While telephone answering machines aren’t at the forefront of today’s technology, they’re still going strong in a few specific niches where people prefer their features to voicemail. Should you use voicemail or a telephone answering machine?

Use a telephone answering machine if you need multiple mailboxes.
Do you live in a busy household, and find yourself often missing messages because whoever checked the answering machine forgot to write them down? If you answered yes, or even if you’d just like a degree of privacy with your answering machine messages, consider a telephone answering machine that supports multiple mailboxes. These machines give the caller of dialing a number to select the correct mailbox, and are typically protected by a numeric code so that only the mailbox owner can check the messages.

Consider whether a telephone answering machine lets you check messages remotely.
If you’re a business traveler or simply someone who always wants to be connected, you’ll need to find a telephone answering machine that enables you to check messages remotely. Voicemail comes standard with this feature, so this is one way in which telephone answering machines fall behind; you have to search to find a machine that supports remote mailbox functionality. However, if the other aspects of a telephone answering machine appeal to you, don’t let this remote access feature prevent you from using an answering machine. It is possible to find telephone answering machines with remote access, so do a little extra research to find one that meets your needs.

Telephone answering machines let you screen your calls.
One of the biggest benefits of telephone answering machines is the ability to screen your phone calls. If you find yourself getting unwanted calls from bill collectors, distracting family phone calls at inconvenient times, or simply want the power of screening your phone calls, telephone answering machines are a logical choice. Voicemail is stored remotely and you can’t hear the message as it’s being left, so you aren’t able to choose to answer the call. With telephone answering machines, however, you can hear the caller and determine whether you want to answer while the caller is still on the line. This gives telephone answering machines a big advantage over voicemail.

You can use a telephone answering machine if you want to save money on phone service.
Voicemail is generally a subscription service that requires you to pay a monthly fee. However, once you purchase a telephone answering machine, you own it; you don’t have to pay any additional monthly fees. Evaluate your finances when you’re making the choice between voicemail and a telephone answering machine. If you save six dollars per month by not subscribing to voicemail, a typical telephone answering machine pays for itself in anywhere from 5-10 months. Voicemail can easily run you $70-100 per year, so telephone answering machines make good economic sense if it’s purely a financial decision for you.