I never answer a call from an unknown number, let it go to voicemail. Avoid all these ‘what to say’ issues.
Yeah that’s what I do. If I don’t see them as on my cell phone list, I don’t answer and just delete. For the home phone we just don’t answer but caller ID tells who they are.
I don’t even trust that, it can be faked
Yeah sometimes it shows me calling me.
Yep, “spoofed phone numbers” are pretty common nowadays, before I unplugged the parent’s phone about 3-4 years ago, they were getting all kinds of spoofed numbers showing up on the caller ID, one that stuck out was a guy calling from a local restaurant (local stake house that doesn’t open until like 3 pm) at 9 am and he was supposedly eating while doing business, it became quite obvious it was a spam call… That was one of the 1st spoofed numbers I remember seeing…
Like most on here I’m sure, if I don’t know the number calling me, I don’t answer it, if it is important they will leave a message, or text me…
And Ahh-nold saying: “I’ll be back!”
Got rid of our landline a few years ago. All we were getting were spam and political calls (at all hours of the day).
That’s my usual method, but I had a lot of medical problems between February and June. Medical folks that I needed to talk to called the home phone instead of my preferred cell phone. I had to answer the home phone for a while to field those calls. It was the medical folks most of the time. Now that I’m much better I let the home phone go to voicemail.
Like you if we do not recognize the number on the caller ID on the Land Line, we let the call go to the answering machine that instructs the caller to “leave a voice message as this Land Line does not accept text messages…” We get an average of 5-phone calls a day that in most cases come up with “local numbers” and they leave no message.
The hardest part is trying to explain to the under 25-year old staff at Doctor’s and Dentist’s offices, the service centers for our vehicles, etc… that if they want to leave a text messge, call the cell phone and that our Land Line does not accept Text Messages and they stare blankly saying, “Mine does.” and they pull out their cell phones.
I wonder if they think “Extension Cords” were invented so their Grandparents could take their Rotary Phones with them when they left the house… 
My land line is unplugged, but calls display on my TV, 99% junk calls.
As far as people/offices/business that I need to call or text me, I NEVER give them my landline. The only reason I have a land line is that it is bundled, eliminate the phone, cost goes up.
There is a Physical Therapist that has multiple numbers, they manage to use a number not in my contacts, same with one clinic I use.
Another clinic I started using in the early 2000s would make appointments for patients without informing us! Then get a call about being a no-show. Now they have gone overboard the other way, postcards, texts, and phone call. Multiple reminder texts. When making a followup appointment they also provide a printout of all future appointments.
Yep, parents were getting 18+ spam calls a day before I unplugged the landline, still have it due to internet bundle pricing, but kinda sentimental to the house number, had that number for all but 1 year of my life… I probably get ride of it after mom passes away…
But yeah, everything and or everybody has my number now as the only contact info for mom since 2022ish…
I can still remember our phone number from the first place that we lived when I was a kid, and we moved from there in 1956.
Just in case I got lost, my mother made me recite our address and phone number on a regular basis, so she could be sure that I remembered it if the police had to bring me home. I guess that Mom’s methodology worked.
Just edit the land line number out of the accounts you don’t want them to use it . Problem solved.
I have both. There have been times when cells don’t work due to circuits all busy or power outages. And visa versa. Had the same number since 1972 so it’s been around for a while and we have multiple phones plugged in around the house. Sometimes the cell is not available. Years ago our phone rep used to say to have a phone in the bathrooms since that would be where you would go for refuge. Never had that problem but would rather have a gun than a phone there. We’re in a quiet area though.
Younger generations wouldn’t understand why a home needs 3 telephone services. They would have to watch The Brady Bunch to see kids using a land line phone.
From the postings here, utilities in MN and FL are unreliable, people need generators and backup phones.
10 years ago, my neighbor told me his land line phone/internet bill was $120/month. I told him the basic cable internet service was $35/month. He replied; “but then I wouldn’t be able to bundle”.
Why would you want to? The last time I paid a land line bill it was $18/month, without “bundling”.
We moved out of the city (Syracuse) to the burbs in 1960. Before my mom died my sister and her family moved in with her to help out - great situation for both of them. When my mom died my sister and her family took over the house - which included the phone number. So that phone number has been in the family for over 60 years.
But do you remember the phone exchange? My home number was JAckson1-5774 (521-5774).
In our first house the exchange name was OLiver. It was a party line as I recall. When we moved at the start of my 4th grade year, the new exchange didn’t have a name alternative and was a private line.
Yup!
It was TErrace 6-0618, better known today as 836-0618.
I remember growing up when all you had to dial was the last 4 numbers.
Now in most areas you need to include the Area-code to dial your next-door neighbor.