Who Remembers Paying For Long Distance Calls?

[Razors Edge ★]

...and "800" numbers?  I'm thinking, "what's the point" for 800, 888, 877, 866 prefixes these days anyway? Is it just for the old folks like us that associate an 800 number with a national or bigger business?

I remember when my parent would get the phone bill and would scan the long distance charges and yell "WHO CALLED CALIFORNIA?!?!?!?! Do you know how much that cost!?!?!?!"

[Dirtyhip]

I remember.  I also remember wrapping myself in the cord, as my Mother screamed at me to get off the phone.  

Remember 1800 collect?

[Razors Edge ★]

3 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Remember 1800 collect?

Vaguely.  I also remember payphones - a dime for me - and even calling home collect when I didn't have a dime!

[Scrapr ★]

I remember having to call after 7:00 pm for lower rates. After 11:00 pm for lowest rates. The fraternity had a small booth. There was a sign up sheet to make your call IIRC

[ChrisL]

In the army we had pay phone banks outside the barracks so I had one of those calling cards & would dial the number, enter my code and the long distance charges would hit that account which I paid monthly.  As all of my family was on the opposite coast it came in handy rather than plunking coins or calling collect.

[Kirby]

I still have a landline because the sound is so much better for work conference calls, but if I use it outside the adjoining area codes, I get charged for long distance calls. I won't keep that after I retire.  But  I use my cell phone for all my long distance calls.

[ChrisL]

18 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I remember.  I also remember wrapping myself in the cord, as my Mother screamed at me to get off the phone.  

Remember 1800 collect?

Before my wife I dated a young lady who would take the phone into her room & close the door talk to me.  Apparently it was a reeeealy long cord.   I remember her mom yelling at her to get off the phone...

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, ChrisL said:

Before my wife I dated a young lady who would take the phone into her room & close the door talk to me.  Apparently it was a reeeealy long cord.   I remember her mom yelling at her to get off the phone...

...or just picking up any other phone in the house and listening in or yelling "GET OFF THE PHONE!"

 

[jsharr ★]

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/In7S/geico-collect-call

[Further]

 

[ChrisL]

10 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

...or just picking up any other phone in the house and listening in or yelling "GET OFF THE PHONE!"

 

Her mom didn’t eaves drop that I’m aware of. I remember her mom yelling at her through the door.  I’m sure they had more phones though.

They had a really nice house just up from Mount Vernon a long that scenic highway on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac.  

[Randomguy]

It wasn't great having to share the phone with the whole family.  When answering machines came about, that was a big technology breakthrough!

[Prophet Zacharia]

2 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

It wasn't great having to share the phone with the whole family.  When answering machines came about, that was a big technology breakthrough!

And call waiting. I had an older sister who loved the phone, it was nice to sometimes get a message that a friend had called.

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, Prophet Zacharia said:

And call waiting. I had an older sister who loved the phone, it was nice to sometimes get a message that a friend had called.

I simply had the "busy" tones for much of my childhood, but then the explosion of "tech" in the 80s which was portable/cordless phones, call waiting, better/integrated answering machines, and then caller id.  WOOT WOOT!

[ChrisL]

I also remember my mom making calls with my Oma in Holland really early in the morning on Sundays I believe.  Through the postal service they would arrange a day & time well in advance. My uncles & aunts would all be there and they would pass the phone around.

I remember her complaining about the over seas rates back in the day...

[JerrySTL ★]

11 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I also remember my mom making calls with my Oma in Holland really early in the morning on Sundays I believe.  Through the postal service they would arrange a day & time well in advance. My uncles & aunts would all be there and they would pass the phone around.

I remember her complaining about the over seas rates back in the day...

Calling from England to the US was expensive around 1990. 

I remember having a party line in the 1960s.

[Scrapr ★]

13 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I simply had the "busy" tones for much of my childhood, but then the explosion of "tech" in the 80s which was portable/cordless phones, call waiting, better/integrated answering machines, and then caller id.  WOOT WOOT!

It was amazing how much tech came available after MaBell got broke up

[Razors Edge ★]

5 minutes ago, Scrapr said:

It was amazing how much tech came available after MaBell got broke up

Remember when the gov't could actually break up a monopoly?  Man, it was like the world ended with that break-up and we were relegated to third world status!  We better never do such a dangerous and unAmerican thing again!

[Mr. Silly]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

...and "800" numbers?  I'm thinking, "what's the point" for 800, 888, 877, 866 prefixes these days anyway? Is it just for the old folks like us that associate an 800 number with a national or bigger business?

Then there were the 1-900 numbers.

[maddmaxx ★]

When oldest son lived in Japan we obtained a special deal with AT+T for phone calls to a specific overseas number.  We paid less per month than most would have paid in 15 min on the same call.

When I was on contract jobs womaxx would call me at the hotel (last century) because the hotels charged a premium for an outside line.

[Bikeguy]

I remember paying for long distance calls.   I remember answering machines that used cassette tapes one for the outgoing message and one for incoming messages.

How about phones with the rotary dial?    You do realize if you can remember this, you are old. 

 

[maddmaxx ★]

16 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

I remember paying for long distance calls.   I remember answering machines that used cassette tapes one for the outgoing message and one for incoming messages.

How about phones with the rotary dial?    You do realize if you can remember this, you are old. 

 

There are lots of things that make me realize that I'm old.  Phones are nowhere near the top of the list.

[Further]

2 hours ago, ChrisL said:

I also remember my mom making calls with my Oma in Holland really early in the morning on Sundays I believe.  Through the postal service they would arrange a day & time well in advance. My uncles & aunts would all be there and they would pass the phone around.

I remember her complaining about the over seas rates back in the day...

I remember a family call to Germany in the early 60's. We called the operator and gave her (all operators were girls) the number, she called back about a half an hour later and told us the call was placed. We said okie dokie and she hit the button....and we were talking to a cousin in Germany  

[Allen ★]

When I was a kid we had a four digit phone number and the town six miles down the road was long distance. 
A couple of my friends had party lines. 

[Allen ★]

1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

How about phones with the rotary dial?

I still have one. It’s a candlestick. Surprisingly it is still comparable with the phone service. 

[Forum Administrator]

True fact: I had a bag phone in the early 1990s as a high school student.  My girlfriend was a long distance call and it was cheaper to have the phone than pay long distance rates.

[Square Wheels]

As a kid, we needed to let the phone ring several times.  My grandparents lived about 30 miles away, it was a toll call.  If they wanted to talk with us they would call, let it ring once or twice, then hang up.  We'd call back.

[Airehead]

My high school sweetheart lived over the state line in Pennsylvania.  I am getting PTSD just reading this thread. I remember a $60 phone bill. My whole paychecks went to my dad. 

[sheep_herder ★]

Still do with a card.

[groupw]

I remember being very aware of rates when I went to college out of state and called back to my girlfriend back home. 
 

We were in a school consolidated among 3 towns. The other 2 towns were long distance and all my friends lived in one of the other towns. I missed out on a lot of stuff because it was a long distance call. I was jealous of my brothers because their good friends were in the same town!

[sheep_herder ★]

3 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

I remember paying for long distance calls.   I remember answering machines that used cassette tapes one for the outgoing message and one for incoming messages.

How about phones with the rotary dial?    You do realize if you can remember this, you are old. 

 

We still have a rotary dial phone on the hall wall.

[Longjohn ★]

I remember the trick that parents would have their college students use when they were driving back to school after the Holliday’s. They would make a person to person call to their parents to let them know they made it safe. The parents denied the call saying that person wasn’t home. Then they knew their student made it safe and no long distance charges.

[MickinMD ★]

9 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

...and "800" numbers?  I'm thinking, "what's the point" for 800, 888, 877, 866 prefixes these days anyway? Is it just for the old folks like us that associate an 800 number with a national or bigger business?

I remember when my parent would get the phone bill and would scan the long distance charges and yell "WHO CALLED CALIFORNIA?!?!?!?! Do you know how much that cost!?!?!?!"

I had a cheap phone service into the 2000's where I paid a few cents a minute for long distance calls.  Since an hour was less than $2, I never kept much track of it.  Eventually it got to the point where the packages with phone/Internet/TV were as cheap as alternatives.

I also remember before dial phones when you had to tell the operator the number you wanted.  Our home phone number when I was a child began "STATE-9" meaning "ST9" or "789."  When I downsized after retirement and bought out my siblings' shares of our late parents' home where we had kept a phone line for security services after my mother passed away, I kept the number, so I still have that 789 number!

[Razors Edge ★]

7 hours ago, MickinMD said:

Our home phone number when I was a child began "STATE-9" meaning "ST9" or "789."

Yeah, I remember my mom telling folks our phone number and it was always "Midway-2 ...."  That was pretty normal back then (I guess), but you definitely knew when there was a new phone number because it was out of those "traditional" ranges. 

[bikeman564™]

Yup I remember. I then remember when cell phones were new, there was long distance & roaming. Now I can call anywhere in the US from anywhere in the US and it just uses my regular minutes.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

17 hours ago, ChrisL said:

They had a really nice house just up from Mount Vernon a long that scenic highway on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac.  

George Washington Parkway. Ran south from the Beltway to Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon MUT runs alongside from Key Bridge to Mount Vernon. 

[Razors Edge ★]

1 hour ago, bikeman564™ said:

Yup I remember. I then remember when cell phones were new, there was long distance & roaming. Now I can call anywhere in the US from anywhere in the US and it just uses my regular minutes.

Which is interesting as even "minutes" are regularly becoming a thing of the past.  Bandwidth/data usage is seemingly the "unit of measurement" now.

[bikeman564™]

4 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Which is interesting as even "minutes" are regularly becoming a thing of the past.  Bandwidth/data usage is seemingly the "unit of measurement" now.

yes, mobile companies are selling bandwidth, not phone calls. I got my first cell phone in 1996 as a just-in-case thing to have w/ me in the car. Back then I had little minutes and was worried of going over. Then peak/off-peak was  a thing, free weekend, then free mobile to mobile (assuming same carrier), now it's like meh. I don't even know how many minutes I have because I never go over. I also have unlimited text, which was IIRC 25 cents per, way back when. I have the bottom internet plan of 2 gig but never go over. And, Verizon lets me keep what I didn't use for the next month as a roll-over. And also with Comcast, I have unlimited wifi using their hot spots, so my phone usually uses that, and not the plan's usage.