Does it cost money to port a UK mobile number?

Under Ofcom switching rules, requesting a PAC and porting the number is normally free. A PAC is typically valid for 30 days. You may still owe unused credit, a notice period, or an early termination fee if you are on a fixed-term contract. Prepaid / PAYG accounts usually have no exit fee, but leftover credit can be lost when the old service ends.

Can I still get a PAC if my prepaid SIM was suspended or banned?

It depends on the provider and why the account was closed. Text-to-Switch (text PAC to 65075) only works if that SIM can still send SMS. If the line is barred, you may need to request a PAC through the provider's account tools or support. After a terms or risk-control closure, some providers will not release the number. That is a policy question for the carrier, not a money-math question.

How much does a replacement UK MVNO plan cost in 2026?

Budget UK MVNO and prepaid plans commonly land around £6 to £15 per month for everyday data plus calls and texts. Twelve-month deals can cut 10 to 20 percent versus rolling monthly, but they lock you in. After a risk-control event, monthly billing is usually the cheaper mistake if you might switch again within a few months.

When is it cheaper to drop the number instead of porting?

Drop the number when few accounts use it for 2FA, the PAC is unavailable, or a data-only eSIM plus a new cheap voice SIM covers how you actually use the phone. Keep and port it when banks, HMRC, work, or WhatsApp would take hours to rebuild and downtime would lock you out of money or work.

Should I buy an annual MVNO plan after switching?

Only if you are confident you will keep that provider for most of the year. Use the monthly vs annual calculator to compare the discount with the risk of paying for unused months. After a suspension, treat the first one to three months as a trial on a rolling plan.

Is a travel eSIM a substitute for keeping my UK number?

A travel eSIM is usually data only. It can be cheaper than keeping a UK voice line for a trip, but it will not receive UK bank OTPs or WhatsApp calls on your old number. Compare the trip data cost with the monthly cost of keeping a voice-capable UK SIM. That is a separate decision from whether the number itself is worth porting.

Is Porting a UK Prepaid Number Worth It in 2026?

Quick answer

Porting is usually worth it when the number is tied to banks, 2FA, work, or WhatsApp and a PAC is still available. The port itself is typically free. The bill is the replacement plan (often £6–£15/month) plus downtime. Drop the number when few services depend on it, or when a data eSIM plus a new voice line is enough.

Compare monthly vs annual plans

Quick Decision Summary

Porting or buying a replacement UK MVNO plan is worth it if:

Banks, HMRC, work, or WhatsApp still send codes to this number
You can still request a PAC, or the provider will release the number another way
One to two days of downtime would be painful (missed OTPs, locked accounts)
A rolling replacement plan costs less than the time it would take to rebuild every login

Stay on a new number (and skip the port) if:

Almost nothing important is bound to the old number
The account was closed and the provider will not issue a PAC
You mainly need data, and a travel or data eSIM plus a cheap secondary voice SIM is enough
You would only keep the number out of habit (sunk cost), not because it still does work

This guide is a money decision after a connectivity or risk-control event. It is not carrier legal advice, and it is not a how-to for appealing a ban.

Who it is worth it for

People whose number is load-bearing. If payroll, banking, or two-factor texts land on this SIM, the replacement-plan fee is usually cheaper than a locked account.
Switchers who can still get a PAC. Ofcom-regulated porting is typically free. The incremental cost is the new plan, not a porting fee.
Households that want voice + SMS in the UK. eSIM data plans do not replace inbound OTPs on the old number.

Who it is not worth it for

Light users with a burned or barely used prepaid number and no 2FA bindings.
Travel-first users who need data abroad more than a UK voice line. Compare a trip eSIM with the monthly cost of keeping the number; see Is Travel Insurance Worth It? for the same style of trip-cost trade-off.
Anyone treating the old number as irreplaceable by default. A number has value only if replacing it costs more time or money than a new plan.

The real costs (usually not the PAC)

PAC porting is the cheap part. Price the rest.

Cost	Typical 2026 range	Notes
PAC / port fee	£0	Ofcom Text-to-Switch; PAC usually valid 30 days
Replacement MVNO / prepaid plan	£6–£15 per month	Voice + SMS + everyday data; shop current offers
12-month deal vs monthly	Often 10–20% cheaper	Only helps if you stay most of the year
Leftover PAYG credit	£0–£20+	Often lost when the old service ends
Admin time to rebind 2FA	1–6 hours	Banks, Apple/Google, WhatsApp, HMRC, work tools
Downtime / missed OTPs	Your hourly rate × hours offline	The expensive line if you cannot log into money apps

Use the Subscription Cost Calculator to turn a replacement plan into an annual total and a cost per month of actual use. If you are choosing a 12-month SIM-only deal versus rolling monthly, run the same numbers in the Monthly vs Annual Calculator.

Sunk cost: the number is not the plan

The prepaid bundle you already paid for is gone once the SIM is barred. That fee should not decide the next plan.

What can still have value is the number as a login key:

Bank and card SMS codes
HMRC, NHS, and other government logins
WhatsApp, Signal, and account-recovery numbers
Apple ID, Google, Microsoft, and work SSO
Landlord, employer, or side-business contacts who only have this number

If updating those would take an afternoon and risk a locked current account, porting is usually the cheaper insurance. If you can change the number on two apps in ten minutes, the number is not worth a year of extra line rental.

PAC, STAC, and downtime

High-level process (policies change; confirm with Ofcom and the provider):

PAC (keep the number): text PAC to 65075 from the old SIM if it can still send SMS, or request it in-account / from support.
STAC (leave without the number): text STAC to 75075 if you only want to end the old service.
A PAC is typically valid for 30 days. Give it to the new provider; the port often completes in one working day.
Ofcom has also described a short window after you cancel in which you can still ask the new provider to keep the old number. Do not assume that window exists after a risk-control closure.

If the SIM cannot send SMS, Text-to-Switch will not run. That is common after a bar. The money question then becomes: can support still release a PAC, and is one extra day of downtime acceptable?

Do not cancel a working replacement plan before the port completes. A failed port plus a dead old SIM is how people lose both the number and inbound OTPs.

Monthly vs annual after a risk-control event

UK MVNOs often sell rolling monthly plans and cheaper 12-month SIMs. The discount is real. The commitment is the risk.

After a suspension or ban, your stay-length is less certain than usual:

You may need to switch again if coverage, KYC, or risk checks fail
You may decide the number is not worth keeping once 2FA is rebuilt
You may replace the UK voice line with data eSIM plus a secondary number

The monthly vs annual guide uses the same rule of thumb: annual billing is easier to justify when you will use the service for 9+ months and the discount is 15% or more. Right after a connectivity event, stay monthly for one to three billing cycles, then rerun the calculator if the new plan is stable.

Example: £10/month rolling versus £96 for 12 months.

Monthly for a year: £120
Annual plan: £96
Headline saving: £24 (20%)
Break-even: about month 10
If you leave at month 4, the annual plan is £24 per month used versus £40 for four rolling months

Annual still wins on cash in that example — unless the annual plan is non-refundable and you already bought a second SIM. Then you paid twice. That last case is why flexibility has a price. Paying £4 extra per month to avoid a second unused 12-month SIM is often the rational choice.

Opportunity cost of downtime

Price a day without the number the same way you would price a day without a password manager.

Missed bank OTP: cannot pay a bill, cannot prove a card transaction, cannot reset a login
Work delay: job boards, 2FA on email, client calls to the old number
WhatsApp lockout: chats and business continuity sit on the number until you move them
Recovery loops: some services will only send a reset SMS to the registered number

A conservative estimate: downtime cost is the hours you cannot complete money or work tasks, times your after-tax hourly value, plus any late fees or lost shifts.

If downtime would cost more than one or two months of a replacement plan, port. If you would barely notice a new number, do not pay to keep the old one.

When to drop the number and use eSIM + a secondary line

Dropping the number is the better money move when:

PAC is unavailable after the account closure, and waiting on an appeal has no clear payoff.
Few bindings. You can update the handful of accounts this week.
Data is the product. You travel or work on Wi-Fi and only need a UK number occasionally.
The old number is a liability. If it is already associated with a risk-control event, a clean new number plus tighter 2FA (authenticator app, passkeys) can be cheaper than defending the old one.

A practical split many people already use:

Data: travel or local eSIM data plan (no need to keep a UK voice line for browsing)
Voice / SMS: a cheap new prepaid or MVNO SIM for the rare OTP
Important logins: move 2FA off SMS when the service allows it, so the next SIM event is less expensive

A travel eSIM is not a like-for-like replacement for a UK voice number. Compare the data plan with the cost of keeping a voice line; do not assume it receives UK bank texts. We do not list or rank paid eSIM affiliates here. Shop current retail prices and treat the eSIM as a data subscription in the Subscription Cost Calculator.

Decision checklist

Work top to bottom. Stop when the answer is obvious.

List every account that still sends SMS to this number (banks first).
Estimate hours to move those accounts, and what a locked bank login would cost this week.
Check whether you can still request a PAC (SIM SMS, online account, or support).
Price a replacement voice+SMS plan for 3 months and for 12 months.
Run monthly vs annual if a 12-month deal is tempting.
Run the subscription calculator on the new line as a recurring bill.
If the number is not load-bearing, price a data eSIM plus a new cheap voice SIM instead.
Choose: port, new number + keep a voice SIM, or data eSIM + secondary number.
If you port, do not cancel the donor service until the new provider confirms the number has moved.

Example scenarios

Heavy 2FA user, SIM just barred

Bindings: two banks, HMRC, work email, WhatsApp
PAC: support can still issue one
Replacement plan: £8/month rolling
Admin if you drop the number: half a day plus a weekend of WhatsApp pain
Verdict: Port. The free PAC plus £8 is cheaper than rebuilding the identity stack.

Travel-heavy user, prepaid number used twice a year

Bindings: one old shopping account
Need: data in Spain for two weeks, not UK inbound calls
Options: keep a £10/month UK line all year (£120) versus a trip eSIM plus a new £5 PAYG SIM when you are back
Verdict: Let the number go. Keep a travel-data eSIM for the trip; do not pay year-round line rental for a number you do not use.

Unsure, 12-month deal looks cheap

Discount: £96/year versus £10/month
Confidence you will keep this MVNO after the last risk-control event: low
Verdict: Take three months monthly (£30). Revisit annual only if the new plan is stable. See Monthly vs Annual Plans.

Hidden costs

Lost PAYG credit on the old SIM
Buying two plans (failed port, then a second SIM)
Annual lock-in after an unstable account event
SMS 2FA dependency that makes the next bar more expensive
Assuming an eSIM receives UK OTPs when it is data-only
Appeal time that does not restore a PAC

Monthly vs Annual Calculator
Subscription Cost Calculator
Monthly vs Annual Plans
Is Travel Insurance Worth It? — trip-cost framing if you are weighing travel data against keeping a UK line

Disclaimer

This guide is for educational cost-benefit decisions only. It is not carrier, legal, or regulatory advice. Ofcom rules, PAC/STAC processes, and MVNO prices change. A provider may refuse to release a number after a terms or risk-control closure. Check the current Ofcom switching guidance and the provider’s terms before you spend money or give up a number.