Swap SIM cards between two different phones?

[dave_the_nerd]

I have an iPhone, AT&T.

I'm assuming there will at least be some hoops to jump through, but if I had a second phone (a cheap dumb phone for travel, boating, etc.) could I swap the SIM card between the two and just keep paying the same monthly fee, keep my phone number, etc.?

If I'm not dreaming, any idea what those hoops might entail?

 

[Commodus]

I have an iPhone, AT&T.

I'm assuming there will at least be some hoops to jump through, but if I had a second phone (a cheap dumb phone for travel, boating, etc.) could I swap the SIM card between the two and just keep paying the same monthly fee, keep my phone number, etc.?

If I'm not dreaming, any idea what those hoops might entail?

That's what SIMs are designed for -- it's so that you can switch devices without jumping through hoops. You don't have to change fees or phone numbers, and you rarely have to tweak connection settings (most phones just automatically pick them up).

The only real things to be aware of are the required SIM card size (your backup phone may use a micro-SIM where your main phone uses nano-SIM, for example) and whether or not the secondary phone is compatible with your carrier. If your secondary phone uses a larger card, you can usually get a cheap adapter to make your usual SIM fit. And when it comes to compatibility: if it's either sold by the carrier or an unlocked phone, you're probably fine.

If you haven't already obtained this secondary phone, you might want to look into getting a cheap smartphone. An older iPhone would be easiest, of course, but Motorola and BLU make some good budget Android phones. Any of those would let you retain most of the features you're used to without worrying too much if your phone gets stolen or goes overboard. Just remember: iMessage doesn't work on Android, so you'd want to deactivate it on your iPhone when traveling so that fellow iPhone owners aren't sending messages into the void -- well, that or tell people to reach you through Facebook Messenger/Hangouts/some other chat app of choice.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks!

I actually have the phone (a Nokia 515) and the sim adapter is in the mail. I just wanted to get a second opinion before I broke something.

I thought about another used iPhone too - not to cross the line into P&N territory, but I want to have a minimum of information on my device when I go through borders.

 

[lxskllr]

I thought about another used iPhone too - not to cross the line into P&N territory, but I want to have a minimum of information on my device when I go through borders.

Smart move. FWIW, I just activated a used phone on sprint. I had to login to the account, deactivate the old phone, and activate the new one. A simple sim swap wasn't sufficient. YMMV