Orange phone fund query

dingdongavon

I want to buy my son a phone for his birthday and as I have £19 in my orange phone fund thought this would be perfect time to save some money. However looking on the orange website it seems as if I have to use my number for the new phone.

Is there a way I can use my phone fund and get a new number for it?
If I got a free sim card ( or bought one) would that give me a number that could be used for the new phone?

I am ( as you can tell) clueless about this kind of thing. Thanks.

Outpost

The SIM card inside the phone is basically your 'phone number', if you were to put that SIM card into another suitable phone the new one would ring when someone dials that number.

So as long as you have an Orange phone and an orange SIM card, or even a few of them, you can swap them around to your heart's content.

At one time Orange were handing out free pay-as-you-go SIMs that were sent out in the post if you requested them online, so if you had one of those you could pop the SIM card into your new phone and would then have whatever phone number was linked to that SIM card.

Hope that helps.

Stuart_W

Yes - I have done this.

You will need to get the phone fund phone on your account to start with - it will come with a new SIM card and you'll need to follow all the instructions Orange give you to register the new phone and transfer to the new SIM card with your current number.

However, once you've done this and the new phone is working with your current number, simply remove your SIM card and put it back in your old phone. Any Orange SIM will then work in the new handset once you've gone through the activation process. There's a good chance they'll send you one anyway with the new phone - they did with me. If not, you can get hold of a free one from Orange.

However, you might also want to check if THIS PHONE is in stock at your local Argos - it costs £30 but comes with a £10 top up added every month for the next 6 months - so £60 credit, plus a phone, for £30. Might actually be better than using your phone fund - depends what exactly you're after.

Stuart_W

Outpost wrote: »

The SIM card inside the phone is basically your 'phone number', if you were to put that SIM card into another suitable phone the new one would ring when someone dials that number.

So as long as you have an Orange phone and an orange SIM card, or even a few of them, you can swap them around to your heart's content.

Outpost is completely right - but Orange tend to "lock" PAYG phonefund upgrade phones until they are transferred to the new SIM card that they come with. Your number is then transferred to the new SIM card. Once this is done, the phone will accept any Orange SIM card and you can put your SIM card in any phone you like.

dingdongavon

Thanks to you both for your help. I have now ordered the phone he wanted and it will arrive just in time for his birthday.