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Phone Number Retention

vanthony
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Hello,

 

I am studying abroad for the next two years but coming back home to Canada every 3-4 months. I was wondering, if I cancel my plan and resume whenever I come to visit or at the end of the 2 years, will I still be able to keep my phone number? I don't want to have to pay $40/month if I'm not there to use it but I also don't want to lose my phone number. 

 

Thanks for the help

11 REPLIES 11

Obice
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Another option, like some others said is to use an app like Fongo, TextNow or TextPlus.

 

Fongo would be your best option if you want really good audio quality (I find any other apps to be shotty at best) and then pay 1, 3, or 6 months for a texting plan either within Canada or Global.

 

When you come into Canada, get a data plan, at the moment I'd recommend either Chatr or Fongo Wireless.

 

  • Chatr currently offers a data plan for 500mb and also unlimited int texting and unlimited incoming calls Canada-wide.
  • Fongo Wireless offers two data plans, 2GB or 5GB at LTE speeds except no texting or calling added whatsoever since all that is technically done within the Fongo Mobile app.

Obice
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@vanthony wrote:

Hello,

 

I am studying abroad for the next two years but coming back home to Canada every 3-4 months. I was wondering, if I cancel my plan and resume whenever I come to visit or at the end of the 2 years, will I still be able to keep my phone number? I don't want to have to pay $40/month if I'm not there to use it but I also don't want to lose my phone number. 

 

Thanks for the help


I could be wrong, but when you don't pay your bill you have 3 months to pay your bill before your account is shut down, including your number being unassigned to you. So my thinking is that if you can log in before 3 months, say the 88th-89th day and top up your account... you should be fine.

dabr
Mayor / Maire

@vanthony wrote:

Hello,

 

I am studying abroad for the next two years but coming back home to Canada every 3-4 months. I was wondering, if I cancel my plan and resume whenever I come to visit or at the end of the 2 years, will I still be able to keep my phone number? I don't want to have to pay $40/month if I'm not there to use it but I also don't want to lose my phone number. 

 

Thanks for the help


You won't lose your number by putting it into suspension or just by removing your CC (if you've registered one for autopay reward) thereby not facilitating payment.  As everyone has mentioned just remember to set a reminder to pay at the 85-88 day to continue to keep the account/number active.

 

While you may want to consider dropping down to PM's cheapest available plan of $15, just keep in mind that if you opt to change plans to pay less, your current $40 plan may or may not be available at the time of you returning.  Of course, it's possible there may be better plans available at that time too.  However, if you keep your current plan with suspension and a payment every 88 days, then you will get to keep your plan if/when you resume your service.

 

Anyway, you have a lot of good suggestions from everyone on how to keep your number in an affordable way, so good luck on your studies abroad:)

brid0nca
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen
You should get a VOIP service like Fongo, and pay $25 to port your number to Fongo. I think this is the best solution for your needs, I will explain why. When you are overseas, you can still make and take phone calls with Fongo, as if you were still in Canada. As long as you have good internet, you are good. You never have to cancel. When you are in Canada or overseas, just find a data service that works for you. You can add the Fongo app to it, and it will just work. You change data providers, Fongo will still work. In Canada, you can even get Fongo to forward calls to a Canadian number of your choice.


@totalUser wrote:

Speakout wireless $25/365 Days

Bell $5/month

But you will not have much to use when you're back, on the good side minimum involvement on your part.

If you don't mind logging back in every 85 days and reporting your phone found paying 15 then logging back in in 25 days reporting it lost again for another 85 days, you will be collecting time for loyalty rewards and paying less than if you went with bell.

Note: bell is also notorious for changing things out of the blue and every year increasing the prices, so we can't really assume that there should be no input on your part if you decide to go with bell. Speakout should be fine, just make sure you set the reminder on calendar. I remembered but for some reason wrong, I thought September 13th it was actually 3rd and lost d over $100 balance. You have to make minimum payment and the whole balance resets for another 365 days


Loyalty rewards are delayed if your account is suspended for more than 60 days / year.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/the-loyalty-reward.

But yes, you are not starting completely from scratch if you keep the number at PM.

9R3W4L
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@vanthony 

Option 1: Before you leave, you can change the plan to $10 or $15 /month and add $5 - 500 minutes add on which will cover any extra minutes you might use and will stay on account until they are fully used. Add on minutes will only kick in when you have completely used your plan minutes. This option will cost you $8 or $13 per month depending on your plan cost.

 

Option 2: Take off auto pay from your account in the last month. Your account will stay active for 120 days (from last payment made to the account) or 90 days (from the last active service). Very important that you keep track of the day to not lose your phone. You can even change your plan to the cheapest one if you are confident that you will not lose track of dates and want to save $8/$13 for the account.

 

Option 3: This option will only save your number. You can port in your number into NumberBarn.com. This will cost you $5 USD to port in and $2USD per month to save your number. And you can port in / out between PM and NB whenever you please. NB has a few other options such as call forwarding, Voicemails sent to email services as well. This option may not be the greatest if you plan to use your phone when you come back to Canada.

Now that PM has discontinued access to the $10 plan, it's most likely more cost effective to port out to a different service. Unless you want to keep a smok'n deal like the 2016 fall promo (in which case you'd let it go into suspension, pay for the full plan on day 85 of the suspension period, technically have the plan for it's duration and rinse and repeat. For a 90 day plan that would cut your cost in half.)

 

Pros for porting to a VOIP service: you can take / make calls through Canadian number wherever you have a WiFi or data connection. Some VOIP services have a fully functional text feature.

 

Cons: porting into or out of some VOIP providers can be a hassle, lengthy and most of them charge a fee for the privilege. Also, not all numbers can be ported to a VOIP service (I tried to "park" one of my numbers with fongo, but since they don't have local numbers where I live, I was told I couldn't port mine.)

 

Pro for porting to Speakout: number on a physical SIM card on the Rogers network for a minimum of $25+tax per 365 days before the next top up is due (and, after deduction of their service fee you have $10 for calls or texts.) If you don't want to do the porting dance every time you come to visit, you can just buy a voucher at 7-11 and use their service on pay as you go or one of their value plans. Once you are moving back to Canada porting to PM or another provider is fast and easy.

 

Cons: Speakout can only be used in Canada. No call forwarding. It's low(-ish) cost but not free.

totalUser
Mayor / Maire

Speakout wireless $25/365 Days

Bell $5/month

But you will not have much to use when you're back, on the good side minimum involvement on your part.

If you don't mind logging back in every 85 days and reporting your phone found paying 15 then logging back in in 25 days reporting it lost again for another 85 days, you will be collecting time for loyalty rewards and paying less than if you went with bell.

Note: bell is also notorious for changing things out of the blue and every year increasing the prices, so we can't really assume that there should be no input on your part if you decide to go with bell. Speakout should be fine, just make sure you set the reminder on calendar. I remembered but for some reason wrong, I thought September 13th it was actually 3rd and lost d over $100 balance. You have to make minimum payment and the whole balance resets for another 365 days

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@vanthony  Maybe consider porting your number to s service like Speakout because it will require less maintenance and when you come back for good port your number back into PM.  🙂

Dunkman
Oracle
Oracle

@vanthony 

You need to pay your account every 90 days or the account/phone number will be lost/closed forever.  You could lower your plan to $15/month and pay it every 90 days.  

 

Other options is to port over to another service, including VOIP, which may be cheaper long term.  

bianhua1988
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Sorry, you can't. What I did is, when I went out of the country, I switch the plan to $10 plan, and when I come back, I change it back to what I had. It will save some.

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