Some of us fell in love with our current cell phone, plan, or carrier. But don’t forget your cell phone number too. Sometimes we feel a strong bond with those seven digits.
Perhaps you are paying for US cell phone service and leaving the country for an extended period of time. If you’ve ever wanted to temporarily keep your precious number without paying for your plan (or even your phone), you can.
Various services help you park your number, so it’s waiting for you when you return. In the meantime, you don’t have to pay for your traditional cell phone service while your number is on hold.
You may also be able to put your number on vacation or on hold at your carrier without using a cell phone number parking service.
NumberGarage and ParkMyCellPhone.com are two services that compete for cell phone number parking.
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The following instructions should apply no matter who made your Android phone: Samsung, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc.
GarageNumber: Parking service number
For number parking, NumberGarage charges $29.95 for the first month and $4.95 per month thereafter. With this service, you can retain your number for later use.
However, park by number does not allow you to make or receive phone calls through a parked number. Parking Number ports your phone number to NumberGarage until you return it to a provider and put a payment plan on it. As another option, NumberGarage can ship your number for $29.95 for the first month and $9.95 per month thereafter.
This service sends an incoming call on your parked number to the mobile or landline number of your choice. With this route, you can cancel your cell phone service (so you don’t have to pay the bill) and simply forward your current number to someone else.
With NumberGarage, parking and forwarding are contract-free.
The forwarding service gives you 200 minutes per month. Thereafter, the charge per minute is 5 cents per minute. You can change where your number is forwarded up to three times a month. Thereafter, there is a $2.95 charge for each number change
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ParkMyCellPhone.com: Number Parking Service
In addition to NumberGarage, ParkMyCellPhone.com is a similar service with four options.
- ParkMyCellPhone Deep Freeze is the cheapest option of this service. The company will keep your number for $3 a month if you’re not planning on using it in the meantime. This service costs $4.95 with NumberGarage.
ParkMyCellPhone 100 or ParkMyCellPhone 200 informs callers of a new number or simply allows you to receive voice messages. Incoming calls are sent directly to voicemail, which can be heard in the service’s system and sent to you by email.The 100 plan is $5 per month with a one-time charge of $15 (or $60 per year with the free transfer). The 200 plan is $6 per month with a one-time transfer fee of $15. The 100 plan comes with 100 monthly voicemail minutes. The 200 plan has 200 minutes.
- ParkMyCellPhone with VoIP allows you to receive your calls on a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone.
Although the calls will reach a VoIP device that must be connected to the Internet, a computer is not required. This service costs $9 per month with a one-time setup fee of $45, which includes device and shipping.
- ParkMyCellPhone with Call Forwarding is $10 per month with a one-time transfer fee of $15. While this is similar to NumberGarage’s $9.95 shipping service, it comes with more minutes. This plan offers 500 monthly minutes.
Put a number on holidays in your transport company
If you call your cell phone company, you may be able to put your phone number on vacation or on hold for a limited time. For example, Sprint charges $6 per month and T-Mobile will bill you $10 per month up to 90 vacation days for your number.
Virgin Mobile charges $15 for every 3 months or $60 per year. During this time, carriers will hold your number while they suspend your traditional cell phone service and your bill.
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Park and Forward Number Tips
Cell phone number parking is designed to keep your number without any other use. In other words, there are no minutes that can be used or paid for with parking.
Since you’re only paying to keep the number and can’t use it, you probably don’t want to have a number parked forever. If you’re parking one for more than 12 months, you might want to ask yourself why and decide if it’s worth the money to do so.
Minutes, on the other hand, are important for shipping. If you select that route, you’ll want to carefully monitor your minutes (just as you would on your traditional cell phone bill) to make sure you’re not following a forwarding plan or spending too much money.
