Porting from Vodafone to another network and back to Vodafone via PAC within a few days?

Dan54321

I'm out of contract with Vodafone on pay monthly. I have found a cheaper deal via mobiles.co.uk, also with Vodafone. After doing some research, it seems like I might have to request to transfer to a Vodafone PAYG contract (which takes 30 days) to then be able to take out a new contract and keep my existing number.

The alternative a few people have mentioned is to transfer from Vodafone via PAC to a different network on PAYG. Once the switch is complete, I could request a PAC code from the new provider, take out a new contract with Vodafone via mobiles.co.uk and then switch back to vodafone, keeping my number and avoiding having to wait 30 days and potentially incurring extra costs. Does this latter option work, and can it be completed within a few days?

flaneurs_lobster

I've done this swap (Voda to Voda) via Tesco PAYG. Think the whole process took just over a week. Each PAC transfer can take 2-3 days and since transfers don't happen at weekends it's hard to get it down to less than this. Getting the timing right so that there is no overlap of contracts and juggling 3 phone numbers/sims and hoping there are no problems (contractual or technical) in the setup chain requires attention and can be rather stressful. In my case it all worked fine but next time I think I'll try and spread it out over (say) 2-3 weeks and take the hit of a month's PAYG rates.