Learn me transferring a cell phone plan to your name (NMSA)

The short, sanitized version is that a close family member got out of a relationship and she just realized that her cell phone and internet are in his name and he can cancel her at any time.  I'm freaking out that he might do this.  She doesn't know any of the info because that was all his business.

How much of a cluster-berk is she going to have to deal with to keep her phone/number/Internet?  She is WFH and can't get around much right now to go in to work so this is really important.

I would imagine that there are protocols in place for this situation but imagine and reality don't always line up.

For the cell phone any new service should be able to keep her same phone number. 

For the internet just start a new account with the service provider of choice and if he is still paying for the old service that is not being used no harm to her? Basically just abandon the current service and start new in her name. 

In reply to EvanB :

Wouldn't she need his permission or whatever to release the number? Otherwise someone could just take someone else's number.

I also remember not being able to keep my old phone number because Tracfone used AT&T and I was signing up with AT&T.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yea that's the problem.  If it's his account then he needs to release it.  It shouldn't be an issue with porting the number to any provider with the current FCC rules once he gives that permission.  

If she doesn't have to keep her number I'd suggest singing up with T-Mobile for a new cell plan and home internet.  She can do that online and it be shipped to her in a couple of days or walk into a local office and be done in an hour or so.  Not sure if her WFH employer has any requirements on speed or wifi vs. hardline.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to EvanB :

Wouldn't she need his permission or whatever to release the number? Otherwise someone could just take someone else's number.

 

I also remember not being able to keep my old phone number because Tracfone used AT&T and I was signing up with AT&T.

Possibly? Would depend on the carrier what you need to transfer it. I took a quick look and this is just the first result I found with instructions for porting a number from AT&T (first on the list alphabetically). 

So she could possibly do that if she could find out the account number (old bills laying around, etc) and texting the service to request a porting pin. Would depend on the service and what kind of details she could dig up. 

Unless she can get the information and permission to port out the number, it's going to be very problematic to port out the number. A bunch of cell phone providers have had their wrists slapped because of SIM swapping attacks, so they're making it more difficult to port out the number.

I might be reading too much between the lines here, but it might be a good idea for her not to keep the current number anyway if the split was less than amicable. And if that is the case I would also recommend getting a new phone and setting it up from scratch rather than transfer a backup of an existing phone.

She will need account information. If he's ok with it, it will go easy. If he's not, I'd get a new phone with a new number and set the old one to forward to it for the next month or so before I said something.