What's The Difference Between Transferring A Line And Dropping It?

[LOUISEC999]

We no long longer need a line on our family plan and want to give the phone to another Verizon customer.

Are there any benefits to transferring the line rather than dropping the line from our account?

[Ann154]

Are you willing to give them that phone number?

[LOUISEC999]

No.  The person who is receiving the phone wants to keep his own number.

I don't care if the number disappears.

[Ann154]

Then cancel the line. Don't transfer it to the other person.

[LOUISEC999]

Why?

I wanted to drop the line but the customer relations person recommended I transfer the line.  Now there is confusion.  He was able to put his number on the phone and receive and make calls but the phone is still on my account.  I was told by Verizon this is impossible, but I called him today with his number and he answered.  He then  called Verizon who told him everything is set up fine, but I still keep getting emails that he never accepted responsibility for the line.  So right now two people are paying for the same line. 

[Ann154]

Transferring the line means moving the billing responsibility of the line moving you to the other person. It transfers the phone number to the other person. The other person already has their own phone number and account. They don't want your phone number.

Instead you need to cancel the line to remove it from your account. The other person either buys the phone itself or you gift it to them. If you owe any device payment agreement on the phone you are financially responsible for the amount.

[SuzyQ]

LOUISEC999 wrote:

... I still keep getting emails that he never accepted responsibility for the line. So right now two people are paying for the same line.

Right now, he is paying for HIS line - just using the phone you gave him.

You have an extra line now, and are paying for that.  You may have tried to transfer the line to him, but if he did not accept it, then there was no transfer.  He does not need to pay for an additional line either!  As Ann said, if you no longer need that number, then just cancel.  Any termination fees or device payments will be billed to your account when the line is cancelled.

Your initial question was: Are there any benefits to transferring the line rather than dropping the line from our account?

The answer to that is this: Transferring the line means someone else takes responsibility for paying for the service on that line, and any ETF's are no longer your responsibility.  If there are device payments, I don't think you CAN do a transfer until the device is paid in full anyway.

Cancelling means the line is no longer on anyone's account, any ETF's and/or device payments are due on cancellation.

Of course, Verizon is going to want to keep the line in service, and they recommended a transfer.  In your case, they guy who's getting the phone does not need another line of service ... just the phone.  Cancelling is the better option for your situation.

[LOUISEC999]

My next question is how can someone take a working phone connected to another account and put it on theirs?  Suppose he stole the phone?

Yes in retrospect I should have dropped the line like  I wanted to do.  I did explain to the customer service rep he was an existing customer and wanted to keep his own phone number.   I thought there was some benefit like saving him a fee to transfer the line.

[LOUISEC999 · Accepted solution]

Just got off the phone with a very nice Verizon customer representative.  She resolved everything to my satisfaction.

Thank you Suzy and Ann for your input, it helped greatly. 

[vzw_customer_support]

We're so glad to see that everything has been resolved for you,  LOUISEC999. Thanks for reaching out to the community for assistance. We're always here for you.

MarcusS_VZW

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