Out of Canada but want to keep my number

[adela1]

I live in Canada and Public Mobile.
I'm planning to go for a 4 month get away to Europe and I don't need any plan, any minutes, any data, because I'm gonna use my 2nd SIM card (European one), but I want to keep my Canadian number active and be able to be contacted on it. But as I don't really need to use it, my question is, what is the cheapest option for me, pls? Thank you.

[Nezgar]

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@adela1 wrote:

I want to keep my Canadian number active and be able to be contacted on it.

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You won't be able to directly use the Public Mobile service while out of the country, but as long as you have an active plan, you can continue to have your calls go to voicemail, or call forward it to an alternate service such as a VoIP calling app like TextNow, Fongo Moibile to allow you to receive those calls over Wi-Fi or data through an Internet connection while away. If you don't forward the number, then you can use those same services to dial your Canadian number to retrieve voicemails. Fongo Mobile and YouMail's voicemail service will e-mail you any received voicemails, so that is potentially an extra convenience removing the need to dial in to listen to them. YouMail's free option will even transcribe the first 20 messages per month to text so most of the time you may not even need to listen to the attached sound file. 

You would have to keep the service active with at least the $15 plan, so you could schedule a plan change to downgrade to that before you go.

[JL9]

Didn't see it (unless I missed it) but looks like as stated you will need to do one renewal while you are in Europe, you can just do the 15 plan which is the cheapest and when you are back to renew for when you are actually going to use it you can go back to whatever your preferred plan is. The only time I would suggest not to do this is if you have a promo connected to that account where the 15 plan wouldn't fulfill the necessary conditions

[softech]

@adela1   sorry, you have to keep track yourself  

(I think you will get a email towards the end, but don't rely on it.  You don't want to miss the email and you account got closed and you loss your number)

Check the My Account, it will show you the "Payment Due Before" date.   That date is your next payment date and since you are not paying by removing Autopay, it will become the date your account will be suspended. 

Add 90 days to it will be the last day before your account will be closed.

Make a note yourself to for the 85th days  to come back to reactivate the account. 

Again, when you reactivate, make sure you see PM shows that payment gone through and it shows account ACTIVE after your payment. 

 

 

[adela1]

Thank you!
Just to make sure, can someone call me/text me, when my account is suspended tho?

[softech]

@adela1  You can do the following

1. Before your trip, logon to My Account, 

2. disable Autopay but make sure your credit card still on the system

3. at the end of the current cycle, PM will not be able to get the renewal amount so your account will be suspended.  It will be suspended for 90 days.  Make note of the end of your current cycle date and add 90 days to it

4. the 90 days after is the absolute date you need to come back reactivate date or you will loose your number.

5 You will need to come back on the 85th day (a bit earlier before the 90th day just in case), and reactivate the plan.  Just make a manual payment.  Make sure the payment goes through successfully.  Refresh  My Account and make sure you see the status changed to Active. 

6.  If any problem like you cannot reactivate on the 85th day, come back to the Community and seek advise or open ticket with PM support immediately.