Best way is to have a seperate Hobby phone.. minimum expense and worth every penny to maintain annonymity!

NEVER use your work phone unless you wish to join the masses at the unemployment line! also, you should never use your personal phone either! Especially if you are married! nothing like having to explain a cell phone bill or unwanted text message. A phone you can keep and turn on only when needed is the best route! prepaid phones are easy to get and are super cheap as well!

If you insist on using one of your own phones I would suggest your personal one... just to avoid the employment complications but I'd say a third one is almost a necessity! Using your personal phone opens you up to LE scrutiny as well as create other proplems in the event you run into a crazy provider... though not common it does happen... as it does to the ladies with crazy hobbiests too!

My .02
Fog

I never had a hobby phone when I was married. It just didn't seem necessary but, then again, my boss wasn't looking at my phone bill every month.

Get a hobby phone.

I hear you on that one.

I've been able to avoid a hobby phone for the time being. But only because no one else oversees my phone bill.

If there was a way, you would hear it about it here. And what you can see is that no one has another way to deal with with your type of situation effectively.

good luck to you


HalfHour

Only carry one cell phone for business and personal use.  Know the Boss is watching the cell bill.  Can't afford to use this phone for these calls.  Most providers require you to be able to call or be called.  Not sure how to approach and wanted to avoid another phone.  How do others deal with this effectively.  Appreciate the advice!

Search the Newbie Board for "hobby phone" or "Tracfone". It's one of the most asked about topics. Everything you'll ever need to know about them has been said and can be found in the archives.

You can go to "x-mart" and buy a trac phone for 9.99, and 60mins for 19.99, after taxes it all comes to just under 32.00.

This is the best choice. I made the mistake last year of using my cell phone, and a crazy provider started posting my number on websites.

Do not use company phones, computers or internet access (even with your personal laptop) for adult purposes unless you own the company.  
A TracFone or similar is the answer.  Only turn it on when you are hobbying.  Otherwise turn it off & put it away.  Keep your hobby life separate from your civie life.
Get a private hobby email address.
This is rather a Newbie question...  find the link on the Newbie Board by the life saver & read the self help section.  Then read back on the Newbie Board until you can answer every question yourself.   No one can do this education for you since you must filter it through your own circumstances.

1. Get hobby gmail
2. Get Google Voice
3. Get a hobby phone.
4. Link the two together so that Google voice number is forwarded to your hobby phone.

5. IMPORTANT: set up google voice so that it emails you SMS / voice messages.  

6. IMPORTANT: On your personal SMARTPHONE , set up so that you can check your hobby Gmail.  
   THIS enables you to send receive SMS from within your personal phone under your hobby phone #.
   
   If that wasn't clear enough for the slow folks, I'll say it again... Step 5 & 6 allows you to send/receive SMS txt messages using your Google Voice # from within your personal smartphone which has a different number (your personal civvy phone #)  

7. When someone calls your google voice, it rings your hobby phone.  
Also, if you have your browser open on your desktop to gmail or have a client, you can send/receive phone calls from your laptop too. Very conveient.

8. Dialing is a bit of a hassle if you have a shitty hobby phone. Googlevoice is meant to seamlessly work with smart-phones but not shitty hobby phones... Easiest is to pre-program the shitty hobby phone so that it dials the google-voice unique number instead of the original destination #
everything can be found here ->  

http://lifehacker.com/5316921/how-to-sms-with-google-voice-from-any-mobile-phone

You can be cheap and use work phone, get caught and face the consequences or get another phone personal use.

I fail to understand why folks calling themselves or consider themselves to be an "adult" ask such stupid questions.

Then get a sim card, and replace the original one with the hobby sim.  The "hobby sim" can easily go into you wallet and that prevents you from having two phones.  Most stores can unlock your phone if the contract is cometed.

Get a hobby phone.
trac phone or other brand of throw away phone.
you can get them at Best Buy, Target, The Mart Twins ( K and WAL)
and I'm sure other places too.

Pay cash for the phone and the time cards, so there is no paper trail back to you.

Thank you
2011 = 28

Here's my deal. The phone I use to talk to providers with is the same one I use to talk with my mother with. My father. My boss. My customers. My friends.

I don't give a fuck! Unless someone has pix of me doing something unsavory and/or illegal, it's 'implausible deniability'.

Prove it.

Google Voice works very well.  If you use it was a web app, you can call numbers from the browser and it does a "ring back" to your phone, which will appears on your phone as the GVoice number, so there's no miscellaneous provider number showing up on the bills.  HIGHLY recommended for married hobbyists, because number can be kept on the web and NOT on your phone.

Would've literally saved Tiger Woods MILLION$$$

If used as a smart-phone app, it integrates nicely so placing and receiving calls are convenient.

like everyone has probably posted already.. get a TRACFONE.. for your hobbyiing here..
jmo
Indiana Provider