Your phone number is likely an essential part of your everyday life. It gives people an easy way to contact you and can be tied to security features associated with your banking, social media, and other apps. You might want to change your number if you’ve been hounded by calls from telemarketers or want to prevent certain people from contacting you. If you’re a T-Mobile customer, there are several ways to get a new number. You don’t need a new SIM card, and you don’t need to buy a new phone, but you can if you want.
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How to find your T-Mobile account number
You will not need it often, but it’s good to know where to find it
How to request a new phone number
Here’s how to get a new T-Mobile phone number online:
- Log in to your T-Mobile account (you might need to use your T-Mobile ID).
- Go to Manage Accounts.
- Pick the line you want to change (your current phone number).
- Specify why you’re changing your number under the Reason for Change field.
- Agree to the terms and conditions by checking the associated box.
- Click Submit Change and note the transaction number for your records.
Other ways to change your phone number
You can change your number over the phone. Call 611 on your T-Mobile device. If you’re calling from a phone that isn’t associated with the service provider, dial 1-800-937-8997 to reach T-Mobile customer service. You can also complete this process by visiting a T-Mobile store.
Warning: Don’t turn to the T-Mobile app
You can’t change your number through the T-Mobile app. Several tutorials showcase how you can supposedly do this, but don’t be fooled by what you see online. A T-Mobile representative confirmed to Android Police the function isn’t possible, something which will stand true for the foreseeable future.
At the moment, there are no plans to allow changes to a customer’s phone number in the app.
If you try to change your phone number through the app (by going to the area where you edit your personal information), you’re met with a blank screen when you edit your phone number.
Important details to remember
T-Mobile charges customers $15 to change their number. The charge appears on your bill as “One time charge for MSICHG.”
The process can take up to four hours to finalize. It could take three days to use your new number to sign in to your T-Mobile account online. After making the switch, you can’t access call logs associated with your old phone number on the website. Update the account information associated with the old phone number, such as banks and subscriptions, so that you don’t miss important notifications.
When you change your phone number, all voicemail messages associated with the old number are deleted. You’ll need to set up a new voicemail.
- Press and hold the 1 key on your phone or go through the Visual Voicemail app.
- Use the last four digits of your phone number as a default password if requested.
- Make a new password that’s between four and seven digits long. If you need to reset this, press #793#.
- Record your greeting.
If the phone number you’re changing is for a landline, it could take up to three days for the correct caller ID information to appear.
T-Mobile holds the number for at least 45 days (with a maximum of 90 days) before making it available for reuse.
Change your number for free
You can change your mobile number for free once a year through Scam Shield, which offers anti-scam features. You’ll pay $15 for each change you make after that within a year.
The free version of the app is helpful if you’re changing your number because of scam calls. According to T-Mobile’s website, the app offers built-in protection technologies that identify scammers and stop their calls from coming through. T-Mobile warns the feature might block important calls.
The free version doesn’t allow you to use some helpful features, such as blocking calls from specific numbers. You’ll need the premium version for that, which is $4 a month per line.
Source: T-Mobile
Check your eligibility
There might be a couple of instances where you can’t get a new phone number right away, including whose name your number is under. If the number is under an account that isn’t controlled by you, you must go through the change of responsibility process. This allows the current account holder to hand over control of the entire account or the T-Mobile line associated with you.
Only the account’s current owner can authorize the change. You can only move the number if it’s been active on the account for three months.
To start the process, the current and new account holders must contact T-Mobile to make the change. You can use the same contact information listed above to contact customer care. International callers can dial 1-505-998-3793 to complete the process. Those calling from a T-Mobile handset don’t pay roaming or long-distance charges. Calls from landlines and non-T-mobile numbers incur charges.
More T-Mobile
The reasons for changing a mobile number are endless, and the process takes a couple of steps to complete, depending on your circumstances. If you want to use a new number associated with a different carrier, like AT&T or Verizon, transfer your number to T-Mobile.
