Porting out of Rogers Prepaid with 0$ balance?

[Poogzley]

Hello,

I want to port my grandmother's number over to Public Mobile from Rogers Prepaid. 

Her account balance just expired 3 days ago will I be able to port out her number as it is our would I need to reload her account and lose the balance before it gets approved?

[BearFBI]

@computergeek541 Most of the Pay as You go services from the big 3 are all plan based. Rogers only has prepaied plans. I belive Telus and Bell are all plan based as well. The closest pay as you go service you can get nowadays is speakout. Most the carriers have moved old pay as you go coustomers to a new prepaied plans. Rogers is one of them.

Some people just like to keep a balance in their account so they don't have to worry about top up every month or because their plan includes per minute billing on top of a monthly base plan.

When I ported out my balance was 0$. In fact it was always 0$. I never kept a balance. I bought a 20$ topup every month.

[computergeek541]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@Poogzley Yes you can port out if your Rogers account balance is 0$ but make sure your plan is still active. I was previously with rogers prepaied. To make sure your plan is active try to call using your rogers SIM. If it works your plan is active. Or you can just call the rogers self serve and it will say "your balance is 0$ but your yearly or monthly plan is still active"

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I assume that you had a $0 balance too when you switched?  Thanks. That's good to know. 

It could also make a difference if it's a pay-as-you-go type of account or if it's a preapid monthly plan. For prepaid carriers, customers on a monthly plan should definitely be able to port out even with a $0 balance because the service is still running.

Ironically, years ago, it was Telus Mobility that had a problem with prepaid accounts if you had a $0 balance. As soon as the balance hit $0, services would stop working even if you had paid for a prepaid account 30 day plan. To get the service working again, customer service had to add 1 cent to the account.   I do not know if Telus Mobility ever fixed that.

Different carriers have different rules. For example Freedom/Wind allows numbers to be ported out from prepaid/pay your way/pay before plans even if you are late on payment. They have a 10 grace period in which incoming calls and text messages still work and porting out during that time works.

Another situation could be of a $0 prepaid balance being caused by balance expiry (not applying another top up within required time to keep existing balance going). This could make a difference at Rogers when it comes to porting out.

@Poogzley 

Worst case, you could always try the porting without making a payment. If that doesn't work, you could always try again after making a payment to Rogers to reactivate your plan (if it isn't). Be sure to be mindful of any account expiry rules so that you don't lose your phone number.

[BearFBI]

@Poogzley Yes you can port out if your Rogers account balance is 0$ but make sure your plan is still active. I was previously with rogers prepaied. To make sure your plan is active try to call using your rogers SIM. If it works your plan is active. Or you can just call the rogers self serve and it will say "your balance is 0$ but your yearly or monthly plan is still active"

[Carniam]

Hi the number must be active to be able to port that number. Reload and switch her over a few days before that plan expires

[will13am]

@Poogzley , in order to be eligible to port your number from Rogers, the account has to be active.  I don't know much about how Rogers manages the prepaid service.  Is the account still considered active even though the account balance has expired?  I suspect not.  I suggest talking to Rogers about porting eligibility in this situation.  If they say the number is still eligible, then you can proceed.  Otherwise, you will have to do a top up first.  Anyway, everything is controlled at the sending carrier end.

[gblackma · Accepted solution]

@Poogzley in order to port from Rogers, your Grandmother's account must be active. The port when completed will close it for you. You have to reload it. 

If you haven't activated your Grandmothers sim yet, here's 4 articles on activation and porting and the Refer a friend reward  if you need them:

1. What you require to activate https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/what-you-need-to-activate
2.How to activate https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/activation-account-set-up
3.How to port https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/choose-your-phone-number
4. Refer a friend https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/the-refer-a-friend-reward

If the sim was activated with a temporary number. Then you need moderator help to port your number.  Type "Port Request" and follow the prompts to get to one. Give them the name on the account,  phone number to port and the old providers account number.  There are 2 ways to contact the Moderator Team:

• Faster response- Get help with your account the easy way by starting a conversation with our virtual assistant, SIMon. It’ll take you to relevant help articles, or if it’s something more urgent, it can help you submit a ticket to the Moderator Team. Click here to get started.
• Slower- Alternatively, you can send a private message to the Moderators by clicking here. You’ll need to be logged in to your Community account for the link to work.

Keep an eye on the envelope top right of your screen.  The mods answer will show up there.  Stay safe. 

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