Are burner phones even real anymore? How are you supposed to even get your hands on one without paying outrageous fees? And do burner phone numbers cost as much as your regular phone does?
Yes, even if you forgot that burner phones were once prominently featured in movies and television shows and used by the sneaky, rich girls, they still exist.
No one wants to have to double their phone bills just for a little extra privacy or organization. And many might not know that there are some relatively simple and inexpensive ways to get your hands onto a burner phone, or even just a burner number that you can manage completely from your phone.
If that is something that you’re interested in, you’re in the right place to figure out how to get a burner phone number.
Use a Burner App
While physical burner phones are now significantly less common, burner apps exist on the app store.
Specifically, these are applications that you can download onto your smartphone and use to get access to multiple burner phone numbers for a small fee every month. And while every burner app has different standards and policies, you can have access to these numbers without all of the complications of regular phone contracts.
Get a Physical, Pre-Paid Burner Phone
There are also more traditional options for burner phone numbers, including getting an actual, physical phone for your personal uses.
Generally, these are also less likely to come with complicated contracts, and are significantly less expensive than signing up for another smartphone and signing more phone contracts with a big company. But these will also come with limitations, like limited talking minutes and text messages.
Why is a Burner Phone Useful?
There are a number of reasons why a person might look into getting a burner phone or burner phone number, and not all of these are necessarily nefarious in nature. So what are some good reasons to get your hands on a burner number?
You Don’t Have to Give out Your Main Phone Number
If you prize privacy as it relates to your phone, getting a burner number might be helpful for you. Instead of giving out your personal information to coworkers and bosses at work, or to companies that require a phone number to sign up for service, you can give them an alternate number.
Fewer Annoying Notifications
Not needing to give your main phone number out to services can also mean that you don’t have to get constant updates about company deals or offers on products you’re interested in. And that can easily be accomplished by only checking the notifications on your burner number whenever you actually have the time.
It also means, if you use your burner number for work, that you can mute work-related notifications while you’re off the clock and actually enjoy your relaxation time off.
No New Contracts
According to the Viaero Blog, burner numbers typically don’t come with complicated contracts that you need to worry about. That can make burner phones much more useful and convenient, depending on your situation.
As a part of this, you’ll also have peace of mind in knowing that you can contact emergency services with your burner. This is allegedly because all phones in the United States are required to come with the ability to contact emergency services, mainly in the instance that there is a serious emergency.
Organize Your Social Life
As mentioned earlier, you can use a burner number to separate your work calls from your personal calls. However, the organization can go even further than this.
If you so desire, you can have separate phone numbers for all of the different organizations that you visit on a semi-regular basis, including work, school, church, hobbies, and volunteering organizations.
While I wouldn’t recommend having separate physical burner phones for each and every one of these obligations, having separate numbers that you can manage from your smartdevice could save you a lot of headache and hassle.
That’s especially the case if you’re not in the headspace to deal with school-related drama or organizing the church’s annual fundraiser right at that moment.
Cancel Your Burner Phone Plan Whenever You Want
Because burner phone numbers, including the physical burner phones, are generally so inexpensive, there are a lot fewer issues if you ever decide that you no longer want or need your phone.
Even if you decide that you are no longer able to manage more than one phone number at a time, it’s relatively easy to get away from any contracts.
This is generally because pre-paid phone plans are very cheap, and even if you were to decide to stop using your burner phone the day after you’d paid for your monthly plan, this wouldn’t likely leave much of a dent in your spending money.
