As a millennial born in the mid 1980s, I got my first cell phone when I went to college, a classic Nokia brick, eventually replaced by a cool Motorola Razr so I could capture precious memories with the grainiest camera you’ve ever seen. That was the beginning of the end for my need to memorize phone numbers.
It’s funny how nostalgic a sequence of numbers can be, though. A classic trope of psychology, the average human mind is capable of holding about five to nine objects in their short-term working memory. This is partly why that’s the range of important digits in our lives like ZIP Codes, social security numbers, or in this case, phone numbers.
I have barely retained any new phone numbers in memory as an adult, (unless perhaps they spell something that stands out like 1-800-FLOWERS, etc.). But I can still recall my childhood phone number from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts at the drop of a hat, even if I haven’t needed to actually use it in decades.
Getting my old number back
I recently helped my mom move and she wanted to transfer her long-held landline number to her new home. (Naturally, we used NumberBarn for an inexpensive and painless porting process.)
With my mother moving, I couldn’t help but think about my childhood family phone number. On a whim, l searched NumberBarn’s massive marketplace of millions of phone numbers in hopes of stumbling across my old number. Remarkably, it was for sale!
Moreover, since it doesn’t spell anything interesting or have any notable pattern to the number (it only has particular value to me), I found it listed for only $10. I had no special fondness for my existing cell number and I couldn’t resist such a low cost, so I somewhat impulsively bought it to use as for my own number.
Buying my childhood phone number and transferring it to my current cell phone went more smoothly than I could’ve imagined. I used to always think of phone numbers as something that just kind of happened to you, randomly assigned by your service provider when you get a new plan. Now of course (thanks to NumberBarn), I know that it’s not actually that difficult to have the phone number of your choice, and that’s just cool.
If you’d like a shot at finding your own childhood number (or really any particular kind of number at all), here’s how:
How to Find Your Perfect Phone Number
Search NumberBarn’s database of over 45 million available phone numbers.
You can search for local, toll free, and global numbers, filterable by state, area code, toll free prefix (like 800), and country code. Enter both numbers and letters if you’re looking to have a number that spells something memorable. You can also enter “*” in any digit where you don’t care what it is. Search results will start to populate as soon as you enter anything, with more filters coming up on the left to help you refine your search (such as city, price, patterns, or categories of words, if you’re looking for a catchy and topical business number). But in this case, it’s likely pretty straightforward – just start with your nostalgic or childhood phone number.
Check your number’s portability with your carrier
Most carriers will accept numbers from NumberBarn, but there are some mobile carriers that may only accept ports of wireless numbers. NumberBarn’s phone numbers are technically classified as “wireline,” so it’s always wise to check with your carrier that the number will work before purchasing a number.
Carriers typically have quick ways to check portability on their websites. Generally, simply look for a something like “Can I port this number?” Enter the number and the carrier will instantaneously let you know if they will accept the port. (Good news, if for some reason they don’t accept the number, you can still purchase the number and park it with NumberBarn. Parking is essentially like storing a phone number until you want to port it elsewhere, but with a few fun features. Or you can use NumberBarn’s call forwarding to have it as an extra phone number that forwards to your existing cell number.)
Purchase your new number at NumberBarn
Once you’re ready to pull the trigger, add the number to your cart. If you’re planning on porting it out immediately rather than parking it or using other services like forwarding, then you can select the “Port Away” plan, which is free if you port away within a month of purchase! (After that your number is automatically set to park for $2 a month until you port, set to forwarding or cancel.) Your carrier will likely charge a porting fee, however. In the process of buying the number, you will also need to create a NumberBarn account, which will be important for the next step.
Get your port away information
Log into your NumberBarn account, go to Numbers, then select the number you want to port and the Port Out tab. Collect the following information, which your carrier will need to match exactly for the port to work:
- Carrier/Resp Org (if porting a toll free number)
- Account Number
- PIN
- BTN or Billing Telephone Number
- End User Name
- Auth Name or Authorization Name
- Service Address
Contact your service provider to initiate the port.
Here’s a collection of guides for how to port numbers over to most common carriers. This can take anywhere from 3 to 10 business days, so be patient. NumberBarn will notify you with any updates, whether the port is complete, if it’s for some reason rejected, or otherwise needs your attention. After that you can freely enjoy your brand new (or maybe old familiar) telephone number!
