Portng number to a different name

noelphobic

I have a contract with Vodafone that ends in early January. My son has the phone and I pay the bills. If we move from Vodafone to another provider will we be able to port his number to a contract in his name, given that it's coming from a contract in my name?

His current phone was a present but he will be paying for the next one himself. If it causes problems I could keep it in my name and get him to pay me back for the bills. He does want to keep his current number.

OneADay

You would be safer porting the number under your name and then telling the new provider to change the account holder's details (i.e. transfer contract to your son).

noelphobic

OneADay wrote: »

You would be safer porting the number under your name and then telling the new provider to change the account holder's details (i.e. transfer contract to your son).

I was hopiing we could give them the PAC and explain that it was in a different name at the same time. Do you think that could cause problems? My son lives at the same address as me, which hopefully simplifies matters.

OneADay

Best to ask the network before taking out any new contract. I don't think it would cause a problem accept it might lead to some confusion to the person you speak to hand over the pac code. And its the existing account holder who would need to phone up and hand over the pac code (i.e. you).

noelphobic

OneADay wrote: »

Best to ask the network before taking out any new contract. I don't think it would cause a problem accept it might lead to some confusion to the person you speak to hand over the pac code. And its the existing account holder who would need to phone up and hand over the pac code (i.e. you).

It does sound like it could get complicated! The Vodafone contract is due to end on 2nd January so I was planning on phoning and getting the PAC on 3rd December. Assuming they don't then give me a really good offer to stay with them we would be looking around for a new deal. The deal I am looking at on e2save at the moment (which I know may well have changed in a month's time) is with T Mobile. According to the e2save website you wait until you have the new phone and then contact the network to give them your PAC. If the contract with the new network is in my son's name then I wouldn't think they would even discuss it with me.

Would the new network even know what name the contract with the old network was in?

OneADay

New network will not know about your old contract.

As there is a bit more time to go - you could ask vodafone to transfer the contract you have with them over to your son now including changing the bank account etc. Simplify the PAC code issue in future.

Then your son is free to choose what he likes - vodafone will try to offer a deal of course when you ask for a pac code.

noelphobic

OneADay wrote: »

New network will not know about your old contract.

As there is a bit more time to go - you could ask vodafone to transfer the contract you have with them over to your son now including changing the bank account etc. Simplify the PAC code issue in future.

Then your son is free to choose what he likes - vodafone will try to offer a deal of course when you ask for a pac code.

So, if the new network don't know about the old contract, then they won't know it is in a different name? Will Vodafone know that T Mobile are asking to port a number to a different name and is it that that will cause the problems potentially? He does have the same surname as me.

I don't really want to change the contract with Vodafone over to my son's name in case that causes any problems. If I was going to do that then it would possibly be easier to take the new contract out in my name and then change it to his. Or leave it in mine and get him to repay me for the bills.

I'm not confident that Vodafone will offer us a good deal as they didn't last time and I nearly moved then. However, we will see!

OneADay

The new network will know of who the number being ported to belongs - its the information they ask for to send to the old network when asking for the number to be transferred. So getting the account holder right is probably a good idea before you port.

Wintermute

It shouldn't matter, the new network only needs to know 3 things about the number, what the number is, where it's coming from (the letters in the PAC code tell them this anyway) and what the PAC code is. The new network wont know anything about what your previous contract and they wont care, as you have the PAC code they're forced to assume you're the rightful owner of the number and they'll leave it at that.

Wait until your current contract's about to expire then give your 30 days notice and request a PAC code, give your son the PAC code for his mobile number and tell him to phone up and request a port, they have no reason to ask any specifics about the previous number other than the PAC code and what the number actually is, they'll verify the PAC is valid (they last about 30 days) and then they'll begin the porting procedure. There's no reason for them to ask who owned the previous number, it's not unusual for people to buy desirable phone numbers off ebay or elsewhere then get them ported in.

You're unlikely to be able to transfer your current contract into your sons name as the credit checks have been done on you and most networks wont allow you to change this.

Techhead_2

Wintermute is correct and I'm afraid OneAday has offered some poor advice.
Its very difficult (and not possible at all on most networks) to transfer a contract.
Whereas there are not normally any issues with porting a number. They don't ask for the name on the account.

banger9365

i tranfered my father's phone number ,which was on contracted to him,other 6 years ago to mine (different network)so we would not lose the number,and ive used it ever since ,
thier was no queston asked then and was pain to do it back then,
i think it cost money back then to do it ?