Do you hoard your digits?

[dodgechevy 149]

Wow, I'm completely surprised no one has mentioned Google Voice yet. Especially since people seem to actually be paying for an extra "burn" phone. It is literally a free phone number you can get from Google. All you have to do is sign up for a Gmail account. You can have it set up so it directly calls any other phone you want to use. You can text someone else directly from it. I love that feature as I hate texting from a phone. You can even call from your phone using your Voice number.

 

We basically just hand out that number whenever we need to chat with someone. No one's abused it yet. But if they did, a simple click blocks their number, or you can set it up so it doesn't go directly to your main number every time.

[slevin 1,374]

Wow, I'm completely surprised no one has mentioned Google Voice yet.

 

Google Voice is only available in the US

[drinnt 201]

We usually start with email. If we dig the people and feel they are ready to be admitted to the next layer of our lives then we'll give them our phone numbers. We don't have any qualms about managing the relationship - vis a vis to say "hey please no more texting I don't have the time." or "our kids use our phone too so please only call me on it when we need to make plans." Seems like you guys are not afraid to lay down the boundaries as well...which is key.

 

We recently did create a special LS-only email though...but truthfully we are only looking for people that we would feel close enough to that we would actually WANT to hear from them every few days - or a text now and then. Besides, when everyone has an iphone group texting is a friggin blast!!!! All sorts of pictures and flirty responses get traded. Hehehehehe.

[noobwithboobs 22]

I don't give my # out until I've send a few emails. I do also have a google voice # that I've used a few times when I wasn't sure I wanted them to have my real number

[Coupleerotic22 1,417]

Google Voice - in and outbound calls, you can turn on or off as needed. Forward it to any phone or several at once. You can send and receive text to it. You can have personalized voice mail that sends you text or too your voice mail. It's free.

 

There are other options out there that are pay ($10-15/month), VoIP phones that add a second line to your phone, they tend to have more options and work more smoothly than Google Voice.

 

I use multiple lines for various reasons; work, personal businesses and personal phone, personal business and personal fax lines, toll free numbers, to have local numbers in various states that I work and travel. It is really very easy, inexpensive and convenient. On a smart phone I also have Skype and various chat services through a unified chat client. Used in conjunction with a smart phone and you can do almost anything anywhere.

 

There is a work around for Google Voice, plus Skype (can be free or paid) and Dell Voice (free) for Canada.

 

We do have separate numbers for our swinging friends. But I am so accustomed to have different numbers it is no big deal.

[JandC78 16]

Well as of Monday it became a moot point with this couple, She was chatting with him while i was at work, and he wanted her to play on the webcam with him, she told him she does not turn on the cam unless we are both there. He then asked when they was going to get our phone number. She basically told him the same thing we have told them from the beginning, his answer was that he was done then, if he could not talk or see her when he wanted.

 

I would say I am proud of my wife for the way she handled this, she said she had the most fun with him, and that the both made her feel relaxed when we meet. We were just not ready for the next step, and from the conversation over the last few weeks since we met it was pretty clear that he was looking more for a girlfriend type situation.

 

This is the third couple we have passed on in the last week.

 

the first one was a guy that got ticked everytime he would be on the computer and want to talk to my wife if she was not around, He thought it was terrible, even though his wife went from being online all the time to not at all at the same time. The part of this one that was funny was the messages he sent us calling us fake and that I was a single guy, made us laugh, cause he knows at least one couple we have been with, and they have not been with any.

 

Also on Monday we were talking to a couple we have chatted with for about 6 months, still have not met them yet, and she just said something that really did not sit well with either of us at all. (to the point we was supposed to go to a house party with a couple we have been playing with, and 3 of their couple friends in a couple weeks, this couple is one of them, now we are pretty sure we are not going to go.) I will expand on this later.

[CollegeCouple24 232]

If it helps, you can create a number on Google Voice for free and just use that. You can send/receive texts with it for free too; but not MMS

 

https://voice.google.com/about

[JustAskJulie 2,588]

I've been getting a little more open with giving out our #, but it's still pretty tight and only with couples that we are already planning to meet. When doing the back and forth of setting up a meet, it can be a lot easier to do it via text (where you are getting the messages right away) vs trying to do it online (where you may be checking it every 5 minutes or every 5 days).

[Greg & Sheryl 368]

We're pretty open about giving out our number -- at least Greg's number, anyway, as Sheryl's pretty reluctant to answer her phone under any circumstances. Sometimes, we even use this as a test to see if a couple is really serious about meeting us, because online communications have a way of continuing indefinitely without making any real progress. Also, it was necessary to give out a number when we were hosting hotel parties, because there were always people that would have trouble finding the hotel.