My son had his new phone a week and lost it. I have had my phone for a long time, think it is just fine, and would be willing to get a new phone and give it to him. He obviously does not have a sim card anymore. Could I just go to ATT, get a new phone, hand it to him, and have him take that new phone to the ATT store and have them give him a new sim card and activate it? Or would they look up the number and say no dice?
Sure they’ll do it, but it won’t be free.
I think I may not be understanding your question adequately. Why is it relevant that you’ve had your phone for a long time and that you like it? Why would you bring the phone home from AT&T and tell him to bring it back to AT&T, instead of doing it while you’re there? I’m missing something here.
I had this happen to me once, and it’s something fairly reasonable, I think I paid 15 or 20 bucks for a new SIM card. They can just deactivate the old one and sell you a new one, no problem.
ETA: I think dauerbach is mentioning that (s)he has had the phone a long time = eligible for an upgrade, which would pass savings along to the kid.
I think he’s saying that he’ll take the new phone and give the kid his old one, which seems like the much more sensible option given that he lost the last one within 7 days.
Yes, they’ll give you a new SIM card. Costs about $10.
I recently did something similar with AT&T, but added a new line to an existing account. I took in an old phone with no sim card, and they gave me one for free. There was no charge because we were activating a new account.
Presumably they’re already under contract for the first phone, though.
You really should report the lost phone ASAP. There’s worse things that someone can do with your phone than just burn up your minutes—you probably wouldn’t want someone doing anything inappropriate, in your son’s name (which the phone number essentially says).
After a few of these kinds of “lost cell phone” threads I wrote an article on the topic covering many of the risks and concerns, and I link to it whenever the topic pops up.
It sounds like you are talking about a fairly simple phone and hopefully all goes well. Do be aware of the many other issues, however.