Two Vodafone contracts - want to keep old number for new contract

[Densest]

Hi guys,

I've got a confusing one for you! Had no luck with Live Chat so figured asking the community was the next best step. I'll try and keep it simple.

Out of ease, I'll use V1 and V2 for 'old phone' and 'new phone'

V1 has 17 months contract time remaining, with 500mb data.

V2 arrives tomorrow, 24 months, and has 3gb data

Basically V1 phone broke so I took out V2 contract.

I want to keep my phone number for V1 and import to the V2 contract due to the data however V1 still has 17 months remaining.

I was told by the Live Chat that I could PAC transfer V1 to a PAYG service provider, then PAC transfer it back to V2. If I do this will I still be able to access my account details for V1? (I ask this because I don't know if my Vodafone account will show both contracts or if I will have to have two seperate accounts as you need to recieve a text to access your account).

The only other possible thing I can think of is asking if Vodafone will reduce V2 data to 500mb and increasing V1 data to 3gb to avoid all of the hassle - but I'm unsure if they would do this.

So to summarise - will my plan work? Or is there any advice the community can give me?

Thank you!

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

I think my option would have to have asked Vodafone to upgrade early which would have involved paying the original contract up. You may need to look at an early term action fee because moving a number from one contract to another means shutting down the original automatically which would most probably incur the fee. 

You could have purchased a new phone to tide you over while you could upgrade naturally. Disposable income allowing. 

Moving old vodafone number onto new Vodafone Contract. Credits to AnnS.

There are two ways this can be done.

1.  Cancel the old contract and ask for othe number to be moved to PAYG.  The number will be scheduled to move to PAYG after 30 days.  You will then receive a new PAYG SIM card to activate and top up a small amount to get it active on the network.  You will then be able to transfer the number to the new contract.

2.  Ask Vodafone for a PAC code, move the old number to an alternative network, use the SIM as PAYG on the other network and ask for a PAC code to move the number onto the new contract.

[Densest]

Thanks for the reply :).

I phoned Vodafone and asked them for a possible early upgrade, but was quoted £400 for an early termination fee. For £400 I could have bought a new phone, and unfortunately I don't have £400 lying around.

If I can PAC transfer the V1 number to V2 and keep the V1 account in the background without a phone number whilst still paying the monthly contract fee that would be perfect. However Live Chat told me that you cannot PAC transfer from one PAYM to another PAYM, and therefor I created my PAYG idea.

@hyrm - Yes unfortunately there was an irreplaceable hardware fault and my phone is out of warranty. I would just put my V1 SIM card in the new phone but I would much rather have 3gb data than 500mb. If I can transfer V1 to V2 and have -no- phone number for V1 (and just paying the monthly fee) I'd be over the moon.

@Jeffkin - I'll look into the family data plan, that would be great to avoid all the hassle if I can collate the data!

[jeffkinn]

You can’t have a contract without a phone number. As soon as the number is migrated away the contract terminates. That’s why you can’t move the number from V1 to V2.

[hrym]

The only way round this I can think of is to cancel the new contract and find somewhere that'll sell you a SIM-free phone on a payment plan.   It'll be more expensive overall, but allow you to pay monthly rather than in one hit.

[Densest]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

After some research I'm pretty sure I will not be able to transfer my number to the new contract so I'm going to take the plunge and submit to the new phone number (which is a shame, I loved my old number!)

I'm going to phone Vodafone tomorrow just in case there is something they can do to help, may as well exhaust the option whilst I can.

I'm going to borrow a spare smartphone tomorrow and leave it in the house, constantly on charge with an SMS redirector app for a few months to act as a miniture SMS server to ensure that my texts arrive to my new number. This will hopefully let me be in touch with business and personal texts.

I looked for handset only deals but they aren't as cheap as the option I've already gone for. May as well just take the plunge.

Thanks for your help guys, any other suggestions I would love since I'll be using my new number anyway!

[hrym]

You've seen here that it's unlikely that anything can be done, and I'm pretty sure the frontline customer service people will say the same.   However, it's worth waiting for the Tech Team here to pick up your post, just in case there's any kind of solution they can offer.   I doubt it, but it won;t hurt to see.

[Densest]

Yeah, good suggestion, I'll await a tech team prior to contacting front line services as every input helps :).

Thanks for your patience!

[jeffkinn]

Why didn't you get the original phone repaired? It obviously wasn't that old?

What phone is it?

[Densest]

It's an S5 from release day. I was still happy with the phone when I took out a new contract 7 months ago. I upgraded it to get a Lumia 960, to which I wasn't happy with and sold it.

The screen was black and LED indicator not working. Popped the screen off (I'm a certified IT technician ironically) and upon testing the board found it was not outputting power. In other words, completely broken. Only option would be a new phone.