What is the lowest cost to keep phone number for 4 months when temp out of Canada

[jessiecell]

I am a university student and will co-op in US for 4 months.

I am currently public mobile customer.

  How can I  keep my cell phone number for 4 months without costing too much?

[Rockdaddy22]

Are you currently on a plan? If so, when does it expire?

[jessiecell]

Thanks everyone.  i will try renew within 90 days with 10 days plan.

Do i need to change my plan to 10 days plan now ?

[stonechucker]

I like this option, because there is no chance of losing the phone number.  Normally the drawback would be losing you current PM plan, but as the original poster has already suggested changing plans, it would happen anyway.

[MoreYummy]

Public mobile should add some kind of temporary suepend features, just like other carrier when you are outside of the country for a few weeks. 

[computergeek541]

As mentioned, you cannot select a no talk, no text, no data plan.  The billing system will not allow you to activate it.

Although there are 90 day plans available, it would actually be cheaper to let the Public Mobile account go into suspended state.  But make sure you activate a new plan before the 90 day suspension limit ends.  Otherwise, you would lose your phone number at that time.

Another option would be to port your number out to Fongo. There would one-time cost of $25 but you can keep your number active there for as long as you wish.

[stonechucker]

@XJin is correct, you can not only select the length, you must select 1 service to activate a plan.  The texting option on 10-Day is the cheapest.

the suggestion by XJin is the solution @jessiecell is looking for.

[Korth]

Public Mobile Plans:

You can select 10-day, No Talk, No Text, No Data = $5 (plus tax) prepaid.

You can select 30-day, No Talk, No Text, No Data = $10 (plus tax) prepaid.

You can select 90-day, No Talk, No Text, No Data = $25 (plus tax) prepaid.

Your account and service will be suspended one day after payment due (sometimes a couple days, if it's a long weekend or something). It will then remain suspended for 90 days.  If you pay to activate a new or renewed plan during this time then your number won't be lost.  Public Mobile does not offer a method to voluntarily pause/suspend/resume service, though the idea has been suggested before.

I wouldn't personally go for the 10-day plan, since it seems intended for temporary use and doesn't seem to benefit from the "monthly" plan structures.

I also wouldn't push it right to 90-days or bank on extra days, etc.  There might be unforeseen problems with the inactive account which could take a few days to communicate to PM staff, there might be delays of a few more days to get things fixed.  The sad reality is that system glitches do happen and sometimes (*ahem* promo times) PM's mods get so swamped under a backlog that "routine" customer concerns get swept in line behind hundreds of "urgent" customer concerns.

So I'd plan to overlap payment schedules a little, build in a little safety buffer, not bank on all the little "freebies" working favourably - why bother to pay for maintaining the number at all just to chance something "unexpected" going wrong at the worst time then losing everything at the last minute ... and all just to "save" a few lost dollars?

[XJin]

You only need $11 to keep your number for up to 190 days.

Once your current plan expired, you have 90 days suspension period which will not delete your number if you reactivate within that period.

So, 0~90 days no cost; reactivate with a 10 days text only plan on 90th day --> 90~100 days $11; 100~190 days no cost.

Plus, I don't think you can select a plan with nothing, I read it somewhere in this community.

[ShawnC13]

I was able to select a plan with no talk text or data for 90 days was $25 and then you could switch to a 30 day for $10 now I am not sure if you need one product but this might be something you can do to keep your number.  I am sure some others with more time around here will have a better answer but that is what I was able to find out