American Phones

Landline Phones

Phones work pretty much the same as in the UK. Remember (when following instructions) that the hash sign is the pound sign. Numbers always have 3 digit area codes, and then 7 digits. In some areas, codes overlap - so 310 and 424 cover the same area. If you live in one of these areas, you need to dial the full number, including the code, every time. In our area (and I don't know if that's true everywhere), you also need to add a 1 - the country code for the USA, if you're using a landline, but not if you're using a cellphone.

Landline phones often attract enormous numbers of calls from marketers and scammers, who will say that there is an urgent matter regarding something or other and you need to call them back. Don't. They are trying to scam you in some way. I've heard of people being called 15-20 times per day by these people, and we (used to) get called about 5 times per day - which is enough to stop you bothering to answer the phone.

There are a couple of things you can do about this - first, get either a phone or a provider which allows you to block calls. (AT&T charge us $5 / month for this, it's well worth it). Second, if you get a phone where the number appears, type the first 3 digits into Google, and it will show you where the caller is. If someone is calling from Utah, and you don't know anyone in Utah, there's no need to pick it up.

(We have also acquired a rather natty Panasonic phone, which reads the name of the person calling if it knows it, and the number if it doesn't, while it rings. This saves you getting up from the sofa.)

Mobile Phones (Cellphones)

Mobile phones are (usually) called cellphones, although sometimes they're called mobile phones, and if you hear someone refer to wireless it's not a very old person talking about the radio, it's someone talking about a cellphone (e.g. Verizon Wireless). Pay-as-you-go contracts are much rarer here in the US than in the UK - although they are available (I used to have a Virgin phone which was just about the cheapest way to have a cellphone if you weren't going to use it much).

You can't tell if someone's number is a cellphone from the number - cellphones have the same area code as regular phones, and they cost the same to ring. The big difference is that on your cell phone, receiving calls costs just as much as making calls. That is, if you have 100 minutes on your phone, you can talk for 100 minutes - it doesn't matter who called whom.

People like market researchers are (theoretically) not allowed to call cellphones, and they usually don't.