Can I port a TracFone number without losing minutes and service time

[dave940]

I don't believe this is possible, but I'll ask anyway. I want to get my wife off TracFone, onto Page Plus. She wants to port her current phone number to Page Plus. I do not want to sacrifice 700 minutes and nearly two years of service left on the TracFone. I have another TracFone that will expire in a few months, and I'd like to transfer the minutes/service without losing her number. Any ideas?

[Daemonbiz]

Yup, my first and last idea is this is impossible. It is not possible to move service time/minutes from one carrier to another.

[AtlasFBG2]

When i ported put of tracfone into page plus my tracfone still had minutes and service days left on it.I later reactivated the tracfone with a new number and kept the minutes and days.
You should be able to port her tracfone number to Pageplus then after the port is done transfer the minutes and service days to your other tracfone.
Do not transfer the minutes and days before you port cause you need the tracfone number active till the port is done.

[Martin28]

I don't believe this is possible, but I'll ask anyway. I want to get my wife off TracFone, onto Page Plus. She wants to port her current phone number to Page Plus. I do not want to sacrifice 700 minutes and nearly two years of service left on the TracFone. I have another TracFone that will expire in a few months, and I'd like to transfer the minutes/service without losing her number. Any ideas?

If she ports her number from Tracfone to Page plus it will have to be with a new handset as the Trac handset can't be used on PP. On the PP website under 'activate' select 'want to activate a phone and port my current phone number'. When the port to PP is complete and the Trac handset is dead, go to the Trac website and click on Activate/reactivate. You can then reactivate the Trac handset with its unused minutes and service with a new phone number. If its a cdma phone it will reactivate instantly, if it's a gsm model they will send you a new sim card to install in the phone so you can complete the reactivation.

[Martin28]

When i ported put of tracfone into page plus my tracfone still had minutes and service days left on it.I later reactivated the tracfone with a new number and kept the minutes and days.
You should be able to port her tracfone number to Pageplus then after the port is done transfer the minutes and service days to your other tracfone.
Do not transfer the minutes and days before you port cause you need the tracfone number active till the port is done.

Yeah, what you said... I missed the part about transfering the minutes to another phone. You probably don't need to reactivate the old tracfone like I said earlier if your just going to transfer the minutes.

[dave940]

Thanks everyone, I like those answers. Part Two: as an individual instead of a dealer, do I risk problems if I port to one of those unactivated Wallyworld Samsung Verizon prepaid phones (Smooth/U350)? I am not a PP dealer and have never been a PP customer.

[Kitty]

Thanks everyone, I like those answers. Part Two: as an individual instead of a dealer, do I risk problems if I port to one of those unactivated Wallyworld Samsung Verizon prepaid phones (Smooth/U350)? I am not a PP dealer and have never been a PP customer.

My advice is: Don't do it. Find another source for your used Verizon device.

The whole retail-packaged prepaid device issue is too hot to tell what will happen with it in the future.

[dave940]

My advice is: Don't do it. Find another source for your used Verizon device.

The whole retail-packaged prepaid device issue is too hot to tell what will happen with it in the future.

I misunderstood a previous post, thinking that he recommended a new (unactivated) Verizon phone. From rereading it, I now see that it was not specified. So, even as an individual, buying one of those $20 Sammys, activating through Verizon prepaid, running down the minutes, and porting my Trac number to it while reactivating on PP is not recommended now? In that case, could any used Verizon phone eventually be targeted?

[johncase3]

In that case, could any used Verizon phone eventually be targeted?

Who knows? So far any Verizon used handset is OK. New Prepaid VZW handsets are forbidden.

[AtlasFBG2]

I misunderstood a previous post, thinking that he recommended a new (unactivated) Verizon phone. From rereading it, I now see that it was not specified. So, even as an individual, buying one of those $20 Sammys, activating through Verizon prepaid, running down the minutes, and porting my Trac number to it while reactivating on PP is not recommended now? In that case, could any used Verizon phone eventually be targeted?

My advise if i was in your situation:Buy a new inpulse phone today and do not activate it and start porting the tracfone number to page plus on that new just bought phone.Right now they dont have a way to tell if the phone is new or used for 6 months.So i would hurry up and do it now before they have a way to check.

[dave940]

Update: I was in a Walmart on the morning of the 29th, while out of town, and saw the LG VX5500 for the first time. Bought two of them for about $50 including tax. Hadn't kept up with this board, tried to activate them yesterday afternoon on PP. Found out the hard way that V was now keeping track of purchases, so PP is not activating them. Went ahead and activated them on the 99c core plan, but even infrequent use on nearly any of these plans makes TracFone look like a bargain. So, back to Trac (glad I didn't port my Trac phone numbers) after I run the time off these suckers. I probably won't invest any more in the LG 5500 phones to keep them active on V, and I'll wait six months to see if they are usable on PP.

[Kitty]

Update: I was in a Walmart on the morning of the 29th, while out of town, and saw the LG VX5500 for the first time. Bought two of them for about $50 including tax. Hadn't kept up with this board, tried to activate them yesterday afternoon on PP. Found out the hard way that V was now keeping track of purchases, so PP is not activating them. Went ahead and activated them on the 99c core plan, but even infrequent use on nearly any of these plans makes TracFone look like a bargain. So, back to Trac (glad I didn't port my Trac phone numbers) after I run the time off these suckers. I probably won't invest any more in the LG 5500 phones to keep them active on V, and I'll wait six months to see if they are usable on PP.

Dear dave940,

I'm curious to know "how you found out the hard way"? How exactly were you notified that PPC would not activate the device?

Thanks,
Kitty

[dave940]

I tried first through one of the dealers via this site yesterday afternoon, then online at the PP website, to activate them. Sure, I saw the potential of this happening (didn't heed your advice earlier), but thought I might get in before it actually started. Being out of work for nearly two years, and seeing what appeared to be a bargain price on the LG 5500, tempted me to take a gamble on it. Lesson learned. I've learned costlier lessons than this one, though.

[Kitty]

I tried first through one of the dealers via this site yesterday afternoon, then online at the PP website, to activate them. Sure, I saw the potential of this happening (didn't heed your advice earlier), but thought I might get in before it actually started. Being out of work for nearly two years, and seeing what appeared to be a bargain price on the LG 5500, tempted me to take a gamble on it. Lesson learned. I've learned costlier lessons than this one, though.

So it is true then, they have added the ESN's of the Brand New Verizon Prepaid devices to the database rejection list. I had heard they were going to do that, but I did not expect it to happen so soon.

Honestly, I'm relieved. This means I don't have to do double checking & verifying. At least now we know it's official.

[m509272]

Here's an FYI too. I had activated a PP phone back in Dec and had $10 on it and ran it down to $8.57. I activated it knowing I would port my wife's VM phone number on to it sometime in the near future. Went thru pretty smoothly only to hear you have $6.00. Rep said "oh, it's a new phone number". I said I had $8.57, he repeated it. So basically they just screwed me out of $2.57. It's not a lot of money but what if I had loaded it with more than that?

So this is a beware to anyone activating a phone with the intent of porting your old number over in the future. This is contradictory to those that said to do it this way.