How Much Does It Cost To Change A Phone Number

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Sometimes a new phone number feels like the merely relief. But is it?

A telephone call from a friend or parent is a welcome gift. Calls from strangers feel like an invasion of privacy.

Sadly, plenty of people abuse what was meant to be a positive communication tool.

Sometimes that looks like "No Caller ID" or "Private Caller" harassers who won't leave you alone. Other times, it'due south a scammer ringing several times a twenty-four hour period trying to steal your coin or identity.

It's enough to make throwing your smartphone into the ocean sound like a good idea, if only it didn't cost so much.

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When the number of unwanted calls reaches three, five, ten, or even more each mean solar day, starting over with a new phone number can announced to exist the shortest path to relief.

That may not be the case, though. Fresh starts like this backlash and can create additional hassles, making the whole matter more trouble than it's worth.

In this post, nosotros'll bear witness you why changing your number doesn't always provide the relief you lot're looking for and why a cleanse is better than a fresh start.

A "new" phone number isn't actually new. It's recycled.

If yous're trying to escape spam calls, changing your number is a hazard that won't last long.

Let'southward imagine yous've received l spam calls in the terminal month (although that may be more reality than imagination). The number has grown so high that you can't have information technology anymore and modify your number. Then, the very next mean solar day, an IRS scammer calls you. You'd be furious, right?

Unfortunately, that'due south incredibly common.

That'southward because phone carriers recycle erstwhile numbers. Typically, any "new" number your carrier gives you isn't new at all. This "new" number has probable been "deactivated" for at least xc days, but it might be even less in high-demand area codes.

There are lots of people who got what they thought was a "new" number but so received debt collector calls meant for the previous owner of that number. If yous alter your number, chances are yous'll inherit the previous owner'southward phone problems.

Additionally, any number a telephone carrier gives yous will even so be vulnerable to spam calls. If information technology's not already part of a series of call eye lists, robocall dialers often select numbers randomly, putting a target on every phone number. The corporeality of spam calls you become may slow down for a brief menstruation, only at the rate robocall volume is increasing, you lot'll get them soon enough.

Whatever your new phone number is, you're either going to inherit unwanted calls or receive them somewhen.

Changing your number on Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile

Every telephone carrier has their own rules for changing your phone number. About will only allow you lot choose your new area code with the prefix and terminal seven digits selected randomly, although Verizon volition allow you lot to cull a prefix with random last four digits.

Also, depending on the carrier yous have, changing your number could take event within a few minutes or a few days. And none of the major carriers notify your contacts virtually your new number for yous, which nosotros'll discuss later.

T-Mobile charges a $fifteen fee to change your phone number and volition delete all of you voicemail messages.

AT&T charges a $36 fee to change your telephone number and also removes access to old voicemails.

Verizon doesn't accept any fees. Still, if y'all accept an Android phone running Gingerbread (2.3) OS or earlier, irresolute your number will reset your device and wipe your apps, messages, photos, and any accounts or custom settings.

Sprint doesn't charge a fee to change your number either, but you will lose your voicemail messages.

An important notation: Once you change your phone number, it's nigh incommunicable to get your old number back.

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Updating contact profiles is a major project

Once y'all alter your phone number, in that location are a host of business relationship profiles that will need updating. Some of these are required while others are good to have.

Finance companies

If y'all have any loans, your lending institution volition often require contact info be kept upwardly to date. While applying for a student loan, lenders make sure borrowers are required to report any modify in contact info, whether phone, email address, or mailing address.

Here'south a list of financial institutions you may exist required to give a new phone number to:

Educatee loan lenders
Mortgage lenders
Car financing lenders
Banks and credit unions
Visa, American Express, Mastercard, or any other credit menu company
401k or IRA account holders
Investment institutions

Utility providers

Electric, h2o, gas, garbage, sewer, and other utility companies
Take you always gone to take a shower merely there'due south no hot water? Utility companies take occasional outages for repairs. If you lot're not prepared when that happens, a cold shower awaits you.

When utilities are shut off, utility companies notify afflicted residents, but only if they take your number in the first identify. Changing your number without updating each of your utility provider accounts is a surefire mode to end upwardly with a cold shower.

Cable providers
It'south true. No 1 likes to get telemarketer calls about upgrading to a "premium" cable package. How many channels do we honestly need?

However, information technology'south skillful to know if there are any internet outages or upcoming interruptions, especially for anyone who depends on net admission to work from home.

Emergency contacts

Hopefully, yous never receive a call about an emergency. If there ever is one and you're the emergency contact for your spouse, partner, or child, you'll want to become that call. Make sure any new number gets added to the appropriate forms.

There'due south no easy style to give your contacts your new number

The unfortunate irony of irresolute your phone number is that information technology only takes a few strangers with malicious intentions to be the reason your family and friends don't have your phone number.

Making sure your friends and family unit accept your new number is 1 of the most tedious tasks parts of this entire process.

There are a few ways you could go about this:

You could ship hundreds (if non thousands) of text messages.
You can make an announcement on Facebook. Who hasn't seen a friend'south post maxim "Got a new number – send me a private message if you lot want it"?
You can smash every email contact you know (don't forget to bcc your contacts).

Simply put, there'due south no easy mode to go a new phone number into the hands of the people who need it.

Plus, you're trusting that people will actually relieve your new number. Chances are, some people volition forget. We've all gotten distracted by a trending tweet or YouTube video.

And inevitably, someone gets missed. They experience deplorable. Y'all assure them it wasn't on purpose. It'southward a whole awkward thing.

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Changing your phone number ends upward being a lot of work. That fresh commencement yous might imagine is more than like assigning yourself a series of projects for the side by side few days without any guarantee that it solve your privacy trouble.

What we really desire is a phone number cleanse

Starting over with a not-so-new number oftentimes seems like a quick way to end spam and harassing calls.

But when you lot realize just how much work it takes to give anybody important your new telephone number, and that number may already be the target of spammers best collectors, that fresh get-go you imagined starts to look pretty bleak.

If you want to end phone harassment from spam, "Private Caller," and "No Caller ID" calls, your best bet is a cleanse, not a "fresh get-go."

That's what TrapCall does. Information technology allows you to unmask blocked caller IDs and stop spam calls, cleansing your telephone from the calls that brand you miserable.

And all-time of all, there are zero risks to trying TrapCall first. Irresolute your phone number is irreversible, but TrapCall gives you lot a costless 7-day trial to come across if information technology stops those unwanted calls.