Moving a number to your phone system
Published
After you buy a bail word number: the transfer details you receive, where the number can ring, and how to ask your phone company to move it onto your line.
What you get at checkout
Portable to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and all major US carriers.
After checkout you receive the account number and transfer PIN the carrier asks for. The carrier controls how long the transfer takes and may charge its own service or transfer fees.
Where the number can ring
A bail word number can ring an agent's cell phone, an office line, a cloud phone system that rings several people at once, or an answering service. Pick the one that will answer at night as well as by day.
How the move starts
The move starts with the phone company you want the number on, not with the seller. Ask it to bring in a number you own, and give it the number, the account number and the transfer PIN from your order.
The FCC describes the same steps in its consumer guide: contact the new company to start the move and give it your ten-digit number and the details it asks for.
Source: FCC consumer guide: keeping your phone number when you change companies (archived copy, August 2019)
Once it is live
Call the number from another phone and make sure it rings where you expect, at night as well as by day.
Then put it to work: your Business Profile and directory listings, your website, cards, signs and vehicles, all on the same day if you can, so callers never find two numbers for you.