me
- dropped calls
- no call display on alot of phones
- having said that $20.00 a year I deal with the problems!