Whether you're joining Lebara Mobile or leaving for another network, it's a straightforward process to keep your existing phone number.
If you're leaving Lebara to join another network, or if you're leaving another network in order to join Lebara, it's super easy to keep your current phone number.
All you'll need to do is to request a PAC Code. It's totally free and the entire process of transferring your phone number should normally take no longer than one working day.
For detailed instructions, please choose the option that best applies to you:
- I'm leaving Lebara and joining another network
Transfer your Lebara Mobile phone number onto a different mobile network. - I'm joining Lebara from another network
Transfer your phone number from another mobile network to Lebara Mobile. - I'm upgrading my Lebara phone or SIM card
Transfer your phone number from one Lebara account to another Lebara account.
Leaving Lebara For Another Network
If you're leaving Lebara Mobile to join another mobile network, you can take your phone number with you using a PAC Code from Lebara.
There are three ways to request a Lebara PAC Code:
- Online: You can get a PAC Code from Lebara by logging in to the Lebara Mobile website.
- By Text Message: You can get a Lebara Mobile PAC Code sent to you via SMS text message. Text PAC to 65075 to receive a PAC Code from Lebara.
- By Phone: You can get a PAC Code by calling Lebara Mobile. To do this, call them on 5588 using your Lebara handset. Alternatively, dial 020 3059 0304 from any other phone. You'll need to call during Lebara's opening hours (Monday-Friday 9am-5.30pm, Saturday 9am-5.30pm, Sunday 9am-5.30pm).
It's always free to get a PAC Code from Lebara Mobile, and it's your legal entitlement to be able to recieve one.
Once you have your Lebara Mobile PAC Code, you'll need to provide it to your new mobile network operator. For detailed instructions, please select your new mobile network from the following dropdown menu:
Don’t want to keep your Lebara phone number? You can request a STAC Code from Lebara instead.
Lebara STAC Code (Leave Lebara Without Keeping Your Number)
If you’d like to leave Lebara Mobile without keeping your current phone number, you’ll need to request a Lebara STAC Code rather than a PAC Code. There are three ways to get a STAC Code from Lebara:
- Online: You can get a STAC Code from Lebara by logging in to the Lebara Mobile website.
- By Text Message: You can get a Lebara Mobile STAC Code sent to you via SMS text message. Text STAC to 75075 to receive a STAC Code from Lebara.
- By Phone: You can get a STAC Code by calling Lebara Mobile. Call them on 5588 using your Lebara handset. Alternatively, dial 020 3059 0304 from any other phone. You'll need to call during Lebara's opening hours (Monday-Friday 9am-5.30pm, Saturday 9am-5.30pm, Sunday 9am-5.30pm).
Once you’ve gotten your STAC Code, the rest of the process for joining your new mobile network remains the same. You can choose your new provider from the dropdown menu above for instructions on how to use your Lebara STAC Code.
Joining Lebara From Another Network
If you're joining Lebara Mobile from a different mobile network, you should ask your old mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. The PAC Code will allow you to transfer your phone number to Lebara Mobile.
After getting a PAC Code from your old network, you should order your new phone or SIM card directly from Lebara's website. For more information, please select the type of tariff you're wanting to move to:
For a full list of the latest Lebara deals, please see this page on Lebara Mobile's website.
Get the Latest Deals from Lebara Mobile →
When Your New Phone Arrives...
Once your new phone or SIM card arrives from Lebara Mobile, switch it on and make sure everything's working correctly. If, for whatever reason, you need to return or change your handset or SIM card, it's best to do this before transferring your phone number.
Once you're happy to continue with the transfer, your PAC Code should be submitted through Lebara Mobile's online form. Alternatively, you can give the PAC Code to Lebara Mobile by calling 5588 on your Lebara Mobile handset. You can also call 020 3059 0304 from any other phone.
Once you've provided your PAC code to Lebara Mobile, your phone number transfer will normally be scheduled for the next working day (Monday to Friday only, excluding English bank holidays).
Sometimes, you’ll be given the option to provide a PAC Code at the same time as when you order your new phone or SIM card. We’d typically recommend against providing your PAC Code at this stage. Instead, waiting for the new phone or SIM card to arrive from Lebara Mobile first will allow you to make sure it’s working correctly and will make the process of cancelling or returning much easier.
Upgrading Your Plan On Lebara
If you're simply upgrading to a newer handset or tariff, it's not necessary to get a Lebara Mobile PAC Code. You can simply upgrade via Lebara Mobile's website. For more information, please select the type of Lebara price plan you're planning to move to:
More Information
For more information, please see the Lebara Mobile website. You can also read our full guide to using a PAC Code. This answers a lot of frequently asked questions and provides some additional tips on transferring your phone number.
For discussion, please see the comments below on this page. They show other people's experiences using a Lebara PAC Code or moving their phone number from another network to Lebara Mobile.
Theo van Elmpt said:
Hi Ken.
My question has probably been answered already but still – just to be sure.
I’ve just receive my Lebara SimOnly card and am in two minds whether to use it in a second phone with the ‘temporary’ Lebara number or to port the number of my current Vodafone SimOnly immediately.
If I decide for the first option – use it with its Lebara number in a second phone – can I then still port my Vodafone number to the Lebara card at any point in the future having used the Lebara number for a while ??
Thanks
Theo van Elmpt transferred a phone number from Vodafone to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Theo,
Thanks for your comment and a very good question! Yes, you can port your phone number in to Lebara whenever you like (so absolutely fine to use it for a while with the temporary phone number from Lebara).
Ken
Daniel said:
Hello Ken
I wish to port in my existing number with giffgaff to Lebara. I have received my Lebara sim & “temporary” number. I understand I have to obtain a PAC from giffgaff & give it to Lebara & that the PAC code will expire after 30days. However I still have £30 credit with giffgaff that I’d like to use before switching the number to Lebara. My question is: How long will the Lebara “temporary” number be available to be swapped over (is there any time limit?) ? Could I, say for example, use the Lebara “temporary” number for a few months (or until my giffgaff credit has almost been exhausted) & then request a PAC from giffgaff to transfer that number to Lebara, to replace the “temporary” Lebara number (i.e. several months after activating the Lebara “temporary” number).
Daniel transferred a phone number from giffgaff to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your comment. You can keep the ‘temporary’ phone number from Lebara for as long as you like. In other words, it’s absolutely fine to port your phone number in even if you’ve had your Lebara SIM card for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or even longer than that.
One thing to consider, however, is whether you might just be paying for two plans at the same time (i.e. if you’re paying for a plan on Lebara as well as paying for a plan on giffgaff). If this is the case, you might not actually be saving much money by doing this! One potential alternative would be donating your giffgaff credit to charity or using it another way.
Hope this helps,
Ken
jim jack said:
want to port to lebara from three
have a 3 year old pay as you go sim with lebara
will it work or do I have to get a fresh sim card from Lebara to port my three number over to lebara ?
jim jack transferred a phone number from Three to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your comment. You can port the phone number in to your existing Lebara SIM card. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had the SIM – it’s always possible to transfer a phone number in.
Hope this helps,
Ken
Jake said:
Moving from Three (3) to Lebara due to piss poor coverage despite their claims, fortunately I have a spare dual SIM phone on which to conduct PAC transfers and currently the Lebara SIM is displaying 5 bars of reception, whilst the 3 SIM is displaying ‘No service’. Just a shame Vodafone itself is stingey with its Big Value Bundles and also wanted to highlight a Lebara exclusive of 2Gb data, Unlimited UK minutes & texts for £5/m available
Not one for me, as my preferred method of top up is by voucher.
Jake transferred a phone number from Three to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Jake,
Thanks for your comment. With regards to your SIM card from Three, this might be because their SIM cards won’t work in a dual-SIM phone. Alternatively, if you’ve already transferred your phone number from Three to Lebara, your old SIM card on Three will be disabled automatically.
Ken
Jake Mustard replied:
Hi Ken,
Just to let you you my Three SIM did work in slot 1 of my dual SIM phone, but with very inconsistence connectivity and poor reception, whist Lebara was consistent in both.
Three coverage in my area is just exceptionally poor, no real issues with Vodafone, O2 or EE of which I have PAYG SIMs on all three, no pun not intended.
Other than that great site, keep up the good work!
Ken replied:
Hi Jake,
Thanks for your feedback! Yes, a SIM card from Three will only work in a 3G-enabled SIM slot. On lots of dual-SIM phones, only the primary SIM card slot is 3G-enabled and the secondary SIM slot is 2G-only (though this isn’t always the case as there are now 4G+3G and dual-SIM 4G phones). That potentially explains why you’re only able to use the Three SIM card in your primary SIM slot.
Hope this helps,
Ken
OLA said:
My name is Ola and i am switching from Lebara to three network, i walked into your store to make the change on Saturday 19th October 2019 and as we speak am still on lebara network . i have been moved and its over 72 hours .
OLA transferred a phone number from Lebara Mobile to Three.
Ken replied:
Hi Ola,
Thanks for your comment. There’s more information here on the expected timeframe for phone number transfers, but in short: if you provided your PAC Code on a Saturday, I’d normally expect the phone number transfer to take place on a Tuesday. If the number still hasn’t transferred by the end of today, it might be worth giving Three a call on 333 to check on the status of your transfer.
Ken
Caren Thomas said:
Moving from EE to Lebara due to cost, don’t really want to leave EE as customer service is excellent, just trying to transfer my old number – first experience of Lebara – customer service shuts at 5.30 pm – seriously?
Caren Thomas transferred a phone number from EE to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Caren,
Thanks for your comment. I’d probably agree with you that Lebara doesn’t have very good customer service. Is there a particular reason you’d like to move over to Lebara (e.g. for the international calls)? For most people, they tend not to be the cheapest option anyway (e.g. ASDA Mobile offers coverage from EE with better customer service and is normally comparable or even cheaper than Lebara).
Ken
Mike replied:
Login to your lebara account and use the link below – No need to call customer support.
https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/portin
Claire Derham said:
my partner is moving from ee to lebara does she have to turn phone off and on again to complete transfer thanks
Claire Derham transferred a phone number from EE to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Claire,
Yes, you’ll normally need to restart your handset when you lose coverage to complete the phone number transfer 🙂
Ken
Raj said:
Lebara service is AWFUL. I asked to port vodafone number to lebara and was told within 11 hours of porting req (as my lebara number got disabled) that porting has been completed. And I should be able to use lebara network with my ported number in the existing sim. Now its been 28 hours, my lebara sim is disabled (no network). I called up to check with Lebara customer care in india and was told that due to some technical problem porting hasnt completed and will take another 10 hours (36hours).
I cant believe them as it never took more than 24 hours of porting and number goes offline for max few hours. This is BS as some company floats a MVNO and lack technical skills to correctly do the bits.
Raj transferred a phone number from Vodafone to Lebara Mobile.
Serban said:
Hello, I am not sure if this is the right topic, but I have been a Lebara customer for 5 years now, pay as you go but always top up monthly and used quite a lot, however I need to change my phone now, and the new one will have a MicroSIM, is it possible to ask for a Lebara MicroSIM and replace my SIM, I need to keep this number,since most people i know have it and i have a lot of contacts on it, so is it possible to keep the number and change from sim to microsim still on Lebara? if so, where do I need to go?
Thanks,
Serban
Serban transferred a phone number within Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Serban,
Thanks for your comment. Your question is about changing a Lebara SIM card down a Micro-SIM (we have an article here about the very topic). Unfortunately, I’m not fully clear on the exact process for changing the size of your SIM card on Lebara Mobile. The best thing to do would probably be to give Lebara a call on 5588 – they should be able to arrange this for you.
Ken
Mian Aamir said:
I’ve a payg lebara sim. If i port it to O2 will i lose my lebara balance or will that be transferred to O2?
Mian Aamir transferred a phone number from Lebara Mobile to O2.
Ken replied:
Hi Mian,
Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to transfer Pay As You Go credit from one network to another. You should try to use up any remaining credit on the Lebara Mobile SIM card before using a PAC Code and moving your number to O2.
Hope this helps to answer your question,
Ken
Udita said:
Hi Ken,
I’ve been trying to port my number from Lebara UK to Lyca UK. Calls and internet were fine on my old network (Lebara), until it stopped working. I’m guessing the porting has been done. However, when I run a ‘find my mobile number’ on Lyca sim by *132# it still has the random Lyca number on it. This means anyone trying to reach me on my true number is unable to.
How long will this limbo last?
Best,
Udita
Udita transferred a phone number from Lebara Mobile to Lycamobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Udita,
Thanks for your comment. It sounds as if your number transfer is currently in progress – have you tried rebooting your Lycamobile handset? If at the end of the business day, incoming calls and texts are still failing to reach your handset, it might be worth giving Lycamobile support a call (322 from your Lycamobile handset or 020 7132 0322 from any other phone).
Hope this helps,
Ken
Udita replied:
Hi again,
So it’s all sorted now. Caled Lyca (had to hold for a half hour) but they assured me that it would be complete by the end of the day. And it finally got done at 07.13 AM this morning. So the ‘limbo’ lasted for about 17 hours, which is pretty bad if you’re expecting an urgent call, but quite okay otherwise.
Anyway, thanks for your help.
Udita
Ken replied:
Hi Udita,
Glad it got sorted in the end! It shouldn’t normally take as long as 17 hours (sounds like there could have been a problem at the Lycamobile end). As you say, it’s always a good idea to schedule the transfer for when you won’t need your phone urgently but it shouldn’t be the case you need to suffer a whole day of downtime.
Ken
Argy said:
Hi Ken,
I have been living a nightmare to transfer my phone with Lebara and i would like your advice. I have requested my PAC code from Vodafone which was my old provider and received it within a few minutes. I then called Lebara and gave them the PAC code along with my number details and they informed me that around Tuesday i will be diconnected from my old network, and i should wait until the night of the same day to be connected with Lebara. The service was indeed disconnected on Tuesday, however, despite expecting to be connected a few hours later on Lebara nothing has happened. I have called them on Wednesday, experienced terrible customer service and was charged a 40 minute long call, and they aknowledged they had made a mistake and transferred my old phone number to the wrong sim card(!) and not the one i had. They promised they will resolve it asap and give me a call back at my office. I also requested to be sent an e-mail. On Thursday and after waiting another 24 hours without any feedback or e-mail regarding the status of transferring my number, i had to call the customer service of Lebara myself, again. Guess what happened: I had to go to the whole identitification process and details again, only to be told that the customer service had done nothing yet forward to my call the following day! They said there was no request on my case done to the technical department of the company yet! It is currently Friday and still i am not connected on Labara network despite their promises that in 24 hours it will be resolved. My question is this: Does it make sense that it takes them SO LONG to transfer my number, even if they have done a mistake? And do you think there is a chance i might loose my number? I have no trust to what they say now as i have seen no action and results so far so your feedback will be useful.Thanks a lot!
Argy transferred a phone number from Vodafone to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Argy,
This sounds like a really unfortunate situation – it does sound as if Lebara Mobile has botched up your number transfer. They’ve transferred your phone number onto the wrong Lebara SIM card. You didn’t say whether the other Lebara SIM card is actually in use – but if so, it potentially means someone else can intercept your phone calls and text messages. Not only does this pose a risk to your privacy, it’s also been a huge disruption to your service. Lebara should certainly be dealing with this as a matter of priority – if not then I’d suggest escalating the issue to Lebara’s management or CEO.
From the sounds of it, action definitely needs to be taken on the Lebara Mobile side. I don’t think there was any mistake from Vodafone’s side, as your number transferred successfully off their network to Lebara. The issue is with Lebara’s internal process: they assigned your phone number onto the wrong SIM card. There shouldn’t be a risk of losing your phone number, as long as Lebara re-assigns your phone number correctly. Providing Lebara doesn’t return your phone number to Vodafone, I don’t think there’ll be a risk of losing your phone number.
Good luck and fingers crossed for a resolution with Lebara. Do let me know how you get on and if you have any other questions,
Ken
Argy replied:
Thanks Ken. None of the sims has been working and after 2 further calls to the customer service and a formal complaint issued earlier, i was assured that my issue is being dealt seriously now(!). However its 20.00pm and i am still not connected, my guess is , will not be till much longer.No reply to my e-mail, no other form of feedback or update, however they promised they will update me when they have further info via e-mail. No indication of how long re-connecting my number might take. It seems that this process is for them more complicated that nuclear science! Lebara customer service is non existent, so next step is Ofcom and Ombudsman.
Devan said:
Hi.
I’m hoping you may know the answer to my dillema. I feel stranded.
I was/am on three mobile, I checked their website to make sure I could make calls abroad ( I’m in Argentina for 6months) website said I could so brought my sim along with me here. I got here and no signal at all.emailed three and they confirmed they have no agrement in place here even though website says different.lucky I had a spare Lebara sim with me which does work.got my PAC code for Three gave it to Lebara a couple of days ago. Two questions really; 1 does my Three mobile need to be in a phone for the transfer to take place? 2 Is it going to cause a problem the fact that I am out of the Uk whilst the transfer is taking place. Personally I don’t think either is going to cause any issues but I’m no expert. Thanks
Devan transferred a phone number from Three to Lebara Mobile.
Ken replied:
Hi Devan,
Thanks for the comment! Unfortunately I don't know the answer to your precise question – but when a PAC Code is issued, it is usually recommended that you turn off/reboot your phone. For this reason, I suspect it should make no difference whether you are in the UK or abroad when your number is transferred.
Hope this helps,
Ken