Thread: Looking for second phone line/separate voicemail ideas

Hi!
I'm hoping one of you will have an idea/service you've used that you'd be willing to share. It seems like this is something that must exist, and if it does, there must be belly dancers somewhere using it.

The husband and I are considering getting rid of our land line because we use it infrequently (me occasionally, him not at all) and almost never answer it (usually let calls go to vmail and pickup/call back only on those rare occasions it's someone we WANT to talk to.)

DH suggested we just drop it all together and just use our cell phones. Problem is, my cell phone is my business phone for me and my dance school. There are several reasons I'd like to have an alternate number and separate voicemail for certain things/types of calls.

So...I'm looking for a (hopefully inexpensive) option for a second phone number that would have its OWN voicemail, but wouldn't necessarily need have a phone connected to it. Ideal would be something where the calls could be forwarded to my other number/cell **somehow indicate that the call was placed to the other number*** (so I know how to answer if I choose to do so); however, a number that just goes to a voicemail box that could send an alert to my phone when there's a new message would be just fine (afterall, I pretty much never answer the landline now, so people who call me on that will live if I need to call them right back....)

I checked out Google Voice but that seems to be pretty much the opposite (one number that takes over all your various phones and voicemails) and what I need is a separate number and voicemail, hopefully without having to get/carry a separate phone and WITH the ability to know which calls were made to which number.

TIA for your help!

I use Google Voice as my dance number. When a call comes into my cell phone from someone calling the GV number after you pick up a recording gives you the option to accept or reject and send to GV voicemail. If you miss the call it goes to GV voicemail. It doesn't show anything on caller ID as to which number they are calling.
Also you can have the voicemail transcribed (by computer so never 100%) and e-mail to you as text.

I don't have a land line so I love it as I am not giving out my personal cell number to students and customers.

Mirah, I use google voice as well. you can program it so certain numbers always come through, or certain numbers go straight to voicemail (so you could probably automatically send everything to google voicemailbox). and you always know which line they calling is calling, because you have the option of answering or sending to voicemail.

I have exactly what you described through a local (to me!) company. It is a dedicated voice mail box with a separate phone number, and I receive a call on my cell phone when someone leaves a message (I can listen to the message right away if I choose to answer the phone). I love it, and have been with them for over a decade.

This is the company I use: http://www.bay-link.com/ .They seem to imply they can offer more area codes than just California, but even if they can't may know a company in your state that offers similar service.

Good luck!

I have no idea if google voice costs anything or not- will have to check it out
I use a prepaid cell phone- by far the cheapest option here! A voicemail account (no phone line) costs $25/month, but I pay $100/year for 1000 minutes (which I don't use!) but it also has that voicemail service, & I can forward that phone to my other phone. added bonus, I *can* use that phone if I need to. Works for me. heck, you could leave it plugged in at home so you have an emergency contact line if you misplace your other cell for some reason.

I used phonepower for a long time until I got my Google Voice number. I switched only because Google Voice is Free!! I love it.

Problem I've seen with Google voice is, I don't necessarily WANT all my calls to go to voicemail, only the people who would call my home phone, I don't necessarily want to lose my current vmail, and I need different vmail boxes depending on which number the person is *calling*, not which numbers they're calling from (I don't necessarily have those numbers in advance--say, if someone from a construction company is calling about our house I don't have their specific extension. If a potential student/client calling for mybusiness, I don't have that number in advance.) Keeping home separate from dance is extremely important in this case. Everything I've seen so far sounds like that wouldn't work with google voice.

Our local phone monopoly is Qwest. They generally suck and are pretty expensive (We have a land line--no caller id, no call waiting, no voicemail and they charge us way too much for such a stripped-down line.) Still I'll check and see if they have voicemail-only accounts and how those compare.

I suppose if I can't find anything better, I could get a google voice account, not connect it to any phone at all and then I'd have to get online everytime I wanted to check and see if there were any calls to that number (which sounds like a bit of a pain but I guess it's hard to beat the price), but I am hoping to find something simpler.

I use Ring Central for the Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive. They have options for separate extensions. When someone calls the toll free number, they choose the extenstion. The call is either redirected to me, or goes to the voice mail for that particular person. I have it set up so when the call is coming from RingCentral, there is a code that shows on my phone, so I can answer it appropriately. I'm not sure if that is what you have in mind, but they have lots of options. It's relatively inexpensive too.

The Google Voice app for iPhone is AMAZING...you get alerts for calls/texts/vm just like your regular phone, but it allows you to respond as if calling from your Google voice number (and holds your contact info)

As far as automatically sending to voicemail...I have mine rigged so when I get a call, the phone rings and I hear "Jane Doe is calling....to answer, press 1, to send to voicemail, press 2"

PS. Using GV to text/call over a wireless connection is a great way to avoid horrendous fees if you take your phone out of country

Mirah, I'm not sure I'm understanding... so your home line is the one you want replaced, and that would get the google voice number? and your cell for your business would stay the same? you can still make outgoing calls from your google voice number via your cell phone, and receive calls and check voicemails to your googlevoice (home) line from your cell phone. Callers wouldn't know the difference. It takes a bit more time to dial up your google voice line and then punch in the number you want to dial (so that the caller id shows up as that number, not your cell) but it still works (and is free!!)