Upgrading mid-contract? Micro-SIM?

[howardfamily76]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with upgrading mid-contract.

In essence, I currently have a BB Curve 9300 with a tariff which is no longer offered to new customers. I'm a year into this 2-year contract in a few weeks time. Due to various reasons which I won't bore you with, I'd like to give my phone to a family member who resides in this household, and put my current SIM card into a Samsung Galaxy S3. The BB would then have a Virgin PAYG SIM put into it for the family member.

Now, I was wondering, can this be done? I'm aware that I'll probably have to cut my SIM card up to microSIM size to get it into the S3, unless there's any way of getting a micro-SIM from Virgin without too much hassle. But my main question is can I ring Virgin and get a new phone out of them if I pay for it? Or am I going to have to buy an unlocked one from Amazon and pay through the nose?

Many thanks.

[dozer167 · Accepted solution]

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howardfamily76 wrote:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with upgrading mid-contract.

In essence, I currently have a BB Curve 9300 with a tariff which is no longer offered to new customers. I'm a year into this 2-year contract in a few weeks time. Due to various reasons which I won't bore you with, I'd like to give my phone to a family member who resides in this household, and put my current SIM card into a Samsung Galaxy S3. The BB would then have a Virgin PAYG SIM put into it for the family member.

Now, I was wondering, can this be done? I'm aware that I'll probably have to cut my SIM card up to microSIM size to get it into the S3, unless there's any way of getting a micro-SIM from Virgin without too much hassle. But my main question is can I ring Virgin and get a new phone out of them if I pay for it? Or am I going to have to buy an unlocked one from Amazon and pay through the nose?

Many thanks.

---

howardfamily76,

                          As far as I'm aware there is no reason why you couldn't let a family member use your BB Curve 9300 on a Virgin Pay As You Go Simcard.     

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The main issue that may be a problem for you, is that you currently still have half of your contract remaining for the use of the BB Curve 9300, and I honestly don't think it's possible to have BB data disabled on your contract sim to enable its use in another mobile (Samsung Galaxy S3) whilst you still have such a length of time remaining on your contract.

There wouldn't of been an issue if you had been in your last month of your contract, as you could of upgraded, and virgin mobile would of sorted the disabling of BB Data on your current contract simcard, should you of wished to keep the same number.  

The only way that you can currently get hold of a Virgin Micro Simcard is through getting a mobile on contract that requires a Micro - Simcard.    There has been numerous users who have cut there simcards down to micro size and haven't had any issues, however there is also a lot of users who have had issues, see this forum thread on Micro- Simcards

Link: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Mobile/Micro-sims-on-the-Virgin-mobile-network/td-p/1148207

You are allowed to have 3 mobile phone contracts with Virgin mobile, so to acquire a Samsung Galaxy S3 on contract shouldn't be a problem for you. 

You can't however get hold of the Samsung Galaxy S3 any other way from Virgin mobile at present.

I personally feel that the best route to take, would be to give Virgin Mobile a call "FREE" on 789 from your Virgin mobile or alternatively call 0845 6000 789 (chargeable) from a landline,

and discuss what the possibilities are for you to acquire a Samsung Galaxy S3 and have BB data disabled from your current contract simcard, but I still doubt very much that it would be possible.

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• Unlimited Mobile Web                                              Regards dozer167

[howardfamily76]

Cheers dozer167,

I guess I'll be looking into buying a full price unlocked phone and cutting my SIM down!

Many thanks.

[dozer167]

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howardfamily76 wrote:

Cheers dozer167,

I guess I'll be looking into buying a full price unlocked phone and cutting my SIM down!

Many thanks.

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howardfamily76,

                         I think it may be your best option, though I would still double check with virgin mobile, as your contract simcard will still be on the BB data tariff, and may cause issues if you can't have BB data removed.  

                                                     Regards  dozer167

[thar]

I signed up on a BB tariff but only kept the BB phone for a month or so before buying a Android handset. I just swapped the SIM to the Android. The Android takes a full size SIM but I have had no problem with the data as I got unlimited (1GB) with the contract as well as BIS and didn't need to contact Virgin, it just worked.

[dozer167]

Thar,
That's excellent news! Though what may work for one, doesn't necessarily mean will work for all, but pleased you didn't have any issues.
Regards dozer167

[JWE]

Hi all, just finished a 2 year contract with VM on a Nokia handset. Purchased an unlocked Galaxy S3, modified my current Virgin SIM to fir the S3 (now on a a rolling SIM only contract) and everthing works fine! I will try to get a Micro SIM from virgin when they are released??!

[chops]

There's no need to bother about having the Blackberry pass service disabled if you want to use a BB contract SIM in a non-BB phone as Dozer had stated.

It will work the same as any other  SIM does but you will of course be charged for data usage - unless that was included in the original contract. The BB contracts usually included 500MB or 1GB of non-BB data usage per month.