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T-Mobile Hotspot @Home Talk Forever Review

February 22, 2008

Hotspot @ Hometalk.jpg

I wanted to do a quick review on T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home Talk Forever due to the fact that they have changed the name, pricing and also introduced new functionality. So I thought since it took me a while to figure out all the confusion, I would share it with you.

So basically the T-Mobile Hotspot @Home Talk Forever is now comprised of two services:

Lets start with HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile. This was the original Hotspot @Home service T-Mobile released last year. Basically it allows you to use a WiFi enabled phone to make free calls when you originate those calls from a WiFi router, be it your home router, T-Mobile HotSpot, or any place you can jump on WiFi. The calls could jump seamlessly from WiFi to the towers as you left a WiFi area and back. There are certain phones that can be used with this. (Do a filter on HotSpot @Home Phones)
You must also add on the Hotspot @Home Add-on plan (now called HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile Add-on) to your current plan to be able to get unlimited WiFi calls. The plan used to be $9.99 for a single user and $19.99 for a family plan. It was then raised to $19.99 for a single user and $29.99 for a family, now it is $9.99 for a single user and a family. So that means when you add on the $9.99 HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile plan anyone on your family plan with a Hotspot @Home enabled phone can make unlimited wifi calls. I think this is a pretty good deal, especially if you have teenagers. I currently have this service and love it. The calls are very clear and I hardly ever use minutes anymore since most of my calls are wifi calls. (See my original Hotspot @Home Review Post for more detail)

Ok, now lets discuss T-Mobile’s new HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home Service. You can think of this as more like Vonage or Comcast VoiP. This service does not use your cell phone but rather a router which a regular telephone plugs into. router1.jpgThis new router (Linksys WRTU54G-TM) , which will cost $50 with a 2 year contract extension, basically replaces any current router that you have. It has wireless as well so you shouldn’t miss anything from your current setup. What makes this router unique is that you can plug in regular telephones into the back of it and make calls. The router supports up to two phone lines. These phone lines each have their own number. You do however need to add the $9.99 per line HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home Add-on plan to your wireless plan for each line that you want. So you must have T-Mobile wireless service to be able to get this feature. This is basically giving you an additional phone line with unlimited calling for $9.99. The service also comes with Domestic long distance, Call forwarding, 3-way conference calling, Voicemail, Call Holding and Call Waiting. This obviously beats Vonage’s $24.99 unlimited plan. This service is currently in Beta in Seattle and Dallas with a planned national roll-out soon. One thing I am anxious to see is if these lines can handle faxing as faxing has been as issue when I had Vonage. (UPDATE: I am not able to get faxing to work over T-mobile @home, so I signed up for this cheap fax service instead)

One thing to note, to be able to add either of the 2 plans you must have a current individual wireless plan that is 39.99 or higher, or any FamilyTime mobile plan $49.99 or higher.

The HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home Service is more for people that would want to replace their land-line phone with a cheaper alternative. Since I have the HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Mobile family plan I don’t think I would get this since we never use a land line phone anymore. So it is really up to you to determine how you use your phones. I also like the HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile plan since I only have one phone number. However if you have a small business at home adding a HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Home line might be an option for you. This is also a good alternative to Vonage if you are not happy with their service.

I hope this kind of cleared up the confusion with all the changes to these plans. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews, VoIP / Cell · 7 Comments 

T-Mobile Hotspot @Home Price Changes

February 11, 2008

Hotspot @ Home

Back in December I did a quick review on T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home (now called HotSpot@Home Talk Forever Mobile Add-on) service where you can make unlimited calling on your cell phone plan using WiFi. They offered a price for $9.99 per month for a single phone and $19.99 per month for a family in addition to your normal monthly minutes plan. Apparently those were promo prices, since shortly after my review they went to $19.99 per month for a single phone and $29.99 per month for a family. Well it appears T-Mobile has thought twice about this change and have made things even simplier and cheaper. Now it is only $9.99 for unlimited WiFi calls for a single phone AND family.

This isn’t bad considering if you have a bunch phones on a family plan all those people can make unlimited WiFi calls for only ten bucks a month extra. Now this essentialy does replace your current home phone. Plus it lets you keep your teenagers from plowing through their minutes while at home or near a T-Mobile hotspot. One question people ask is that does this service give you access to all the T-Mobile hotspots? The answer is yes, but for phone calls only. All T-Mobiles Hotspot @Home phones are preprogrammed to automatically connect to T-Mobile hotspots for placing and receiving calls. If you want to use your laptop at one you will still need to pay for the service like usual.

 I have been using this service and I love it. The calls are very clear and I like having the flexibility of only one phone number. If you think to yourself, well I hate having that phone up to my head all day, try one of these:

The xlink connects to your home phone and your cell phone via bluetooth. This allows you to use your original home phone to make and receive calls on your cell phone. I love this thing. Both my and my wife’s phone hook up to it (it supports up to 3 cell phones at once). So when we are at home we can use your cordless phone instead of having to use the actual cell phone. Plus when an inbound cell phone call comes in it rings all of our cordless phones so we don’t have to race through the house trying to find where we left the cell phone. The xlink makes the connection to your home phone seamless, you just pick up your phone and start dialing. Call waiting/caller id all work with your existing home phone like normal. This in addition to the Hotspot @Home Service makes us not miss our old SBC line at all.


I am happy to see that T-Moblie is differientiating themselves from the other wireless carriers by offering these types of services. I have been a long time customer and plan to be for much longer.

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews, VoIP / Cell · 3 Comments 

How do I deal with my cash?

January 22, 2008

I get a lot of questions asking me what accounts I use for my money. I tend to look for accounts that have the features I want over the interest rate, but have been able to find accounts that offer both. I have posted about many of these accounts since they are what I use everyday, so please refer to the posts for more detail. Here is a quick breakdown of how I handle my money:

Checking Accounts:
My main checking account is the Fidelity mySmart Cash High Yield Checking Account. (See Post) The current yield I am receiving there is 4.82%. This account has free ATM rebates, free checks and free billpay, so it pretty much has everything I want with a high interest rate. Plus it is integrated with my IRA’s and 401k, so it is nice to have everything in one place finally! Since this is a decent enough interest rate, all my savings sits here as well, no need for another account!

Since Fidelity doesn’t have any branches near me, I have a National City Account Free Checking Account that I use for deposits of cash and checks. There is a branch just down the street from me, so this is convenient to make deposits. I then use Fidelity Moneyline to move those deposits from the National City account to my Fidelity account. Very easy and hasslefree.

Brokerage:
I use Tradeking (See Post for Bonus) Brokerage. They are very easy to use and the commissions are low, $4.95 for equity and option trades. They also have an ACH feature where I can pull money out of my Fidelity account easily. Since the market has been so volatile lately I haven’t don’t much trading here, so the cash is just sitting in Tradeking’s money market at 4.25%.

In addition to Tradeking, I also use Sharebuilder. (See Post for Bonus). I mainly use Sharebuilder for a long term investing account. I buy partial shares of 10 ETF’s four times a week. My goal with this account it to dollar cost average while the market is correcting itself. I just set this and forget it. I consider this nest egg fund to use later, possible for kid’s college education.

Credit Cards:
I only use 2 credit cards for purchasing. My main card is the American Express Blue Cash Card

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews · Leave a Comment 

My Favorite Christmas Gift

December 30, 2007

The best thing I got for Christmas from my wife was a bluetooth headset. With little suggestive hints, she got me the .

It is a little bluetooth device with a built-in mic that essentially acts as a hands free headset that pairs up with your cellphone, computer, etc. What makes this thing uniquie is that I can plug any headset into it, or anything with a standard herdphone jack. With most bluetooth headsets you are at the mercy of whatever ear piece they give you (It does come with a set of stereo headphones if you don’t have any). I am mainly going to use this to play music wirelessly from my cell phone to my car, since I can plug this device into my audio in jack in my car. I have a cell phone with a built in MP3 player so now I can listen to those songs in my car without one of those FM transmitters, using bluetooth instead.

What is also cool about this device is that when hooked up to my car stereo, when I get a call, the music mutes and the callers voice can be heard over my car speakers. I was always having issues hearing people with my little in-the-ear headset that never got loud enough, but routing the call through the car speakers makes that no longer a problem. It also has an LED display which shows the caller id of the incoming call or the current playing song. It charges with a mini-usb, so you can charge it in the wall or just connect it to your pc and it charges. From a form perspective, it is in the shape of a clamp, so you can clip it onto your shirt pocket or collar so it is easy to take with you and it only weighs 22 grams. Very little genious gadget this is!!! I don’t think my wife will be able to out do herself next Christmas!!

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews · Leave a Comment 

Yodlee Review

December 27, 2007

yodlee.jpg For the past 6 months or so I have been using Yodlee.com and I thought I would do a short review.

Yodlee is an account aggregator which lets you see all your account balances and transactions in one place. So I can see my Mortgage, Credit Cards, Bank Accounts, Retirement Accounts, utility bills, etc all on one screen. This makes checking balances very easy as I can see everything at once without having to log into various accounts. Even better is the fact that it is free! There is an “update accounts” button that lets you update all your account balances all at the same time. You also have access to an “auto login” button which can take you right into that account if you need more detail.

Yodlee will list the most recent transactions for each account, so you can keep an eye on the current happenings of each account you have setup. One thing I use this for is that I have a lot of credit card accounts that are open but I don’t use. Yodlee lets me see their balances at a glance to make sure there is no unauthorized charges going on.

Yodlee allows you to set up alerts on threshold balances so you can track when there is activity on a certain account via email. This is great when account balances are getting low, or you are close to a credit card limit.

They also offer a Bill Pay Feature which essentially lets you pay your bills for any accounts you have set up on Yodlee. So, for example, if you have 2 credit card accounts set up on Yodlee and you want to pay your electric bill, Yodlee’s bill pay interface will let you choose which account you want to use to pay the bill. No more retyping your card number since everything is already stored here. The best feature is that there is a little section on your dashboard that lists all your upcoming bills with the bill amount , minimum amount due (for credit cards) and date due. This is a great way to keep from paying things late since you have a quick snapshot of everything.

Yodlee sells this under other names such as Fidelity Full View, HSBC Easy View, etc. So it is a well established product with some big name customers. If you have an account at HSBC or Fidelity you should have access to it. I prefer to use Yodlee.com since they tend to get the updates before they are rolled out to other sites. I guess you could call it a “Beta” site. I have been with them for over 6 months and have not had any issues. They also have a support forum where you can request anything from help to the addition of new accounts. They also roll out new features and new accounts all the time.

Yodlee.com has been an invaluable tool for me since I have so many accounts. I can easily see what is going on on a daily basis as well as get a picture of my networth easily. I also use it to track what bills are due when since my desk at home is an absolute mess! I check my Yodlee account once a day and don’t know what I would do without it!

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews · 6 Comments 

How Do I Cancel Vonage?

December 21, 2007

cut_the_cord.jpgSo after 2 months trying out T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home (my review) and liking it very much, I decided to drop Vonage. Since most everyone already knows my cell phone number, losing my Vonage number wasn’t an issue, except for telemarketers probably.

I was about to embark on a very interesting ride from what I gathered by reading about earlier horror stories of people being on hold for hours before they can reach someone. So reluctantly, I called the customer service number. After navigating through the web of voice prompts I selected the “Cancel My Service”. I figured this one takes you to a hold queue of 40 minutes then to some person that will do whatever they can to not let you cancel.

To my surprise I was only on hold for 5 minutes until I reached Debra (ID: E25293). Here is where the fun begins. She asked the usual account verification questions, then asked my why I wanted to cancel. I told her that I have this new cell phone. (I wasn’t about to explain to her what Hotspot @Home was since I knew she would never understand it). She then started to tell me how much more my cell phone costs than Vonage. I let her go on for a bit, before I started to become agitated and asked her if she heard what I was saying “I WANT TO CANCEL!” She would just ignore that and tell me what a great customer I have been. This went on for about 10 minutes as she asked a list of questions, which I wrote down. I started asking for her supervisor and each time she told me she was an account manager and then proceeded to offer me more free service. I think I was up to about 4 free months before I told her I was calling their corporate office hung up on her. I was pissed. What a waste of 15 minutes!

I almost called their corporate office, but wasn’t sure which number would get me anywhere. After calming down a little I thought about it and came up with the right strategy … Don’t give them a reason to try to keep you. And that means lie if you have to!

Here was the plan. (I wrote down all the questions I was asked on the previous call and devised answers that would not make it easy for them to keep me).  There are the responses I would use on the next call to cancel:

  • When asked why I was cancelling: “I don’t use the service anymore” (This was true since I haven’t had the device plugged in for about 2 months)
  • When asked what am I using instead of Vonage: “I am using a cell phone” (Truth)
  • When asked how much are you paying for a cell phone: “My company pays for it” (Total lie here)
  • When asked if I wanted to keep it for a backup: “My wife has a company paid cell phone that we use as a backup” (Again, another lie)
  • When asked if I want to transfer my service to any friends or family: “My family all died in a horrific plane crash on the way to a family reunion and my friends are now homeless after the stock market crash” (Some of my finest work ever)
  • When asked about the quality of Vonage when I did use it: “There were so many outages. And the wait time to talk to support was ridiculous!” (Partial Truth)
  • When asked if there is anything more she can do to help me keep the service: “No Thank You”

Again I placed the dreaded call to their customer service line and the wait time was less then 5 minutes. This time Christine was my account manager. I didn’t even bother to ask for her ID in the beginning since I thought I wouldn’t need it. So I went through all the questions above her and she noted down my responses. Don’t know if she bought the plane crash one or not! After the last question, that was it! She cancelled it, I got a verification email and no more service. Damn they were persistent though. I guess when you are hit with multiple patent lawsuits you need to keep your customers!

I hope this helps anyone trying to get away from that crazy company!!! Just preplan what you are going to say. Don’t give them a reason to try to keep you as a customer. Don’t elaborate on your answers make them short and sweet. And getting angry and asking for a supervisor did nothing. Just keep calm and keep saying “No Thank You!”, if you can last.

 All I can say here is that Vonage wasn’t a bad service, but with that kind of customer service, I will never touch them again!!!!

Written by BudgetBoy · Filed Under Reviews, VoIP / Cell · Leave a Comment 

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