Just be aware that I think they have some odd form you need to fax to port a number over to them. Many suggest that smart phones (android particularly), instead, port to google voice and then setup to forward calls to the MVNO's number.
NEDeals said: According to the FAQ, "For Real Paygo subscribers, the minutes are good for 365 days on all plans."
Does anyone know if buying a new Paygo refill will reset ALL the minutes for another 365 days, or just the newly refilled minutes?
This confused me, so to clarify, the entire text from the FAQ: Do my minutes carry over from month to month?
This depends on the product you have subscribed to. For Real Paygo subscribers, the minutes are good for 365 days on all plans
You should not confuse minute validity with access days or service days. If minutes are valid for 90 days, you are still required to have access days to use minutes. So, with the $40 Top-Up, you get 800 minutes, or 150 days of access, but if you extend your access beyond the 150 days, then you can use any remaining minutes from those initial 800 in addition to any additional minutes you purchase.
But, I still don't know the answer to the question about refills resetting the 365-day counter.
For what it's worth, I just moved my Nexus 4 over to the platinum tel sim/$50 top up I purchased Feb 3rd with the ptelslick20 code. I ported my old number into google voice and set it to forward to the number platinum tel assigned me (it looks like their website doesn't give you any choice of numbers and you get what they assign.... my new number has 976 in it, although not the first 3 digits lol). Seems like the phone is working fine, there's even a box when creating the account that allows you to load your top-up/"activation pin" as a part of signing up, but they also say you can add later. It does ask you to specify during sign-up if you want an "unlimited" account or a RealPayGo, so you might need a new SIM if you ever want to switch account types.
If I use the deal (it still works) for the $40 Unlimited Plan, that's just good for the first month, right?
The next month it would be $40, not $15?
Well, as with many things, it kinda depends. Let's say you get the SIM card and activation code for the first month on account #A for whatever it costs, after the discount (say $25). You use it for a couple weeks and find that it suits your purposes just fine, so you want to continue. You have a choice.
You COULD do the same thing you did to get your original SIM card and activation code. That cost $25 (assuming the discount code still works or a new one materializes). And then you throw away the extra sim card and just apply the activation code to your existing account.
OR, you could just buy a new $40 top off card for $40 and apply that to your account without the discount.
The former sounds a little fat-wallet-i-er to me (and is what I'm doing with the $50 plan.)
If I use the deal (it still works) for the $40 Unlimited Plan, that's just good for the first month, right?
The next month it would be $40, not $15?
Well, as with many things, it kinda depends. Let's say you get the SIM card and activation code for the first month on account #A for whatever it costs, after the discount (say $25). You use it for a couple weeks and find that it suits your purposes just fine, so you want to continue. You have a choice.
You COULD do the same thing you did to get your original SIM card and activation code. That cost $25 (assuming the discount code still works or a new one materializes). And then you throw away the extra sim card and just apply the activation code to your existing account.
OR, you could just buy a new $40 top off card for $40 and apply that to your account without the discount.
The former sounds a little fat-wallet-i-er to me (and is what I'm doing with the $50 plan.)
So I want to test this MVNO and few others before I decide on which one to switch from my Tmo postpaid account.
So I ordered a micro SIM from eBay and should get it in a week or so. So after I get the SIM do I then need to call Ptel to buy minutes or do I setup an account and go for the $40, $50, or pay as you go for like $10 for 200 minutes.
If I like the service can I then port my number first to Google Voice and the forward it to my Ptel number with that same SIM? I know if I wanted to directly port I would need to get a new SIM and do the port from the get go when activating the SIM correct?
Is porting to GV the best way to go if we are trying to use multiple services and not go with the hassle of porting my number back and forth to each one?
Well, I don't think you'll need the eBay SIM. PTEL is now shipping micro SIMs. Your choice of which option to choose ($40, $50, or PAYGO) would probably be driven by how you want to use it.
You could call PTEL, but I don't think you'll get the discount that way. To use the discount code, you can use www.ptel.com to order your activation card (and SIM).
Yes, ASSUMING YOUR NUMBER CAN BE PORTED TO GV, you can just port it there and then forward it to your new PTEL number. That's what I and, I imagine, a lot of us are doing. I emphasized that because I convinced my wife to port her number to GV, and THEN found out that it was not eligible. Now I would definitely check first.
Yes, once your number is on GV, you can then switch between all kinds of services, just by switching some settings in your GV account.
NOTE, be careful of the timing of your port. The act of porting your number out of TMOB will cause your TMOB account to close and trigger any termination fees that you're eligible to incur.
emmd2001 said: does anyone know if these sims can be RE-activated if service is cancelled?
I don't know about PTEL's specific policy, but usually once a SIM is deactivated on any GSM system it is permanent. While it's technically possible to reactivate the same SIM again, it's a security percaution.
sheriffabc said: There are two types of SIMs offered - what is the difference. I am going to be using it on an unlocked Blackberry Pearl.
One is only a mini-SIM. The other is a mini-sim that is perforated so that you could easily break off the extra plastic and convert it to a micro sim. Even if I needed a mini-sim, I would still order the latter.
sleepfaster said: Well, I don't think you'll need the eBay SIM. PTEL is now shipping micro SIMs. Your choice of which option to choose ($40, $50, or PAYGO) would probably be driven by how you want to use it.
You could call PTEL, but I don't think you'll get the discount that way. To use the discount code, you can use www.ptel.com to order your activation card (and SIM).
Yes, ASSUMING YOUR NUMBER CAN BE PORTED TO GV, you can just port it there and then forward it to your new PTEL number. That's what I and, I imagine, a lot of us are doing. I emphasized that because I convinced my wife to port her number to GV, and THEN found out that it was not eligible. Now I would definitely check first.
Yes, once your number is on GV, you can then switch between all kinds of services, just by switching some settings in your GV account.
NOTE, be careful of the timing of your port. The act of porting your number out of TMOB will cause your TMOB account to close and trigger any termination fees that you're eligible to incur.
So with Ptel and the current promo where the $40 plan can be had for $20 can I just do like 12 separate orders for $240 total and I can activate SIM from one of the 12 SIMs I get and use it's top up $40 card for 1st month and then every 30 days just load the PIN from the other 11 I have left and for a full year it will be just $240.
Is it possible to load all 11 other top up cards in one shot or we can only do it every 30 days for the monthly unlimited plan?
Yeah. That's pretty much it, with a couple addional things to consider.
First, it gets even better. If you go through befrugal.com to buy your PTEL months, befrugal says it will refund 20% of the cost. I just did that for a couple months worth of service and, while I haven't gotten the refund yet, they do have the purchase registered and acknowledge that it's due. There's a pretty long wait time, but no real risk that I can see.
Second, I've heard that you can only have three months worth of activation codes applied to your account at any given time. So, you can buy 12, but only apply three. Then, after a couple months, apply two more. I haven't confirmed this. I just apply each one just before the end of the previous month.
sleepfaster said: Yeah. That's pretty much it, with a couple addional things to consider.
First, it gets even better. If you go through befrugal.com to buy your PTEL months, befrugal says it will refund 20% of the cost. I just did that for a couple months worth of service and, while I haven't gotten the refund yet, they do have the purchase registered and acknowledge that it's due. There's a pretty long wait time, but no real risk that I can see.
Second, I've heard that you can only have three months worth of activation codes applied to your account at any given time. So, you can buy 12, but only apply three. Then, after a couple months, apply two more. I haven't confirmed this. I just apply each one just before the end of the previous month.
Thanks for confirming the info.
When I did a chat with a rep yesterday they told me I could load up to 3 top up cards at one time for the unlimited monthly plans ($40/$50), but not for the paygo option. So the $40 top up cards are no different whether they are with the unlimited monthly or paygo sims, just generic $40 of service to load using the PIN correct?
For the monthly plans it would be good to apply the 3 so we don't worry about it each and every single month but like every 3 months we can load 3 and forget about it til another 3 months.
Did you port your number directly to Ptel or are you using the GV method of forwarding? If ported was the process pretty simple and easy? Did you port from Tmobile or another carrier?
How is voice quality on Ptel compared to your postpaid service? No issues with sms, mms, coverage compared to postpaid?
By the way do you know when those top up cards expire? So if I buy like 6 of them now and don't load them til like 6 months from now do they expire from time of purchase or time of activation when we actually load them?
The activation codes just confer a fixed value. It's the nature of the account to which you apply them that determines how they get used. If you apply it to a paygo account, it increases the available amount of paygo money. If you apply it to a pre-paid monthly account, it gives you another month of that service, as long as it is valuable enough (i.e. a single $40 activation code won't give you another month of $50 service).
I didn't port to PTEL. I use GV for my public number, so I can't speak to the PTEL porting process.
PTEL voice quality seems equal to that of T-Mob. At least, I didn't notice any difference.
I've read that the top-up codes expire somewhere around 12 months after issue. I don't know if that's 365 days, 11 months, 13 months or what for sure, though.
I read on another post that they are not able to change plans for you (say you want to go from the 40/50 unlimited monthly to paygo) without getting a new sim and activating it. Then at that point the are not able to transfer your number over to the new sim. So if I had ported my number directly to them and I wanted to change plans later on I could not get my number transferred over to the new sim. Does anyone know if this is indeed the case here or are they able to transfer your number to another sim in case you change plans?
mrtrance said: I read on another post that they are not able to change plans for you (say you want to go from the 40/50 unlimited monthly to paygo) without getting a new sim and activating it. Then at that point the are not able to transfer your number over to the new sim. So if I had ported my number directly to them and I wanted to change plans later on I could not get my number transferred over to the new sim. Does anyone know if this is indeed the case here or are they able to transfer your number to another sim in case you change plans?
You may be referring to my post from a few months back, and creating a new account was indeed needed back then... Of course about a month ago when I used up my PayGo balance and got another SIM they tell me that now they can change plans (and it was actually more of a hassle for them to move my credit from one SIM to the other -- they gave me some story that it's available for international calling, which is of no use to me). Ultimately, they were able to transfer my balance over, but they told me that they are now able to switch plans for an account.
While their customer service is not the most consistent, I think you should be good to go now...
I ordered a SIM and PIN in the wee morning hours of 5/11 and it shipped at the end of the business day 5/13.... if that helps. The code is good for $20 off a 40 or 50 PIN (which can be used for any plan as a $ amt) and a free SIM... not $24.99 off.
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