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3:45 am
Hi there, got a question.
Is there a timelimit to port my number? Atm I want to wait until my previous service is close to expiration and then port my number to SO. Can I do that when my previous service is almost close to expiration or do I have to port it now because I just got SO now? Will SO accept the porting after several weeks after I activated my SO service?
Thanks
4:05 am
Do it before your minutes expire -- Try telling SO, you just "found" your lost phone...
Virgin is a bitch to deal with.
1:01 pm
March 15, 2008
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You can port at any time but there are some issues...
1. Any airtime credit on your SO phone under your current SO number will be lost. If you don't add any airtime, i.e. use up the $5 initial credit as 5 months of 911 fees then you should be OK.
2. SO airtime vouchers expire in 90 days if you don't apply them. So in practice you have less than 3 months to do the port without losing a lot of airtime.
3. If the number you're porting is on a prepaid plan then you'll lose any airtime on that phone. If it's post-paid then you want to port the number to SO before you notify your old carrier to cancel your account. Otherwise you'll lose the number you want to port.
3:35 pm
Thank you for the replies. So is there specific I should tell the CSR when I will ask to port my number to SO? Will they start asking why it took me like 2 months to port it after I activated SO?
6:38 pm
March 15, 2008
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So is there specific I should tell the CSR when I will ask to port my number to SO? Will they start asking why it took me like 2 months to port it after I activated SO?
If they ask, I'd tell them the truth, i.e. I bought the phone and airtime in November and was waiting for my old cell contract to end before porting the number to SO.
BTW you have another option. Don't activate the phone until you are ready to port the number. You have 90 days from purchase of phone and voucher to activate the phone and add the airtime. I would think this would be a common situation this time of year, i.e. you buy a phone now as a Christmas gift that you don't open until 25Dec and don't get around to activating until the new year.
One caution with the vouchers. If you have $75 or $100 vouchers and you apply them before year end, you'll get a 25% bonus, i.e. a $100 voucher will give you $125 of airtime. If you wait until 2010 this bonus is likely to end. So waiting until the new year may cost you $25.
So, as you can see, this is getting complicated. Perhaps your best option is to activate the phone and add airtime at the end of December, then port the number over some time in January.
7:17 pm
I already activated the phone IN the store. I wanted to make sure I get what I'm paying for, and not end up with a re-used or switched sim. And good thing too, because 1 phone wouldn't detect the SIM, so they got me another phone that worked.
So I will just follow your advice, and in december before my previous service expire in a few days, will tell them I waited for it to expire, and now I would want my old phone number.
Cheers
8:04 pm
October 14, 2008
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No, SpeakOut does not care how long before you port in your number. I bought a Nokia 1208 at a 7-Eleven when I was still with Virgin. I let my Virgin account dwindle down to almost nothing, then I ported the number over to SpeakOut. I think it was around 2 1/2 months from the time I bought the phone, to the time I finally ported the number.
Just make sure your old service is still active, because they can't port a deactivated number.
11:26 pm
July 12, 2009
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Hi I was confused by the question of when to port vs. the expiry time of my existing supplier so I wrote this to SpeakOut:
Hello. I'm buying a SpeakOut Phone. I want to port my number from my xxxx cell phone.
I am currently on a prepaid plan with xxxx that Expires December 19, 2009. I was told some time ago by xxxxx that there is an early cancellation fee of $200.00 if I cancel that service before that date.
I phoned xxxxx to confirm that my number could be ported at the end of my contract and they told me it can. They also told me that if I'm porting the number that I shouldn't cancel the plan myself -- the new service provider (which will be SpeakOut) give the notice of cancellation by porting the number. My airtime plan etc is paid up to the expiry date.
I don't want to incur an early cancellation fee, nor get trapped into paying an extra month to serve as notice of cancellation after my contract expires.,
I also understand that my number has to be active at xxxxx for the port to take place, so the porting must be done on or before December 19 unless I extend my xxxxx service which I don't want to do.
I have two questions:
1) The way I understand the activation and porting process is that I have to request that the number be ported when I request activation of my SpeakOut phone so that when my phone is activated my account starts with the free 20 minute credit on my "ported" number and at that time I would apply any time credits I have purchased. I understand that I should not activate my SO phone before the porting request, or I will lose any airtime on the phone when the port occurs. Can you confirm that I understand this correctly?
.2) When would you advise that I make the arrangements for porting my phone? I can do it now which will mean the old phone and its number is active. Porting now will give xxxxx 30 days notice of cancellation for which they are already paid. I can also wait until December if that is a more appropriate time in your opinion, but I don't want to incur another month of notice from xxxxx..
Please advise as to when I should activate my phone and request porting. Should I do it now or in December?
I got this reply after the request had been escalated to a SO supervisor.
As we cannot control how xxxxxx handles your account we would suggest you purchase your SpeakOut phone and call customer service on December 19th which will effectively advise xxxxx you are cancelling and avoid early cancellation fees. We of course cannot control xxxx policies and you are ultimately responsible for any outstanding fees owed to xxxxx.
You will NOT lose your airtime during the porting request so you can activate the phone anytime before the port.
askspeakout
So a porting request is like any other area code or number change -- your airtime carries through. I will likely activate the phone December 1 so the expiry date is easy to remember.
I will be doing the port request on December 19 as SO suggested -- I may or may not incur a month's charges in lieu of notice -- I haven't requested an extension they will have some trouble collecting that. I don't want to incur the $200.00 fee for early cancellation -- which they assured me would be due even if I did cancel just a month before the end of my contract.
8:19 pm
November 30, 2009
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Comming back here with another question.
How many days in advance I should call Speakout to port my number from my previous pre-paid carrier? Would 4 be enough? It will also include a saturday and sunday. I don't want speakout not having time to port my number and then lose my number because I gave them to few days notice I need to transfer my number.
9:11 pm
July 12, 2009
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Speakout told me to do it on the actual expiry day in the quoted response above:
As we cannot control how xxxxxx handles your account we would suggest you purchase your SpeakOut phone and call customer service on December 19th which will effectively advise xxxxx you are cancelling and avoid early cancellation fees. We of course cannot control xxxx policies and you are ultimately responsible for any outstanding fees owed to xxxxx.
They are saying that the last day is the day to do it.
I had a similar discussion yesterday with a very reliable guy in a phone store who has regularly given me good advice in the past. He says that your request for porting is effective immediately and serves as your cancellation of the old plan immediately at that moment. He said that the right time to port is different depending on whether your phone was on a plan or was Pay As You Go.
As several others have pointed out, PYG phones must be ported while they are active and have at least some airtime (which you will lose) in order to be ported. He suggested making that decision based n how much paid time you would be abandoning. If you have lots of air time on the old carrier, stretch it out until the day it expires (or the day before just to be sure). If your paid time is close to running out, do it earlier. PYG cancellation must be done on or before the expiry date.
In the case of a phone on a plan with a guaranteed period, his suggestion was that you request porting the day after your plan expires. In the case I quoted above, his suggestion was that we apply for porting on December 20. His experience is that every carrier will expect payment for early cancellation right up to and including the last day the plan is in force. That early cancellation fee is $100.00 for some carriers and can range upwards to $600.00 for voice and data plans with others. He has seen requests for payment for those sorts of penalties when porting was requested even a few days before expiry. His explanation for waiting until the day after the expiry was that you would then be on month to month service and that the most you could be required to pay is an extra month in lieu of notice. You pay for service in advance, and his experience is that as long as the porting happens in a billing period that is paid up, you won't get another bill (but you won't usually get a refund either -- even though your time was paid in advance.)
9:52 pm
November 30, 2009
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Thank you for the insight
3:58 am
December 2, 2009
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Just got my phone ported today from Telus Pay and Talk. It took about 48 hours (requested Monday morning, completed Wednesday morning).
I was told that the port could take up to 3 business days during my initial request. On a subsequent call I was told that the port could take up to 5 business days due to the volume of port requests.
I am glad it got done today because my remaining Pay and Talk balance ($2) was to expire on Friday.
3:58 am
August 21, 2009
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Fwiw, here is my experience. My plan with Rogers was past the 3 yrs. or whatever for me to not incur crazy cancellation charges, so all I was required to give them was 30 days notice. My plan was set to expire Dec. 2 (today) because I called Rogers a month ago to give my notice of cancellation.
I bought my SO phone yesterday, activated it immediately and then called them back once it was activated (they said it would take approx. 30 mins. for activation) to ask them to port my number over from Rogers. They put through the request and told me it could be up to 3 days to port it over, but it should be done within 24 hrs.
By 5pm today it still wasn't ported over so I called them up and had to talk to a service manager who put a rush on it and got it done very quickly, however she advised me very strongly that if I ever bought another phone and wanted a number ported over that I should give them at least 3 days of notice just to be safe. If I wouldn't have called in to check up on it, it likely would not have been ported over in time and I would have lost the number.
They very clearly told me (and I think it says this on the speakout website as well) that your current number has to be active to port it over, so if you wait until after your current plan expires, you are out of luck.
What you could do is if your plan is set to expire on the 19th if you want to avoid charges, then call now and give 30 days notice, which would put your end date of service at Jan. 2nd. Then call SO around Dec. 27th or so to ask them to port the number over. That will still give you a few days to get it moved over and you can still activate your $100 in time for the $25 bonus. Or you could just activate your time now and still port over the number just after Christmas. I didn't lose my airtime when I ported over my new number and I had already activated my $100 airtime.
12:23 am
December 5, 2009
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What is the fee (to pay to SpeakOut) if I port a Fido number (valid monthly plan number) to SpeakOut if the SpeakOut SIM had been activated for sometime, i.e: several months already (in case I buy a used SIM).
Thank you ! 🙂
12:32 am
November 19, 2009
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I was worried I would lose my local cell phone number if I didn't port in time. I gave my 30 day notice to Bell Nov.2nd .I told them I was porting my number over to another carrier and not renewing my contract on Dec. 1st. So, Bell would not treat this case as a cancellation notice. I had my niece buy my SO phone in Toronto since I live in Montreal .
I called SO to port my number to my Montreal cell number on Nov. 30th . SO Customer Service said it would take 3 to 5 days to port my number . Then, I told her that my contract ends on Dec. 1st . I asked what would happen if I don't port in time. She said I would lose my number and I would keep my Toronto cell number. My contract with Bell ended on Dec.1st but I was paid up till Dec.2nd.
In my worried state, I called Bell and asked if I'd lose my cell number if I didn't port in time . Bell said " no" . There is a grace period . For Bell, it is 60 days if I do not port in time. My grace period ends 5Jan10 . I asked Bell if I would be penalized . They said " no" . I was relieved . If the number was ported after Dec. 8th , it would be on the next billing cycle. I almost had a heart attack. I didn't want to go thru all the trouble to get a new cell number. This is my first time porting a number .
The number was ported yesterday Dec.4th . It took 4 days.
I'm glad I still have my old cell phone number . Lucky it was only a two year contract . Goodbye to the $40/month cell phone bill and 2yr contract .
Yes, SpeakOut wireless cell phones work in Montreal , Quebec . 🙂
11:22 pm
November 30, 2009
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Yea, I just lost 17$ :/
I phoned on Friday to port my number, and my pre-paid service was ending next monday. They aren't working sat/sun, so I only had 1 day, monday. But then they take between 24 and 72 hrs. And now they told me they couldn't do the transfer because my account was no longer active.
I had to buy another Petro-canada 30 day for 17$ to re-activate my account so I can transfer the number.
Lesson: Port number with at least 3 days in advance and not include sat/sun :/
1:05 am
October 14, 2008
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sintoo said:
What is the fee (to pay to SpeakOut) if I port a Fido number (valid monthly plan number) to SpeakOut if the SpeakOut SIM had been activated for sometime, i.e: several months already (in case I buy a used SIM).
Thank you ! 🙂
There is no fee.
7:18 pm
December 18, 2009
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Ok, to make sure I get this right, will i incur cancellation charges in the following case?
3 year contract ends Jan. 26 (not prepaid). Called Bell on Jan.4 to give 30 days notice, effective Feb.3. If I call Speakout to port my number on Jan.27 will I still face charges?
