Leaving country for 6 months - can I freeze my account?

[KatiaKhas]

Hello!!

I'm moving to Australia for 6 months starting Dec 20th. Once I return, I want to continue using the same plan and phone number. Am I able to do this without paying for me plan while I am away?

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@KatiaKhas 

Here are your options for your service while traveling overseas....

1. You can turn off autopay and allow the account to suspend at the of your current 30 day cycle but this is your least advantageous option. Pay and reactivate by day 85 or so.
2. If you have an account balance that exceeds your plan amount then you need to suspend via the lost/stolen feature in your account before midnight eastern on the evening of your renewal. Then on day 85 or so resume your service to pay and reactivate.
3. Suspending via lost/stolen before midnight eastern on or before day 30 will keep your voicemail active allowing you retrieve voicemail and any verification sent by phone calls. However your rewards will not be applied to your account. CSA contact after paying and reactivating is necessary to have the rewards applied manually.
4. Voicemail can be accessed by calling your pm number from a different phone by calling your phone # and pressing "*" once connected and entering your 4 digit voicemail pin #.
5. If you don't have an account balance or enough balance to cover your plan amount you can suspend via lost/stolen after midnight but before 2 am eastern on the day of your renewal. Once your rewards have been applied (usually by 12:15 am et) then suspend your account. Voicemail access will be lost.
6. Switching to the $15 plan with rewards helping to cover a partial or full amount of your plan allows you to call forward your pm number to your textnow or fongo number before you leave Canada.. Now any incoming calling to your pm number will ring thru to your textnow or fongo number while on wifi or mobile data (w/a local or global sim card) You can access your textnow or fongo voicemail for all voicemail messages.

Most important mark on your calendar day 85 of your suspension and day 90. The new self serve accounts can be troublesome to reactivate if you carry a balance that equals or exceeds your balance. Check your payment history for your payment and your account status (Active). If you have trouble reactivating contact customer support. Reactivate on day 85 to ensure you have time to deal with any issues. Do not forget when you must unsuspend your account via lost/stolen and/or pay and reactivate your service so you don't lose your phone number and account. 

The 90 day counter starts after day 30 of your last paid cycle. If that happens to be the day of your departure December 20th then Day 1 is December 21st, Day 30 is January 20th, Day 60 February 19th and Day 90 is March 21st so you must reactivate before March 21st. To play it safe aim to reactivate by March 15th. You then have 120 days (30 days of paid service+90 suspended) to reactivate or 115 to be safe but you should be back in Canada by the beginning of July with close to two weeks left before Day 90. Just set up several reminders for your renewal in March.

Happy Travels and Stay--Safe!!

[Meow]

PM has no option to freeze account and you Not to pay for it.

You can suspend your account for a maximum of 90 days without losing your number. After 90 days, your number will be gone and your account will be permanently closed.

- Downgrade your Plan to cheapest $15 Plan.

- Make sure your account has no more funds in the Available Funds

- Disable Autopay. Your account will be suspended on next renewal due to no pay.

- Log in around 88th day and pay for the next 30 days. Remember to log in as after 90 days of no pay account will be deleted.

You can also click Lost/Stolen button to suspend the account right away and the 90 days counter will also start immediately.

If you plan to be absent longer than 90 days then do not remove credit card from the file, log in around 85-88th day and renew your service manually for following month. Then again you have a window of 90 days. Good idea is to lower your Plan to $15 Plan. Be aware your loyalty rewards counter will be delayed if you suspend service for more than 60 days.

[BKNS27]

@KatiaKhas 

Your account will be closed, SIM will be useless and your number will be lost if you suspend payment for 6 months.

You have 2 options to keep everything as is:

1- Switch to the $15 plan and continue on AutoPay.

2- Suspend payment for 85 days (less than 90 days) and renew it online.

[hycm53]

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@KatiaKhas wrote:

Hello!!

I'm moving to Australia for 6 months starting Dec 20th. Once I return, I want to continue using the same plan and phone number. Am I able to do this without paying for me plan while I am away?

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If you don't pay after 90 days, your account will be closed and lose your phone number.  

[Quigley]

@KatiaKhas 

You can only suspend your service for only 90 days at a time, until you have to make a payment again 🙂.

If you miss the 90 day mark, you risk losing your account and phone number too.

[softech]

@KatiaKhas  there is no way to just freeze the account for 6 months. But if you are willing to spend a bit of time, you can spend just around $30 and keep the number and account while you are away

First, PM only allows the account to be suspended for 90 days or your account will be permanently closed and you will loss the number

So, your option is to temporary suspend the account and reactivate for 30 days before the 90 days deadline

Here is what you can do (assuming your Available fund = $0)

1.  First, change plan to $15 plan (to reduce the cost to keep you number)
2.  Then disable pre-Authorized payment from Payment page
3.  On the next renewal date, since pre-authorized payment is disabled, it won't be renewed.   
         Make note of that day 1 of the suspension date
4.  VERY IMPORTANT.   Come back at around 85th days after the first date of the suspension to make a manual payment to renew the account for 30 days.  You have changed to $15 plan, so, it will just cost you $15 for those 30 days.  After you make the payment, make sure you see clearly that the account status is changed to ACTIVE.  If not, you will either have to open ticket with PM support or come and seek help here
5.  Make note of that date, again, the account will be active for 30 days only and will be suspended again after the 30 days.  Make note of the date it got suspended again
6.  As autopay is disabled, it won't renew after those 30 days.
       I hope you will be back by then. You just need to change the plan back to the one you want and then reactivate
      If you still not back to Canada by the end of that 90 days, then come back NO LATER than 85th date and repeat from step 4 again