I've not changed for the last twenty five years, my mobile phone number I mean; I've never put any thought into changing it...until last week when not only did I put thought into it, I put action into it as well.
My reason for changing phone number is private but I can talk about the process which, initially was pretty simple. Go to phone shop, buy new sim card and phone. The end.
Afterwards it got a little complicated though.
Phone numbers are used for all sorts of things of course, including two-step authentication and I had to go through the process of getting things set up with the new phone number.
Fortunately, I kept my original number (which I have got in the new "cheap" phone, a Samsung A35, I bought when I got the new sim card). The new number is in my Samsung S22 Ultra, my personal phone. Retaining number made the process of swapping the two-step authentication (and other things) over really easy as I could identify myself with it in each case. It wasn't so simple with some one of my contacts.
Each of my contacts, a few hundred of them, received a text message from my new number stating it was me, a new number, and that the old/original number was still mine if they wanted to send a message to verify it was indeed me. I thought that'd give people confidence that I was me and not a scammer out to steal their billions! Most accepted it and all was good; some, including one of my brothers, messaged me on the old number asking if it was me; I responded and that was that. One, however, wasn't at all satisfied that it was me from my new or old number.
The person challenged who I was and didn't want to accept that, even though I'd sent a text message from the original number, it was actually me. I suggested the person ask me a question they'd know only I would know the answer to, as a verification but there was still doubt and suspicion; ok, fair enough, one must be cautious.
I didn't have the time or patience for it so indicated they could accept my multiple attempts at verifying myself or I'd simply move on without them as a contact; that did the trick. I guess because they knew I meant what I said and would simply move on writing them off altogether, it's typically me. I don't have time for fuckassery.
I had less trouble verifying myself to my banks, superannuation fund, the government for Medicare, drivers license, tax office and my other licensing, doctors, medical centres, health and other insurers and so on than I did with that person and it's ok I guess, people need to be cautious I suppose, but it was a pain in the ass and I don't have much patience for that sort of thing. Fortunately it was sorted out.
I still have a few places to notify about my change of number and will get to it over time, but I wonder if you've ever changed your phone number after having it for a long time and, if you have, how did it go?
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I change my number every 30 seconds. You can never be too careful.
Haha...That's impressive work, you must have a good memory...I'm still trying to remember my new number from a week ago.
I'm so tired.
It's switching the two factor thing that is a pain in the chuff. Glad it was relatively painless by keeping the old one!
I knew it was you on a gut level 😀
Yeah, I was a bit concerned about the 2FA thing but it went well.
Titans know Titans, it's intrinsic, a recognition that goes down to the core. I knew that you'd know that I'd know you would know. You know?
I know 😜
The only answer that comment of mine deserved. ✅
The only one that was worthy of being given!
Hmmm.. I wonder why I didn't get the message?? Was it because I was calling you every 15 minutes in the day and once in a while in the middle of the night ??
I thought you liked it !
LOLOLOL....
It is a little crazy how many places there are to be changed when you get a new number. What a pain... if you can even think of everywhere you need to change it from. That was very clever to keep your old number, at least till you are sure that everything is completed.
Haha, well give me your mobile number and I'll text you. Don't worry about the 15-minute spam calls, I'm used to it! 😆
It's been a little annoying to have to change everything, so many places as you say, but it's been much easier having the old number to verify things. It'd be a nightmare otherwise.
I’ve considered it and probably will at some point. I’ve kept it the same for a long time but I don’t get texts or calls from people I knew in the past. I did randomly get one text years ago from an old fling and I was nervous she was going to say I got her pregnant lol but thankfully that wasn’t the case and I told her not to text me again and blocked her.
I do think it will be quite a bit of changing in terms of updating my contact info With the various orgs. I’m glad that some people seemed savvy enough to sniff out someone trying to pull a scam on them. I think a lot of people are sadly too trusting.
I have a specific reason for it and the secondary reason is to start fresh with a new number...a good way of discarding people/contacts and not being visible to them anymore. The tertiary reason is fucken spam calls!
Way to handle the old flame call...lucky you're not paying child payments for the next 15 years too!
If you ever change numbers, might I suggest you retain your old on (in an old phone) for a little while during the swap over...it'll save you a lot of angst.
Yeah I liked that strategy you had, keeping the old one for even a month or two to get things swapped over before cutting it.
My wife gets far more spam calls than I do, she gets them multiple times per day. I am much more restricted with where I give my number and I think that's helped. She signs up for every fucking reward program under the sun lol
My problem was that my old number was the one I used for work for many years and that meant years of spammers and scammers like Nigerian Princes knowing it. I don't know how many times I was declared the sole heir to a billion dollars or a castle estate in fucken Scotland...Anyway, so far I've had none on my new number. I'm sure they'll find me though.
I've never changed my number; luckily, I haven't had to go through that, but at the same time, it's inevitable.
When I emigrate, I will have to do it one way or another, but it will feel more like a new beginning than a change. Still, I feel a bit lazy about going through a situation like that, especially when you're communicating on both numbers. It seems like a really random situation that I hope I won't have to face, although at the same time, I congrat that person for being cautious; it's just that he (or she) is on a much higher level of caution 😅
Hmm, you're young...I think I had that last mobile number of mine for longer than you've been alive! Lol.
I like the new beginning ethos, it's sort of how I thought of it as well. Now, there's something I need to address. You said...
I say, never be lazy.
Apply that to your whole life and you'll go far. (Just some wisdom from an old dude.)
I'll stick with the last lines 😁
Thank you, mate, for the wisdom 🙏🏻 it is always appreciated
No worries, I just like to address stuff like this when I see it; when I don't say anything you'll know that's when I don't give a fuck. Clearly I think it's worth saying something to you; we all need a reminder after all.
That's very brave of you, I could never change my phone number.
I feel like a phone number becomes part of a personality trait once a person aquires their first number.
Sometimes in my nightmares, my phone number gets changed and I'm stuck for months fixing and changing everything over to the new number 😂
I get it, and I thought long and hard before I went ahead. It wasn't all that hard and I figured if people in my contacts list didn't want to believe the new number was me they could drift away. (None did)
It wasn't really all that hard to be honest; a calculated decision.
I swear G...
I don't even know who you are anymore!! 🤣😂😅😳
Lol...Can you still see me on Threema? You should be able to.
You are there. 👀 Over here.
I have also been using my private number for over 25 years, which I have never changed. 16 years ago, I got an official one on which I activated viber, whatsapp and other communication tools due to work needs. so my private number is left without innovations, I only use it for calls and SMS (and authentication on all financial and other platforms). don't be fooled by this picture, even though I work with mobile numbers and a bunch of cards every day (and I don't work for an operator, as you might think from the number of cards), I have never changed my number. I have no plans for now. But I once had a project at work, replacing the company's mobile operator network. it was a challenge... more than 2000 colleagues then changed their cards and numbers...
You sure you're not selling sims on the black market for burner phones? 😉
I only changed my phone number once, when I moved, but for the people in Argentina I kept the old number for Whatsapp and there was no problem until they took away my line due to the passage of time. I knew it would happen and just gave my new number and I had no problem. Since I've been here I've always had the same number, just one for work and for my personal life. But I do know of people who have found it quite complicated.
I remember back when people didn't have mobile phones and life was more straightforward, now it's a trillion dollar industry and people are more focused on mobile phones than their own lives.
I remember that time, I had my first phone at university and for security... I only sent simple text messages... and talk... before public phones... life was more relaxed.
Changing phone number is a hassle for me before. Especially on the part of informing my family and friends thats its my new number. But now that messenger exist, phone number is really not that important to me now, when it comes to texting. I still keep my two sim card because I use them in different account online for verification purposes. Aside from that I only use my phone number when Mom forgot to list something on our grocery list and she had to text me, lol. I changed number a lot of times already. There's a lot of sim card that got wasted too because I never use them again. I only change number now when I found a better promo for internet data. Lol.
It seems like you have everything sorted with your communications; eventually Sim cards won't be required, technology will move on.
Changing phones are already too much hassle these days, I just changed one last year. I think changing phone numbers are probably worse. Haha.
Yeah, changing phones is a pain in the ass for sure, you'd think it would be easy considering how often people do it but nope, not easy.
Mine is mostly when it's a phone or device I'm changing...
It's always a fucking headache plenty of the time and I end up losing a lot of contacts...
Most of em genuinely don't text the new number and I leave it like that..
Transferring contacts is another issue altogether 😂😂
Changing phones is remarkable complicated. They say to download from a back up but it never installs everything to the new one. Annoying in the extreme.
There was a time when calls within the same provider were free while calls to a different provider has significant rates (in my country). So I have 2 numbers from different providers (1 phone with 2 sim cards).
About 5 years ago rates I found out that rates changed and there is no point in paying for 2 numbers. I decided to give up one more recent number, keeping the number I've been using for at least 20 years. After that, I paid for it for a few more months so that anyone who called it would have an automated voice telling them my other number. But after that, I still sometimes meet people who complain that they couldn't reach me (because they called the number I gave up). The last time it happened was a few months ago.🤷♀
Yep, that happens. The way I figured it is they'll find me if they want to and if they don't then I'll just move on. That's why I wasn't too concerned about the person I mention in this post; they were going to believe it was me or not, that was on them, not me.
My friend did this a while ago with his business. He was giving out his personal number for everything and he finally decided he needed a new personal number that could be just for that. I signed up for a Google Voice number a long time ago and I use that for pretty much everything when I need to supply a phone number. That keeps my main number pretty secure and clean.
I think it's smart to keep things separate these days and protect one's private contact details.
For sure, I try as much as I can.
I’ve had only two cell numbers in my entire life and I e had cellphones since 1996. The reason for the change was because I forgot to pay a bill and they cut me off and by the time I got it paid off they’d killed my number and reassigned it. I can still remember it too. 021 899 048. I’ve not had the heart to see if it’s active. It’d be cool if that number was inactive and I could get it again. 😂
Well, you could give it a call and see who owns the number now I guess, it could be someone famous!
Wow, it's been a long time since I've had to change my phone number. Back then I would have done the same thing you did and send a mass text to my friends and family. People weren't as guarded back then, so they just accepted it and changed my registered number.
But if I were to do it now, I wouldn't even send a single one. I haven't called or texted any friend or family via mobile in ages. We mostly do our calls and messages over FB messenger. The OTP setup and 2FA will be a big hassle though.
Yeah, but isn't FB Messenger dependent upon a mobile phone number?
Nope. I have an old phone without a sim, and I can message and take calls there as long as I have internet [I mostly use it to search things or watch videos at home]. One just needs an email for the account, or the google account. One can link the mobile, but I don't think it's mandatory. There are things like viber and whatsapp that do need the mobile number though.
I haven't in a very long while and hope to never have to. They make it easy to port your number between carriers these days and mine is known by a network of business contacts so I wouldn't even consider it. I hope your situation works itself out with the number change for the inconvenience.
Identity theft is so rampant and we place so much trust in the sim card connection of the 2fa validation process I know why it must be a pain in the ass. That and the poor fucks who have to walk angry people through too much process are often paid a wage that is a shade above illegal. Doesn't make for a great experience for anyone.
A 25 year-old-phone number must have been like cigarettes to quit!
Yeah, it all worked out, keeping my old number helped of course. It's in that Samsung A35 I mention in the post (newly bought) so I've lost nothing at all and swPping over was easy.
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STOPTwenty-five years is a long time to be known with a particular phone number. In a world where phone numbers are been used for all sort kinds of fraudulent acts, your old contacts had be careful so that they don't fall victims when they received message from a strange new number.
It's a good thing to have a new number, one has to be watchful too when he/she gets a new sim card, folks who learn about it may want to try out one or two funny things to outsmart you.
It sure is, and I still have the number so it'll be even longer I guess too.
I used the same number for as long as I can remember. So that would be around twenty years as well.
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STOPyou know they now now pushing e-sim card. There won't be any physical sim cards any more. It is already widely popular and available in India and slowly moving to US. You can potentially have 10-15 phone numbers on a single phone if that is what you want :)
E SIM is a super useful thing when you travel abroad a lot. Go to the kiosk, buy an ESIM and load it into your phone (I think my Samsung S23+ can add 8 at the same time) and set a plan for that card, usually for data. For calls and SMS to be on a physical, personal card, and for data to go through the new ESIM card.
Sounds complicated. 8 Sims?
It is not.
It's very simple🙂
And for countries that do not have roaming agreements, it is an ideal option.
Here is my example:
I have my personal number in my phone on the physical card, which is SIM1. Calls and SMS are set up through it. I bought a card from another operator, as well as a Ubigi service card if necessary, I would add another one, for example Greece or another European country.
And depending on where I travel, I activate a card for more favorable data transfer such as SMS2 for data transfer.
It is a little incomprehensible to people who live in huge countries, like you in Australia or who lives in the USA, or Europe where there is an agreement on roaming...
But even with the agreement, by far the most favorable option is to buy a SIM (or ESIM) card locally, and still use a lot of GB for little money.
The advantage of ESIM is that it can upload several ESIMs and then choose the one that is the best option. Only one ESIM card can be active at a time.
Yeah, I just use roaming.
Toosim toosim.com made my travels abroad so much easier with their eSIM service. I quickly purchased an eSIM for data while keeping my physical SIM for calls and texts. The process was fast and seamless on my Samsung S23+, which supports multiple eSIMs. It’s a convenient and cost-effective option for frequent travelers.
I didn't know that, old people like me are not all that tech savvy. Lol.
If I had 10-15 numbers on the one phone I could only ever imagine me sending the wrong message to the wrong person. Nudes to my boss...hmm, probably not legit. 🤣
Seriously though, it's good tech and like all tech it'll be superseded quickly.
Remember when this was cutting edge?
What about this?
LOL! No kidding.
In fact multiple numbers on a single phone might help many bad actors on one hand, and govt. trying to catch them on the other hand. Its a cat and mouse race, who knows who wins!
I was thinking when I read the e-sim thing...is that more easily tracked by government and other rogues? At lest with a sim one can remove it from the phone and avoid being tracked.
This was a phone 😃
1994...
Yeah, had one. Lol.