Based on Clark’s positive review, just purchased $9 plan. SIM to arrive 3-5days.
QUESTION … did anyone else have this issue:
Current carrier (impossible customer service; more than an hour on hold; no online or text or chat option) – anyway told me I had to cancel account with them BEFORE phone number can be sent to new carrier.
But TELLO states: DON"T cancel until after the transfer otherwise could be interrupted.
HELP! What did you actually do that was successful??
Thank you in advance! 
The general rule is to never cancel an account which holds a number before the number is sucessfully in the new carriers system. Otherwise (usually) the number is put into pool to be reassigned after some waiting period.
What I have found is that you submit a request with the new carrier which includes the phone number, address of the number (that can be an issue by the way) and any pin associated with the number. I also believe at least for the numbers I have transfered, the process is automatic where the new provider tries to pull the number. If the data does not match, the pull is rejected.
A case I had was that the address for a landline number was not correct. In fact it was a virtual number and the losing phone company gave 2 different addresses (one being their central office); neither address worked and the porting failed multiple times. I finally opened a non-official complaint with the FCC who sent a request t othe losing telcom asking them why they could not make the port happen. Within a day or two the telco I guess manually allowed the transfer to take place.
I do know that there may be address and/or pin issues with virtual numbers, VOIP numbers, etc. However, the issues and solutions should be well-known to carries now-a-days.
My previous post on this type of issue: Tello.com - Failure to PORT in my phone number
Thank you – makes total sense: DON"T b/c the number will go into the pool to be reassigned – THAT clears it up for me!!
The CSRs are so often wrong at our expense … as Clark says … customerNONservice.
Will do my best to verify my address to the letter before telling TELLO; thanks again for that tip also. I’d read your other post – this is not landline or VOIP – but likely those took one extra step on the carrier’s part and that’s enought to cause an issue. GOOD for YOU taking the high road and involving FCC.
Will update this after my experience getting this done – in case anyone else needs TELLO info.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TELLO port successful. TELLO how to steps very easy to understand and complete both for activation of their SIM and for the porting steps. Also tested their 24/7 support “after hours” and the representative answered the phone right away; friendly; US English speaker.
I wanted to reduce the seconds allowed for a call to ring. Did the T-Mobil command that worked before but does not work on TELLO. She verified with someone that TELLO does not support that “yet”. It is set at 6 rings.
I did the unlimited talk & text with 1GB data for $9 – in autopay credit card. So my first 48 hours of service are great and all’s good.
Don’t forget that if you manually renew early, your remaining data and minutes roll over!!
I put a reminder in my calendar to do this 1 day before the renewal date.
When you renew online, there is a small checkbox (look for it) to email you a reminder in advance of the renewal date – but I still put it on my calendar.
I use Tello for a 2nd emergency/spare phone, so I have a minimal plan, but I have plenty of data and minutes accrued!
Thank YOU for the tip!
I will do that now. Rolling the remaining forward monthly is great to know!!
Yeah-- rolling over unused data/minutes is a great feature, and Tello doesn’t really communicate it to users!!
I have had Tello for 4 months without any problem. Cell service is solid. Porting my number from T-Mobile was smooth. I have autopay for my wife and I at $19.90/month per line. We used to have T-Mobile 55 plan which was 2 lines for $50 for unlimited text, calls, and date. They increased the price to $70/month for our 2 lines. By changing cell plan to Tello, I lowered my monthly cell bill from $70/mo to $39.80/month, a 44% decrease.
Nancy and Everyone — Just an update today that I did the manually renew one day before auto renewal, and my 761.2MB remaining did indeed rollover, for new data total 1.74GB. Thank you again for the GREAT TIP NANCY !!
When your new phone company pulls your number from the company that you are leaving does that close your account with the old company? Or do you then contact your old company to close the account?
I’m about ready to switch from T-Mobile to Tello; the eSim card is on the way to me.
Hi Palmetto,
When your phone number port is done – your phone number with the old company is done and it goes into their pool of available phone numbers. Your account / billing is your final step with T-Mobile. If in autopay need to cancel and perhaps get a refund of unused, if your plan worked that way,
For me, my old plan had about $10 remaining and SURPRISE there was no refund back to my CC. It was a manual pay before account ran out of money type plan; no CC in autopay. It was not a monthly bill to pay.
Which TELLO plan are you getting?
Hello ClarkFan,
Thanks for your information. I chose the 15 GB plan because I expect to use the data when I travel later this year. However, I plan on downgrading not only to reduce the cost but because I will be paying early and having the GB roll over to the next month. Before I do so I will be saving slightly more than $100 annually. Once I do downgrade I will save even more of course. Because they use T-Mobile’s network I don’t expect any issues with coverage even when I travel. I did choose to add the monthly charge for their spam filtering but only time will tell if it is worth the cost. Most of the time I am using my WiFi with my phone, so I won’t need a lot of GB. I do like that they allow me to use my phone as a hotspot because during a power outage I have done so.