Telephone Options for the College Student

Parents of college students most likely remember paying and arm and a leg for a dorm telephone service. Personally, I remember using my dorm phone to make local calls and speak to my mother and boyfriend once a week. The bill for what was roughly 8 hours of telephone calls a week was about $100.00. Telephone service for college students isn't quite as high these days thanks to the cell phones and telephone company competition, however, the bill can still get pretty high if you are not careful.

Let's start with the old land line phone that was my only lifeline back in the day. Today, they are pretty obsolete. Sure a student could use a land line phone if they send a lot of faxes, or need to make a lot of local calls, or work from home out of the dorm room (which is probably not allowed.) If a student really feels a land line will met the majority of his needs, he may want to cut back on cell phone use to make up the difference.

Should the student have a computer, which most do, they have even less of a reason to have a land line phone. To help limit telephone use, students should explore free options for making phone calls. They can use an online program such as Skype to make video calls. iCall.com is another service that students can use to make a call from their computer browser, iPad, or iPhone at no cost. Google also had tools to make free calls online.

So, say the student does the wise thing and forgoes the land line. They are going to need a cell phone. But what cell phone plan should they get. If they are lucky, they can stay on mom and dad's plan where they can enjoy a family unlimited text plan, and a smart phone package for less than $50.00 (their share). However, there is no guarantee that they will have a good signal depending on where their college is. If they can stay on their parents plan, it might be smart to get a cheap cell phone backup they can purchase minutes for. Actually any student not already on a cell phone plan should consider a phone with a pay as you go plan and learn to curtail their phone and texting use. .