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Use prepaid sim card in a postpaid phone?

Discussion in 'GENERAL Wireless Discussion' started by bones123, Mar 6, 2008.

  1. bones123

    bones123 New Member

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    I have an extra new phone that I purchased from At&t that I am not using on my postpaid account, but I would like to use it as a prepaid phone. At&t rep told me that this is not possible because the prepaid phones are "built" differently from those used on postpaid accounts. Does anyone know if it is possible to use GoPhone prepaid sim card (eg, the ones they sell online) in this postpaid phone that I purchased from AT&T? Thanks!!
     
  2. charlyee

    charlyee Ultimate Insanity
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    Yes you can use your prepaid SIM on your postpaid phone. :)
     
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  3. RadioRaiders

    RadioRaiders RF Black-Belt
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    Normally that's true.
    Some pre-paid phones have some special billing mechanism built into the phone and can only be used with their specific SIM cards. I'm not aware if ATT GoPhone uses this or not. If the ATT rep says that, then maybe they do. Best thing would be just to stop in a store and try it.
     
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  4. charlyee

    charlyee Ultimate Insanity
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    Good point, but at&t does not. I used my prepay SIm with my at&t postpaid V557 & also my unbranded 6131. If I am not mistaken I think Ellen had her Tilt on prepay also.

    I believe Net 10 phones are set up the way you mentioned
     
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  5. RadioRaiders

    RadioRaiders RF Black-Belt
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    Ah yea, NET10 is the one with that funny billing system. You're right, ATT should have a "normal" pre-paid billing system (where you can freely swap phones). I wonder why this ATT rep said this thing about their pre-paid phones being built differently then? :confused:
     
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  6. charlyee

    charlyee Ultimate Insanity
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    Let's see::D

    a.. That is what they are trained to say.

    b. They want the OP to buy a prepay phone & not use an existing one.

    c. Both a & b.
     
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  7. jakesmobile

    jakesmobile New Member

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    Damn there are some real ___ sales reps in this line of work, I never was trained to say that to customers. Also right on our price sheet it says any phone can be used as a go phone
     
  8. Ellen

    Ellen Guest

    Charlyee, You are correct. :) I was using an AT&T 3G prepaid SIM card in the postpaid Tilt that I had, with no problems what so ever. I had the $19.99 unlimited data "pick your plan", and never had any extra charges for data.
     
  9. dmapr

    dmapr Silver Senior Member
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    And Tracfones as well. These two are the only GSM prepaid phones in the US that I know of that play this trick.
     
  10. Eric47

    Eric47 Bronze Senior Member
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    a lesson on ethics from someone wanting someone to help him hack an iphone that someone "gave him" lol...

    Anywayz

    but seriously...that rep more than likely said that bc they didnt know any better...but if they did know, they probably wanted you to let them activate it there.
     
  11. walkguru

    walkguru Wireless Guru
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    for whatever its worth, ive bought several prepaid phones from att, and used them with my regular sim cards. no problums.
     
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  12. hme83

    hme83 Bronze Senior Member
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    I have one phone that I bought as a prepaid phone from Cingular (a little over a year ago), one phone I bought from at&t as a post paid upgrade (several months ago) and two phones that were purchased elsewhere unbranded/unlocked. I have no problems switching the prepaid and post paid SIM's between any of the phones - all of them are fully functional with either type of account SIM.

    At the time I bought the prepaid phone, a Corporate store sales rep also insisted to me several times that it absolutely would not work to use a prepaid phone with my postpaid SIM. :p
     
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  13. Particular

    Particular Banned

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    Yes,
    You can use on prepaid SIM card in a postpaid phone ;)
     

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