Churning Phone Numbers: Why I Change Phone Services, Carriers, and Numbers

If you follow this blog then you may have noticed a decent number of phone or phone service related posts. I have reviewed the lucrative T-Mobile 55+ plan and (to my knowledge) been the first site to confirm that 50% off Pixel deal works with said 55+ plan. I have also posted about a fantastic Mint SIM deal: $30 for 6 month. And if you think I post about Project Fi often (Bill Protection, one free gogo pass, and broken travel trolley?) then you would hate to see my draft posts.

You probably thought I can’t possibly use all these services but I have. I more or less try every single deal I post on this site. So now you probably think why do I have so many numbers, especially from different service providers. Initially part of me just wanted to test some services but the other part of me knew that I could easily break even on my cost of purchase. For example, above mentioned Mint SIM deal cost me $45 for 6 months but the net cost was $30 after $15 swagbucks rebate. Needless to say 6 month of no contract 2 GB/MO 4G LTE service is fanatic for a net cost of $30 but the question I ask myself is “can i somehow earn back my initial cost?” and the answer is an absolute yes.

Now the absolute first thing I want to mention is that if you’re a beginner to churning phone services then avoid contract deals like a plague. There are often deals that require you to stick with a certain carrier for a certain period of time (as high as 24 months) and such commitment need not be made by a novice user. The intermediate/advanced phone churner will know that a lot deals popup when new iPhone, Samsung, Pixel, etc are released and thus will “prepare appropriately”. For example, I plan to cancel 1/2 lines in T-Mobile 55+ plan few months prior to the release date of next flagship phone because doing so will ensure that I qualify for the churn the next generation of Pixel 50% off deal or Samsung BOGO deal. These are really nit picky terms and conditions that you need not worry about now.  This post is all about you, the novice phone churner, and churning cancel anytime contract free phone lines.

The idea is very simple – you want the cost of acquisition of a new number to be as low as possible, then you set out to recover your cost. One way of doing this is by requesting a change of number with your existing carrier but this may result in some fee. The other way is by acquiring a completely new service, preferably during a promotional period. Regardless, when you get a new number you can signup for various services to make the trouble worthwhile.

Uber  – up to $30

Use new number to open a new uber account. Please do NOT use referral as $30 signup bonus is easy to get. I suggest adding a platinum card to the new account so you get instant benefits of VIP Uber.

Uber EATS – up to $20

You can refer your new account with an old account. New account will get $5 off next 3 order while the old one will get $5 off. Note that Uber EATS has a delivery fee of $4.99 so in some cases you might be better off looking for a $10 off code.

Lyft – up to $20

You can refer a new Lyft account with an old one. New account will get $5 off one ride while the old one will get $15 off one ride.

Dosh – up to $20

Once upon a time Dosh worked on VOIPs and nonsense numbers but now they require an actual number to register. On occasions, like 2017 Holidays and 2018 New Year, they run $15 promo for the referrer and $5 promo for the referred.  In lack of a promo, I still suggest referring your new account and not adding any cards to the new account for a while because that sometimes triggers connect a card and get $15 promo.

Note that you need to have a minimum of $15 to cash out through Dosh. Ideally you would use a referral to signup for account A, then refer B, cash out account A, refer C using B, cash out B, and so on. If you want less of a hassle then you can simply use one account to refer but in doing so you would let $5 sit idle in your new accounts.

Drop – up to $6

Drop normally offers 1000 points ($1 in gift card) for referrer and referred each. Occasionally Drop offers referrer $5 bonus. Drop often have lucrative deals, like the much abused Giftagram offer, which makes it worthwhile to hold on to multiple Drop accounts.

spam my number 

Sometimes some site will give you giftcards in return for adding your phone number. For example,  express.com offers $5 bonus reward for adding a phone number. I did this once and yes they texted me frequently you but it is not like I gave them my real number anyway.

Summary

This post is meant to show you that churning can be done with more than just credit card. Also, it is intended to be an entry point for novice phone churners. I think the real value of these deals lie in deals like Samsung BOGO deals. When the time comes I might do a separate post on churning these more valuable deals.