Cingular plan to pay-as-you-go?

November 2, 2005 9:04 AM

I have a Nokia cell phone with Cingular service. My two-year contract is up, thank goodness, and I'd like to switch from Cingular's cheapest monthly plan (which has more minutes than I can use) to a pay-as-you-go card. What I want to know is, can I do that while keeping my old cell phone and number? And if so, how?
posted by miriam to Technology (9 answers total)

Call customer service and say that you want to switch from post-paid to pre-paid GoPhone.
posted by riffola at 9:12 AM on November 2, 2005

I just did what he suggested with T-Mobile. They were fine to do it. The corporate stores and franchises alike that I talked to first wanted to charge me $50 + new phone number, so don't believe them.

Did you actually even try to call or Goooogle before you posted this?
posted by kcm at 9:17 AM on November 2, 2005

When I was in the same situation I couldn't find a Cingular pay as you go plan that didn't have a daily fee. Maybe I didn't look hard enough or understand the terms. I switched to Virgin.

It's about $5 a month. That's great for me since I hardly use the phone. If you switched (to whoever) you could keep your number depending on where you lived, but you'd probably have to get a new phone.
posted by sevenless at 9:21 AM on November 2, 2005

This may be obvious, but I recommend making several calls to customer service and moving up the chain of command if your initial call doesn't yield the response you want. Sometimes they can make adjustments for you, they just don't want to advertise that or do it for everyone.
You may not be able to keep your phone or number; this happened to my boyfriend and being forced to switch drove him from Cingular to a different company. He has had a lot of good things to say about Virgin Mobile's plans, but he hardly ever uses his phone at this point.
posted by robynal at 9:21 AM on November 2, 2005

With Cingular, the answer will depend (in part) on your phone. Cingular/AT&T are forcing their customers to move to the GSM network nearly anytime you want to change your plan (eventually all their customers will have to be on GSM). So if you have a GSM phone, you may be in luck. If your phone is not GSM, you will not be able to keep your old phone with Cingular. (Possibly the number, but not the phone.)
posted by raedyn at 11:25 AM on November 2, 2005

Pay as You Go just got murky -- a patent holder just won a big case, forcing many players to stop offering it.

I'll try and find a link.
posted by o2b at 12:33 PM on November 2, 2005

Bcgi, Cingular Hit with Injunction

According to Engadet, "Cingular says that this doesn’t affect the “vast majority” of pre-paid subscribers and that it’s limited to TDMA, not GSM users."
posted by o2b at 12:35 PM on November 2, 2005

As others said, if you don't get answers you want, be persistant and ask for someone higher up. Cell companies don't want to lose customers.
I switched from TDMA to GSM with Cingular/ATT and kept my #. If you threaten to walk to a new company they may get more agreeable; and if you do walk you can of course take your # with you.
posted by pgoes at 2:14 PM on November 2, 2005

Response by poster: I did actually speak with Cingular customer service -- sorry, I should have said that. They claim that I can only switch to pay-as-you-go if I buy one of their Go phones. And they also claim that if I decide to go with one of those pay-as-you-go cards you can get at other retailers, they're not required to let me keep my phone number.

Thanks for your help -- I may be stuck just shelling out for a new phone.
posted by miriam at 4:25 PM on November 2, 2005