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Switching Cell Provider / Previous Family Plan / Not the Policy Holder
Voro
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, cell phone costs need to be cut down and the AT&T family plan I'm on is beyond the 2-year minimum (also, their service sucks), so I come to you for help and/or advice. I'm planning on getting a cheap phone from Verizon and switching to a pay as you go plan since I rarely use mine. My mom is planning to switch to a no contract phone (leaning towards Cricket?).
The problem: I want to keep my old number, but my mom is the policy holder for the family plan.
The only info I could find is this guide on the verizon website. It sounds like I might not be able to order my phone online, simply because everything would have to be done through their customer service number. I assume that means I'll have to do so in-store and make sure my mom is there with the at&t contract/payment info.
So, is this something I can do or should I get used to the idea of losing my number? I'd rather not have to dig up old game/email accounts and make sure they aren't tied to the old number.
Oh, and I hear they cancel your old plan once the port begins/ends. The 25th is the end of our next billing period...are there any timing specific things we need to do aside from both switching prior to that date?
The problem: I want to keep my old number, but my mom is the policy holder for the family plan.
The only info I could find is this guide on the verizon website. It sounds like I might not be able to order my phone online, simply because everything would have to be done through their customer service number. I assume that means I'll have to do so in-store and make sure my mom is there with the at&t contract/payment info.
So, is this something I can do or should I get used to the idea of losing my number? I'd rather not have to dig up old game/email accounts and make sure they aren't tied to the old number.
Oh, and I hear they cancel your old plan once the port begins/ends. The 25th is the end of our next billing period...are there any timing specific things we need to do aside from both switching prior to that date?
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You do not need to be in any way associated with the account holder if you know all of this information. Which is one reason to have a password on your account, but I digress. If you have her permission she shouldn't have any problem giving you everything you need to port the number.
You won't have to worry about anything vis-a-vis billing cycles. AT&T prorates everything, which means that waiting a day means you pay for a day. Port early if you're leaving due to costs, it saves you money. Because AT&T bills in advance your final bill will typically be a check issued to the account holder, because you already paid for a full month but cancelled without using what you paid for. Unless you have extra charges like termination fees or whatever. Caveat: very, very old AT&T accounts are still in the arrears billing system and won't get a check but those are special cases.
What'll happen when the port goes through depends on a couple of things. If you do it in-store, you're likely to walk out with a working Verizon phone with your number on it and the AT&T account submitted for termination that day and the final bill in the mail shortly. It's that fast for the major carriers. If you do it online or over the phone, the request is submitted but it's not finalized until you power on the new phone when it arrives in the mail. You might have to do some trivial activation step as well, I forget, it's been a while since I did my own. It'll have instructions.
In either case you shouldn't be left without service, the transition should be seamless. I say "should" because shit happens and maybe 1 out of 1,000 ports or so something goes hideously awry, but in most of those cases it's because the customer gave the wrong info or forgot they had a billing password. Major carriers screw things up very rarely; customers screw things up for themselves very frequently.
In-store systems have checks for that kind of thing, so it's less likely to induce a headache. If you order your phone online, may god have mercy on your soul - but no, seriously, they pay people to staff the stores for a reason and if they are remotely competent they'll make your transition a lot easier. The commission for prepaid accounts is next to nothing (I would guess, I haven't sold Verizon in ages) so don't expect the red carpet treatment, but it's easier for them to get you activated and on your way quickly and painlessly than to jerk you around.
See, that's one of my biggest concerns. It'll cancel once they start porting mine, thus my mom won't be able to port hers because the account is considered closed. I guess we'll just have to try and switch on the same day, and hope for the best.
Thanks for the info, I think I'll go with an in-store purchase to save myself the headache.
When you port a number they only cancel that line. So if you have a second (or third, fourth etc) that line will remain active but will need to be moved to a individual account, sometimes you have until the end of the billing cycle before it needs to be converted. Now, the problem here is that when accounts are changed (either from a family to a individual or vise-versa) the service provider will require a new contract to be signed. Basically, you can port your line out no problem, I've done it hundreds of times as a cellular sales person. You just need the account number, password, possibly the last for of the Social Security number.
Not with AT&T. In fact this strikes me as absurd. Is there a carrier that actually does this?
Your account won't be closed if you port out one line and there are others on there, just that one line will be cancelled.
I know we can port numbers into AT&T without the last 4 of the ONSP account holder's SSN. Since every carrier outside of the big 4 is a no-contract prepaid and won't have the information on file, it would be a dumb requirement.
T-mobile still does this, then again T-mobile is pretty lame.
Christ on a cracker that's dumb. Shit changes over two years. Also aren't they now billing you monthly for the phone subsidy? What the hell is the point of signing a contract then?
I guess that if you can't make a profit running a business you have to fall back on making it on the termination fees....