If you’re asking yourself, “If I switch phone carriers can I keep my number?”, the short answer is most likely yes. The problem is, sometimes you have to jump through hoops to be able to get that done. Ultimately that gets on some people’s nerves and they just give up and get another number. We’re going to walk you through some of the steps that you’re probably going to need to take to make sure that you can get this done. There’s an easy way to do this, and a hard way to do this. Both of them actually involve picking a new phone service provider before you completely end things with your current service provider.
The key to the answer of “If I switch phone carriers can I keep my number?”, being a yes is to either end things on good terms with your current service provider, or make sure that you’ve got the other service provider waiting in the wings to sweep you off your feet. There are a couple of things that people think matter in this process when they really don’t. For example, whether or not you keep the same device with your new service provider. Really, what it comes down to is that your new service provider needs to be able to create a SIM card or eSIM with your same number that connects you to their network and not the network of your old service provider. The process of how they do this is a little like domain names that are left free and can be claimed. However, the technical process isn’t all that important. Here are a couple of topics that are really important though.
- If I Switch Phone Carriers Can I Keep My Number – Don’t Leave Your Current Service Provider
- If I Switch Phone Carriers Can I Keep My Number – What Will Make It Impossible
- Does My New Service Provider Have To Be Offering The Switch?
- The New Plan That You Chose Shouldn’t Necessarily Matter
- Get Through The Whole Process Directly At A Wireless Service Provider Store
- Same Phone With A New Area Code – Can That Be Done
If I Switch Phone Carriers Can I Keep My Number – Don’t Leave Your Current Service Provider
Why are you telling me to not leave my current service provider? That’s exactly what I want to do! Don’t leave just yet, is what we really mean. To be able to make the change you need to basically have “control” of the number. To do that, your best bet is to still have a running contract with your current service provider. If you cancel your contract your service provider could drop your number and literally hand it to the next person that walks in the door looking for a plan or even SIM card from them. What you don’t want is to have your number go back in the pool of numbers that each service provider has.
Usually, if your contract is up they won’t give away your number until a couple of months after you didn’t renew. This applies to both prepaid and long term contract numbers. The main reason why you want to make sure that you have an active service with the company that you want to leave is the control of the number. Does this mean that at one point you may have to make two monthly payments to different wireless service providers in one month? Sadly it might! It depends though on the policies that your current service provider has! Don’t storm out and cancel the contract with your current service provider just yet!
If I Switch Phone Carriers Can I Keep My Number – What Will Make It Impossible
If we had to give out like the key to be able to keep your phone is that you still have to have access to the phone number when you make the switch. Again, the most important thing for you is to make sure that you don’t leave your current service provider just yet. If you do and they drop your number then you’re not going to have a chance to keep the number on the switch. If your current service provider essentially cuts you off and you lose access to their service before making the switch you’re potentially going to be done for.
If you lose your SIM card, can you still keep your number? In the old days this was actually impossible. Since the number was essentially unique to the card itself. So, for example if you lost your phone or lost your SIM card you’d have to get a new number when you got the new device. These days, the cards can essentially be programmed to be able to register a particular phone. That’s actually why it is possible to keep your phone when you switch service providers. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: access to the number is a must. If you don’t have that then it’s going to be impossible to keep the number when you switch service providers.
Does My New Service Provider Have To Be Offering The Switch?
Every so often we’ll get phone companies launching big ad campaigns where they promise that you’ll be able to keep your number if you switch to their service. As far as we know, wireless service providers have the ability to make the switch. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to run these ad campaigns offering the service. Now, what can happen is that you walk into the store of the new service provider that you want to enroll at, and you get an employee that tells you they can’t make the switch because they currently aren’t running that promo. This is one of the situations where you’re going to want to play the let me speak to your manager card. As we mentioned this is something that wireless service providers are capable of doing.
What could happen is that they’ll tell you that making the switch isn’t free. So you’d have to pay a fee in order to keep your number in the switch. Remember this is all hypothetical if we see that the particular company that you want to switch to isn’t running a special promo offering the fact that you can keep your number if you switch to them. The actual phone number isn’t necessarily something that wireless service providers are too concerned about these days. Therefore, you should be able to keep your number. Just as long as, again you have access to the number when you want to make the switch.
The New Plan That You Chose Shouldn’t Necessarily Matter
If you had the full unlimited plan with one service provider, and you want to make the switch to a cheaper plan with your new provider, that shouldn’t be something that disqualifies you from being able to switch with the same number. There are a couple of exceptions to the rule, and some of them are going to be money grabs by wireless service providers for sure. The new provider may limit the plans that you can switch to and keep your number. Usually when the switch is part of a promo they are going to put a ton of guidelines on the process. If you don’t want to switch to a particular plan that they are offering you can check directly at the store to see if there are backdoor methods to complete the process.
What could be more difficult would be to try and take your number to a prepaid plan. As is the case with many of the perks that wireless service companies offer, most of them apply almost exclusively to post paid plans. Even within postpaid plans they are different tiers. We wouldn’t be lying if we told you that wireless service companies view certain customers as first class and others as lower tier clients. When you’re on a prepaid plan you’re buying a ticket that’s worse than tourist class on an airplane. The new plan shouldn’t matter when making the switch. Just as long as it’s a postpaid plan.
Get Through The Whole Process Directly At A Wireless Service Provider Store
This is one of the best tips that we can really give out when it comes to answering the question, “If I switch phone carriers can I keep my number?”. One of the main reasons why we think this is because you can’t really do much on your own to make the switch. This is really one of the few aspects of using your phone in general where you literally have little to no say in the matter. The whole process has to be completed by your new service provider, and your old one. Basically, through this article what we’ve wanted to cover are all of the things that could happen where it would be like a yeah but, moment!
There are multiple wireless service companies that offer this option. Allowing new clients to keep their existing numbers from other service providers. The problems people who want to make the switch very rarely read the fine print. The best way to try and make the switch is to still have an active contract with your current wireless service company when you head over to a store of the company that you want to switch to. In doing so you’ll be able to talk to a person directly who should be able to guide you through the step by step process of making the switch. It’s almost like when you want to file something in court, or whatever process that may require a ton of paperwork. We’re not saying this process requires a ton of paperwork. It’s just that you want to know exactly what you’re getting into so that when you start the process they won’t tell you, you missed something half way through the switch.
Same Phone With A New Area Code – Can That Be Done
If you’re reading through this article because you moved, and you want to keep your same base number with a different area code, this is certainly the question that you need answered. On top of the original “If I switch phone carriers can I keep my number?”. This process could be a bit tricker. The main reason is that your exact base number could be assigned to another person with the area code of the new city that you’re in. So essentially the number would have to be free. For the most part, wireless service companies don’t spend a lot of time allowing people to check random numbers. Like maybe you could do at the DMV for a custom license plate.
What you may be able to do is just keep your same number with the same area code. The thing with area codes other than being another way to make sure that we never run out of phone numbers is that they were mostly used in the old days to be able to get people connected to specific local phone lines. Even in the beginning of the wireless age, certain national calls were considered long distance! These days we are pretty much all under national coverage anyway. The area code isn’t necessarily super important to get you connected to the local phone lines. Even if you move you may still be able to keep the exact same number.
If I Switch Phone Carriers Can I Keep My Number – Conclusion
If you’ve read this far, you know by now that the answer to this question could be a yes, or a no, or a maybe. There are a couple of basic musts that we would advise you take into account. The number one thing that you have to keep in mind is that you need to have access to the number that you want to keep. So, don’t dump your current service provider just yet! The second step that you should probably take is to literally visit a store for the company that you want to switch to. There they can directly let you know the ins and outs of the switch.
One of the main reasons why the answer to this question can vary is that not all phone companies operate the same way. Certain countries may have more restrictive policies even, or poor wireless networks. To the point where they don’t even have the technology to make the phone switch from one service provider to the next. The best moment to make this type of switch by a long shot, is exactly when a particular company is running a promo advertising this possibility. You’ll get better deals on your new plan, and the process is usually going to be smoother overall.