School me on transferring a cell phone number/plan to a new provider

[Great68]

I haven't paid for cell phone plan in like 20 years, so I'm kind of a newb. My wife and I always had work issued cell phones that we just used for everything.

But my wife is leaving her current job, and the new job won't allow using the new cell for personal use. So her old employer is letting her take her existing cell phone (a pretty new Samsung) and letting her keep her current phone number.

I'm just wondering how the transfer of the plan/phone number works?

Do we just go find a provider with her current phone and say that we want to transfer and keep her number? Or does her old employer need to sign something, or do something on their end?

I just want to be informed about the process beforehand.

Thanks!

[bcrdukes]

There are several ways to go about this but be prepared for a bit of reading (I apologize in advance.)

If your wife is looking to stay with the existing carrier, all the employer needs to do is to call customer service and authorize a transfer of responsibility. Once that is done, your wife can call in or go to a store or call customer care of said carrier and get a new phone/plan and that her number has a transfer of authorization in place. Customer care will set her up with a new account/temporary number, complete the transfer, and the number will be ported over.

If your wife is looking to switch carriers for reasons such as better network coverage, market price, promotions etc. she will need the details of her employer's account such as account number and I think address and/or postal code of the account and it has to be an exact match. You go to new carrier (store, online/customer care) order new phone and provide existing account details and the phone number for authorization and transfer, and I think that's it. Once your new carrier sets up the new (temporary) phone number, in say usually about 5 - 30 minutes, the existing number will port over to the new phone and you're all set.

It has been a while but I hope this process is still correct. I don't think this process has changed much, save for maybe more scrutiny on details to prevent fraud/scams/phone jacking etc.

[roastpuff]

Been a while since I used to handle this for work but it's pretty much like what bcrdukes said.

[bcrdukes]

Great68, let us know how it goes. I'm very curious how this turns out. Whichever carrier your wife chooses, I hope they take good care of her and make it a smooth and easy process. Nothing riles me more than a crappy customer experience. I say this as I've been in the industry for...let's say a very long time and to this day, still a strong advocate of the customer.

[Great68]

Thanks dukes. She went with Koodo, the process was exactly as you said. Her former boss put a release on the account, and they transferred it over with a new sim under her name. Easy peasy!

[bcrdukes]

Good stuff! Glad to hear!