I often see vodafone/optus prepaid sim cards go on sale and people saying they stock up on them. In terms of using them, do people just activate the next sim then port their number into the new sim? Or is there a more convenient way of doing this?
How Do I "Recharge" Those Cheap Prepaid Sim Cards?
w84am8 on 16/04/2016 - 23:48
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I'm sorry to hijack the thread but you seem to be knowledgeable on these things so here's hoping you could help me:
My phone contract expires in May and I'm looking for other providers, how exactly would I go about porting my vodafone number to another?
The gaining provider will do it for you, you just give them your number when you activate the new SIM. You will lose any credit in a prepaid account (so use it up), and you will be liable for any final bills and payout of contract if postpaid.
The fact that you're on a contract infers that you are a postpaid customer (where you receive a bill every month).
After the expiry of your contract, you can still remain with the carrier on a month-to-month basis, as the expiration of a contract doesn't mean that you have to leave, but you're more than welcome to of course.
You'll need to see what suits your needs most, investigate the offers out there and explore the prepaid and postpaid options. The OP makes reference to starter packs, which are prepaid services.
Once you have made up your mind, either purchase a prepaid starter pack of the provider you intend on porting to (for prepaid services) or approach the provider directly (for postpaid services).
Inform the new provider that you are presently a Vodafone customer and wish to port your number over. Of all the details and documentation that you will be required to provide, you must inform the new provider of your Vodafone account number.
Whatever you do, please do not inform Vodafone of your intention to leave them. This is not required, and doing so may result in the irrecoverable loss of your mobile number.
If you are transferring to a new postpaid service, you will be required to undergo a credit check. This doesn't apply to prepaid activations.
If your porting request is initiated within the standard porting times, your new service should be active within the hour. Leave your present Vodafone SIM in your phone until you lose network connectivity on it, then replace your SIM.
Thanks for your detailed response.
I just transferred two phones off Voda contracts onto $30 Telstra (for me) and $44.90 Amaysim (for my partner) prepaids.
Make sure you submit your request to the new provider before your contract runs out as if you hit the first day of the billing cycle, they will try and charge you for the whole month.
My contracts expired on the 10th and to be sure, I submitted on the Friday as not all the companies do ports on a Sunday, and Amaysim doesn't do a port on Saturdays.
This is what I have found re port times:
Amaysim
8 AM to 8 PM Monday to Friday. Estimated time:
Telstra, Lyca Mobile, Boost, Aldi Mobile approx 1 hour
Vodafone, Go Talk, Lebara approx 1 hour
Optus, Virgin Mobile, Yatango 1-3 business daysOptus
Mon-Friday 8 AM to 8 PM, Saturdays 10 AM to 6 PM
20 minutes usually, up to 4 hours.Telstra
Four to 24 hours during business hours
Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm (EST/EDST).
Saturday, Easter Monday and Queens Birthday 10am to 6pm (EST/EDST).Vodafone:
Monday to Friday: 08:00 to 20:00 AEST/AEDT
Saturdays: 10:00 to 18:00 AEST/AEDT
Sundays and selected public holidays: Not available
Usually 24 hoursOnce on pre-paid, if you port late, no big deal, you just can't make phone calls/use data, but you don't want to port late out with your contract and pay an extra month of e.g., $65.
you cannot port directly between Optus and Optus starter packs, Vodafone and Vodafone starter packs, Amaysim and Amaysim starter packs, etc.
how about amaysim $10 > optus $10 > amaysim $10? will this work?
Yes, but someone (sorry I forgot your handle) has mentioned that Optus <-> Optus MVNO ports take a bit longer due to manual intervention. Might even be faster to insert another provider in there.
Theoretically that would be fine as Amaysim and Optus are different providers using the same network, however ports directly between Optus network affiliates have been known to require some degree of manual input at the operator's end. As such, I wouldn't recommend it.
An alternative would be to port from Amaysim to a $2 Vodafone or Telstra SIM, then out to the Optus starter pack.
I have heard of people having two sims on their phones, one for inbound calls and one for outbound calls. I think the cheap sims are used in sequence for the outbound call function. That way they have one number which people can contact them on, but a different number will appear when they call someone back. I guess you could also change sims when you wanted to use data, text or the call service but this might get a bit tedious and damage the sims. I've never done any of these things so I don't know exactly how it works.
A couple of refinements. You can suppress the CID on outgoing calls once off with the prefix #31# or some providers allow you to do this for all calls. Some people might not pick up calls from an unknown number though. As for selecting the SIM, this can be done from settings, or even on a per call/SMS basis, no need to physically swap the SIMs.
You cannot port directly to or from those discounted starter packs if they're with the same provider. For example, you cannot port directly between Optus and Optus starter packs, Vodafone and Vodafone starter packs, Amaysim and Amaysim starter packs, etc.
There are namely two ways of circumventing this restriction:
1) Port from a starter pack (of network A) to a $2 SIM card of another provider (network B), then port back to a discounted starter pack of the first network (network A). Each port should not take more than 1 hour if submitted during ordinary porting hours.
2) Port from a starter pack (of network A) directly to another discounted starter pack (of say network B).
By all means you can recharge any prepaid service, but that inherently defeats the purpose of stocking up on starter packs when they're on special.