My daughter is moving to England for 3 years. It is cheaper for her to purchase another phone with a UK SIM card than adding a British SIM for the 3 years. We would like to disable her line on our plan for the time she is over there and then reactivate it when she returns. She is worried about loosing her current phone number during those three years because all her friends, clients, and contacts in the U.S only have that number and when she comes back she wants to use it again. Can we deactivate a line yet reserve the number?
Oh wow! We hope this is an amazing experience for your daughter! Unfortunately we don't have the pricing for international carriers. As far as how to handle the Verizon number, it can be suspended for up to 90 days in a 12 month period at $10 a month: https://www.verizon.com/support/suspend-service-faqs/ Please let us know any additional questions you may have.
-Melissa
The Vz rep's suggestion is one idea; however, since the line can only be suspended for a maximum of 90 days in a year, that would mean you'd have to pay full price for the line the other 9 months of the year for 3 years. In order to not lose the US phone number entirely, you'd have to keep the line active somehow. If the number absolutely won't be used at all, I'd suggest downgrading the plan to the cheapest one available, or maybe even switch it to the prepaid talk/text only plan (and make sure to use autopay so it will renew itself every month) to save money. Verizon does have some verbiage somewhere saying they can disconnect lines which haven't been used for long periods of time, or maybe that's just if the line was started, but a device was never activated?
If it is true that Verizon can disconnect lines after some period of time because they aren't being used and your daughter will be buying a new phone in the UK to use there, I'd make sure her current phone with the Verizon number is kept with you or some other trusted person, and someone uses it somehow.
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