Switching from a business contract to a personal contract

[Anonymous]

Hi

My contract is due for renewal soon and I want to switch from a business account to a personal account. I don't have a business, I was talked into the account probably because the sales guy was on some sort of commission. Anyway, I am getting conflicting information about how simple this process is. I want to avoid being without a phone for too long as I remember transferring my number to O2 took ages. Can anyone advise how easy it is to do this or should I stick with a business contract I don't want for simplicity.

Thanks

[jonsie]

I think @Anonymous is the best person to advise you on this.

[MI5]

If the account has reached the end of the contracted period it should just be as simple as taking a new consumer contract.

[Anonymous]

Hi

It has reached the end of the contract period. I want to keep my number though and thats the bit thats confused me. I was told I need to take a new contract out with a temporary number and then switch my old number to that account. Will my old number still work in my old phone until the number is transferred?

Thanks

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

It is that simple! You get the new consumer contract, once that is set up we take the business number from the old account (by doing that the old account will cancel so no need to give notice), transfer your number to the new account replacing the temporary number. It will take 24h for the transfer to be finished, but there may be a couple of hours where you wont be able to use it. When you loose the signal on the old sim,  the new sim card may loose the signal too,switch the new sim on and keep switching it on and off until the signal returns. You should be able to make and receive calls after that.

The rest (sms,data,mms) can take 48h to start working again. Hope this helps

[MI5]

Yes, that's how you must do it and yes the old number will work on old phone until it changes over.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

That all sounds simple enough not keen on taking up to 48 hours to get sms and data working but I have an iPad so that will help ease the frustration.

[Anonymous]

off the record

More info

They usually work straight away

[Anonymous]

Just to add, the system of transferring the number takes UP TO 24 hours.

From my own experiences once the old sim stops working it is usually a matter of minutes but o2 say up to 24 hours just in case.

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just to add, the system of transferring the number takes UP TO 24 hours.

From my own experiences once the old sim stops working it is usually a matter of minutes but o2 say up to 24 hours just in case.

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Immediate in my case. I took mine into the shop to do...a couple of computer clicks and voila in came the texts from O2 to say all up and running