Number porting query

Jimbo001

I am taking advantage of a great offer by Phones 4 u and purchasing a phone with £30 of free airtime on Virgin. The deal is for the free airtime to be credited monthly in £10 increments.

The idea is to replace an ageing mobile also on the virgin network.
I assume that it will not be a problem to port my original number to the new phone but can expect the free airtime to be credited to the new phone/sim if I am using the original number?

Jon_01

shouldn't be a problem, the credit would, I would think, go on to your acc and your acc number is always the same unlike your mobile number which can change.

espresso

What you are trying to do is an upgrade on the same network. You can only port between different networks.

Simpson

Orange won't port your number to a new Orange contract unless you take the deal through them. If you chose a better deal through another company but on the same network they will not port the number. the only way I could keep my number was to move to another network.

crazy isn't it. Phones 4 u should be able to advise you before you buy. Virgin might be different.

Jimbo001

Simpson wrote:

the only way I could keep my number was to move to another network.

crazy isn't it.

Yes it does seem crazy!

Is there anything stopping porting to another network and then porting back to Virgin?

Jim

Woby_Tide

Jimbo001 wrote:

Yes it does seem crazy!

Is there anything stopping porting to another network and then porting back to Virgin?

Jim

It's not crazy really, they're running a business not a charity, if they didn't have the rules, the cheap 'new customer' contracts wouldn't exist. By retaining the rules they limit the number of people who take the time and effort to port out and back again and also are able to offer 'better' deals to 'new' customers

Skint_Catt

A lot of these 'deals' are for 'new connections' only and don't apply if you want to keep your number!

S_C

Jimbo001

Woby_Tide wrote:

It's not crazy really, they're running a business not a charity, if they didn't have the rules, the cheap 'new customer' contracts wouldn't exist.

I am sure you are correct however I would like to add a couple of comments:

First, this is a Money Saving forum where will naturally explore ways to exploit the rules.

Second, companies that for commercial reasons give better deals to new customers than to their existing customers should not be surprised if their existing customers do not remain loyal.

Jim

Woby_Tide

exploit the rules then like I said, the point was that some people are reluctant to take those few minutes time and effort to exploit it, that's their choice.

and secondly, they know that, that's why they a) make it awkward to migrate b) know that the average consumer prefers ease over money c) have retentions department, if you're worth keeping, they keep you, but they now know that the majority of people don't care about loyalty so why repay it, simple really