<p>Last time I contacted my cell phone provider, they didn’t really seem to be able to answer my questions. There were long pauses after I asked a question, and then it sounded like they were reading from a script or something. So I thought I would ask all you wonderful CC folks first.</p>
<p>My D is leaving the country for a year. Her cell phone service will not work there, so it does not make sense to continue paying for it while she is gone. However, when she returns, she would like to keep the same phone number. I assume I will have to keep it on my family plan to reserve the phone number. Anyone know about this?</p>
<p>I have AT&T and you can suspend the number for three months or more and have the number held for you. You don’t pay during that that time…try asking if you can suspend. Maybe they weren’t understanding you…they do definitely go from scripts.</p>
<p>Another thing you may consider is purchasing a pre-pay phone. I currently have a work phone, but wanted to keep my personal number although I don’t currently use it. I spent $100 total for the last 14 months and just paid another $100 for the next year.</p>
<p>I also have AT&T and have not asked them this particular question yet. I could not think of the word “suspend,” but that is exactly what I want to do. Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>Our daughter left the country for two years. We just discontinued her plan…and her number. To keep the same number, we would have had to pay her $10 a month on our family plan. We decided that was a waste of money just to keep a phone number. We just got her new number…and she can send a batch email to all of her friends to call her on that number. We had her old sim card…but oddly it had no numbers on it…and none stored in her old phone either. Oh well. Methinks that within 2 days she will have all of her contacts up and running.</p>
<p>You can suspend the number? My two are overseas this year, and I’m biting the bullet and paying to keep their numbers…but also have the contract from their last phones, purchased after they returned from previous time abroad, so would owe about the same total amount for ending contracts early. But they told me I had to pay to keep the numbers, regardless. I’m going to ask again. Thanks! </p>
<p>ucb, I dream of prepaid, as a way out of these endless contracts.</p>
<p>Why keep the number? Why not just do what Thumper’s D is doing and when she gets back she can email (or FB or text) whoever she cares to know her phone number and tell them the new one - done!</p>
<p>It’s not really that big of a deal to get a new number - especially for a young person who hasn’t had it for the past 20 or 30 years. I can’t see paying to reserve the number.</p>
<p>Even if you suspend the number, you are still responsible for the monthly fees associated with the number (but not any “usage”-related costs) per my experience with both T-Mobile and ATT. Things might have changed in the past 6 months.</p>
<p>The only reason I keep D’s number - she has unlimited data plan from ATT, and boy she used that data like there was no tomorrow! If ATT ever tells us “sorry, the party is over”, we all will rethink our loyalty to them.</p>
<p>There might be a way where you transfer the number to a Google Voice account. I think they charge $10 one-time to transfer your cell number to their service, but afterwards everything’s free.</p>
<p>With Verizon you can suspend service on a line/phone in your family plan and opt for no charges during the suspension. They automatically reinstate service after 90 days, but you can go on line and suspend it again. This does lengthen the time of your contract by the number of days the service is suspended. I’ve done this for both D and S2. No problems (so far).</p>
<p>I’m the OP with an update:
I called AT&T to suspend/cancel my D’s phone. The first lady I talked to said I would have to pay the $9.99/month to reserve the phone number so I told her to just cancel it. She then transferred me to another lady who said since I had been a customer for so long (15 years) they would give me a “promotional” credit of $10 a month so I could keep the number and not pay anything. Since my D’s contract has expired, I asked specifically if this would require a new 2-year contract and she said no.</p>
<p>Sheesh…we’ve been ATT cell customers since it was called Lynx…and no one offered to give us a “promotional” anything to keep DD’s number. I honestly can’t stand ATT customer service and this is one more reason why. They just don’t have their act together.</p>
<p>Just FYI…we have been off contract now for years.</p>
<p>Well, this is what I was TOLD would happen. We shall see if it comes to pass as stated. I usually have had great customer service from AT&T except the one time when it was clear she was “googling” the answer to my question. I have never considered switching because AT&T by far provides the best coverage in my area.</p>