Want to transfer your existing Straight Talk phone number and remaining service balance to a new phone? Well, you can, and in some cases using that new phone is as easy as moving the SIM card from your current phone to a your new phone.
Using Your Current SIM card
You can move your current SIM card from your current phone to your new phone if:
- Your current phone is using Straight Talk’s AT&T or T-Mobile network
- Your new phone is compatible with the Straight Talk network you are using
- Your current phone and your new phone use the same size SIM card.
In 2020, you have a lot of choices for prepaid wireless service. You may be able to save $100s per year and get the features you want such as Wi-Fi calling, Mobile Hotspot, and Visual Voicemail. Sound good? to learn more see, Is Straight Talk Your Best Option in 2020?
If all three of these conditions are true, simply remove your SIM from your current phone and put it in your new phone. Once the SIM is in your new phone, make sure the phone has recognized the SIM. If it has, check that you can make phone calls and send text messages. Also check that your able to use cellular data to access the internet as well as send and receive MMS picture messages. If your unable to make phone calls or send and receive text messages you may need to transfer your service to a new SIM card or contact Straight Talk support for help. If calls and texts work, but your data and MMS picture messages don’t you may need to set the Straight Talk APN settings on your phone. See smartphonematters.com for help with that.
When You’ll Need a New SIM
Sometimes you can’t move your SIM and you’ll need to transfer your service to a new one.
If you are transferring your service because you want to change Straight Talk networks, your new phone is compatible with the Straight Talk network you are currently using, or your current SIM card is too big or too small to fit in your new phone you’ll need to buy a new SIM from Straight Talk and transfer your service. If your SIM is to small to fit in your new phone, you could also use a a SIM adapter. To learn move about using a SIM adapter see The Smartphonematters SIM Adapter Guide
If your current phone is using Straight Talk’s Verizon or Sprint network, you should also transfer your service. You may find that if you move your Straight Talk Verizon or Sprint SIM to your new phone it works, but I don’t recommend you do that. Straight Talk, Verizon, and Sprint all want to make sure that the specific phone you are using is registered on their network. You may encounter problems later on. And, if you simply move your SIM to the new phone, your old phone will still be registered to your Straight Talk account and cause problems when someone else tries to use it with Straight Talk or another wireless company.
To learn how to order a new Straight Talk SIM card and transfer your service see Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM
Watch the video below.
Transferring to a new Straight Talk phone
If you bought your phone from Straight Talk and don’t activate it with the SIM they included in the box, you might find that they won’t unlock the phone for you later.
When you buy new Android or iPhone directly from Straight Talk, the phone is locked and can only be activated with Straight Talk. After 12 months of use on their network, Straight Talk will unlock your phone. However if you didn’t register it or activate it using the SIM, later you might find they have no record of you using the phone on their network. I don’t know that this is the case, but something to consider.
My son had a Samsung Straight Talk phone that was active he bought a Motorola Straight Talk phone the other day we switch the SIM card over to it and you can make and receive calls and the data works you could send and receive text messages at first but now a day later everything else works but the text messaging stopped working how do I fix it?
Re-read the article you commented on.
See the section Transferring to a new Straight Talk phone
i have an S8 unlocked (Amazon bought ) have used many years on Straight Talk with a CDMA Verizon service. I just purchased a 20FE ( unlocked from Amazon) and want to know can i just take out the sim card from the S8 and put in the 20FE and will the service and phone number all will switch easy? i have a monthly service plan with Straight Talk i use for the S8 now and want to transfer everything the same to my 20FE using Verizon on Straight Talk.
You should do this
Transferring Your Straight Talk Verizon Service to a New Phone
Hi Bob, I currently have a ST galaxy on Verizon towers. It was water damaged and I received another galaxy from someone. The new phone is unlocked, but was activated through Sprint. Is there any way to activate it with ST on the Verizon towers? Or would I need to activate it on ST sprint towers?
Stacie,
See my reply here..Transferring Straight Talk Service to an Unlocked Samsung Galaxy Phone
Can I use a simple mobile plan for a straight talk sims card?
No, you can not
Is my galaxy Zaza s7 active compatible
I just transferred my current SIM to my new iPhone SE (2020) and it works great but I didn’t add the device to my straight talk account. There’s no mention in the article that this is necessary. Is this something I should do or am I good with just putting my SIM in my new phone when everything is working including making and receiving phone calls, texting and data.
The best way to transfer your service to a new phone is to visit straighttalk.com and follow the steps to activate a new phone. When you get to the part about keeping your existing phone number and enter it, Straight Talk detects that you are an existing customer and transfers your number and balance from your current phone to your new phone.
Before you to this I suggest you do two things. Make sure you have created an account for your current phone on straighttalk.com. Order a new SIM card from straighttalk.com. A new SIM card costs $1. You’ll need to order Straight Talk’s AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile compatible SIM card. Choose the SIM card that is compatible with your phone and the one for the network you’d like to use.
If you bought your iPhone SE directly from Apple it is unlocked and will work all of those SIM cards. If you bought the iPhone SE from Straight Talk you should activate the phone with the included SIM. Read the section at the end to understand why.
If your current phone is using the ST AT&T or ST T-Mobile SIM card moving the SIM is usually fine. The only downside is that sometimes the carriers require the latest SIM card to get the best performance and latest features.
But your current phone uses the ST Verizon SIM, moving the SIM can cause problems. When you use a phone with the Verizon network, ST wants the MEID / IMEI number of your phone (serial number). They check this number with Verizon to make sure it can be registered and activated on their network. When you move your SIM, the old phone is still registered. I had numerous reports of people moving their SIM cards and passing the old phone to someone else. And then the someone else activating the phone with Straight Talk, causing problems with the original owners phone service. And while moving that Verizon SIM works, I have heard so many complaints about service with ST’s Verizon network, I tell people to just transfer their service properly.
If you bought the iPhone from Straight Talk, activate it with the included SIM so that your phone will qualify for Straight Talk’s unlocking policy after one year of use on the network.
All this said, there is always a chance that ST will mess up something when you transfer your service. If it were me, I’d set aside some time and transfer the service to the new phone and SIM. I usually use moving SIM cards for when I want to temporarily switch between phones.
I lost my phone and Straight talk sim card. I bought a new phone thats unlocked. What sim card do I need to activate phone with my current Straight talk account?
You’ll need to buy a SIM card that uses the Straight Talk towers you want to use and that is compatible with your new unlocked phone. Most people choose the AT&T or Verizon SIM. T
See Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM
its funny how I pay 500$ for straighttalk iPhone and didn’t come with sim card and not able just to change from my old iPhone that I bought from Walmart and been paying 45$ monthly for years but still will do for a while its good service
The phone should have come with a SIM card in a little envelope, if it did not they should send you one. I’d advise you contact thad ask for one. Moving a Verizon SIM card does work, its not advised as a permanent solution for a number of reasons.
Hello,
So I have the iphone SE, it was an AT&T phone, I currently have Straight Talk. I want to transfer my service to an IPhone 8 Plus (T-mobile). Everything works when I transfer my SIM into the 8 Plus except, I cannot send or receive calls. I texted 611-611 with the 8 Plus to see if it was compatiable and it said that it was. I’m not sure what the issue could be.
In the event that the chip just didnt work I went ahead and bought a “Keep Your Own Phone Sim Activation Kit” but my concern is I NEED to keep the number I have with my Iphone SE (I use it for work everyday!).
Could you help me please?
By everything, you mean you are able to use text messages, cellular (LTE) data, and send and receive picture messages to friends using both iPhone (Blue bubble) and Android (green bubble)
I have a j7 crown rn with verizon if I got a gsm unlocked Galaxy A50 from Amazon could I move the sim card from the j7 crown to the a50?
Do you mean this phone? https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Version-Factory-Unlocked-SM-A505UZKNXAA/dp/B07VZL1W7K8-1 ? If so, yes. If you plan to shift long term you should go through the process of registering the phone. Find out if they charge for changing phones first though.
Straight talk will not release or transfer my number over to my new straight talk from because I can not auth. any of the account info. Which is super crazy to me because I brought this number over from Tmoblie and they never not once asked me for any of that information which that lets me know the number or phone was already in their system. But they should have made my verify the phone or number account info first before just taking my money and now I can not get my number that I have been having for years. Can somebody help any way. Please I need my number back!!!
Call your old number to get verify it hasn’t been reassigned. If it hasn’t either T-Mobile or Straight talk should have control of it.
I recommend calling executive resolution which seems to be more effective then regular support. The number is (800) 876-5753 ext 3324. Tell them your port didn’t go through. They should be able to fix it. You may need your T-Mobile account info to complete the port
This worked beautiful. I have an LG V20 and I just bought an LG V40. Both are factory unlocked. I bought a sim for the v40 and was trying to turn it on and keep my same account and number, I called Straight Talk to do this and they said my new phone v40 isn’t unlocked and I can’t use it with Straight Talk. I knew they were wrong and dove into the internet to figure a way to do this with having to sell my new phone and start over, So I saw this and tried it for shits and giggles and it worked. Text phone and Data all works.. In the old days of cell phones you could do this. Just swap sim cards and be done. I think now its just a ploy to sucker people into buying sim cards that you really don’t need to buy. They tell you, you need a sim card so we just buy one no questions asked and they know this. Extra 10 bucks in their pockets
Brent
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I am glad this worked for you. But, I’m going to caution you and other readers here. If you are using ST’s Verizon towers, you really should transfer your service to a new SIM even though moving the SIM may work. For years, the way the Verizon and Sprint networks worked (CDMA technology) they needed to register the our phone’s seal number, the MEID / IMEI, with the carrier to use the phone. And even though Verizon uses LTE and SIM cards now, they still expect this. Your V20 is still the phone registered to your account. If anyone else, tries to activate that phone with Straight Talk’s Verizon towers, you’ll have issues. Your V40 probably isn’t locked, but when they checked the MEID it came back as not eligible for activation which happens.
Now if no one else is going to use the V20 you will probably not have a problem. But, I’ve had a number of readers do what you did they sell or hand down their phone only to have problems when the old phone get’s activated. Customers using the Straight Talk AT&T or T-Mobile towers do not face this problem.
Finally, as I said here and in the article, there are some cases where you can get by without a SIM card, but there are times when getting a new one might be a good idea. Some prepaid companies charge $10 or so for a SIM. I don’t think they make money on it, but it defers some of their costs. Any Straight Talk customer should be able to order a new SIM card for $1 plus tax and get free shipping on straighttalk.com.
I took the sim out of my old galaxy s7 edge and put it into my new phone. I didnt know that once you activate a sim in a version phone they are conneted. My straight talk account still has the s7 edge on it even though I am no longer using it. Now I cant give the phone away. Is there any way i can fix this. I tried calling ST but I couldn’t understand the reps and they didnt know what I was talking about. I thought I posted a comment on here earlier but I dont see it so i am posting again. If it shows up my bad.
Yes. Follow the steps in this video.
Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM
Properly transfer your service to a new phone and SIM. afterwards your old phone shoud show in your account as deactivated. You should be able to remove it and use it with another Straight Talk account at that point. you might want to check with ST online chat once the old phone is listed as not active.
Would it work if I buy the new sim then put it in the phone that I am now using since no sim as been activated in it?
Follow the article. If you bought the phone from ST, you should use the SIM that came with the new phone. Otherwise, use a new sim with the new phone(the one you are using now). You’ll need to check the MEID of the new phone to make sure it is eligible too.
Thank you so much for the help. I finally got a new sim,ya I know took a while. Its a long story. I followed your video and now that stupid s7 is off my account and I can now make a account for my mother with it. But before I do I wanted to ask, can I just reactivate my old sim with a service plan and put that in the s7 for my mom or do I need to buy another sim.
I generally recommend activating a new SIM card if the older one is more than a year old. Also there is less chance of having and issue with a new SIM. Prepaid is kind of like a Do it Yourself experience so make it easier on yourself.
Ok. I live chat with st yesterday and the person said I couldn’t use it with another phone. So I ordered another sim yesterday from Walmart.com. Again, thanks for the help.
Hi. I have been sent a new phone. A Robin from Nextbit, and its nice, and my sim card fits into the new phone, but I have no service. I thought about using straighttalk website but it said the phone was not compatible and to buy one of their phones. This doesn’t make sense to me because two friends of mine have the exact same phone and use straighttalk, I’m so confused as to how to solve this problem.
The Robit Nexbit is a GSM only phone. It should work with Straight Talk’s ATT or TMobile towers but not their Verizon towers. Do you know which towers your previous phone used? And that compatibility check you did on the Straight Talk website is only for their Verizon towers. If you want to use that phone you may need to move your service to a new Straight Talk att or tmobile SIM.
I’m glad I read this because I’m going through it with straight talk right now. I started my straight talk experience with my Motorola Nexus 6 unlocked from Amazon. Just a few days ago I bought a Google pixel XL first generation. Both phones will work on either CDMA or GSM just not at the same time. I simply transferred my nano SIM to the pixel XL and I can get texts, and calls but no data and I haven’t even tried sending a picture to anyone yet. It’s been almost two days since ordering a new SIM card and it hasn’t shipped yet.
Did you set the APN? Are you using the AT&T or Verizon ST SIM?
I’m using the straight talk Verizon nano SIM card and from what I’ve been told the nano SIM allows my pixel XL to check for services. That’s why I have some but not all like mobile data. Straight talk can’t change the IMEI number on my current nano SIM card from my Nexus 6 to my pixel XL. I’m waiting for my new SIM card to be delivered, then call customer service to transfer my account information and register my pixel XL on the new SIM card.
Yea. with the Verizon towers you need a new SIM. You should only move the SIM if its for the ATT or TMobile towers.
This video was so helpful! I have a straight talk iPhoneSE that I bought from straight talk website few years ago and just recently been wanting the iPhone 6 Plus but it’s so expensive buying from the straight talk carrier so I purchased one from eBay saying it’s compatible with AT&T and straight talk service and since watching this it’s gave me such a relief with the SIM card transfer lol I thought I was going to be screwed for buying a new phone! again great video
Thank you. Glad it helped.
Thanks….I just done the same thing too.
Appreciate the article and video. I got a new unlocked moto g5splus and today i transferred my ST number and service to it using a BYOP cdma sim… everything went smooth but then i realized that i can make calls and text but have no mobile data. on the lock screen of the phone at the top it says “verizon wireless”, even though it has never been on verizon or any other carrier besides straight talk (since today. Any help would be greatly appreciated
You may need to set the APN. I don’t have an up to date article. This article will be you an idea how to do it Setting Your Straight Talk Wireless’ APN on your Google Nexus 5 with Android 5 (Lollipop). You’ll need to use the APN settings for Straight Talks Verizon network from here: Straight Talk APN Settings. Let me know if you can’t figure it out.
Glad i stumbled on to this article… just came home with a new (unlocked) phone and was about to turn it on with my old straight talk phone’s sim in it… you make a good point about the phone itself being registered with straight talk… i will wait and buy a new sim…. thanks
For ST using Verizon or Sprint towers. For ATT or T-Mobile moving the SIM is fine.
Want to buy A note8 I have a note5..Straight talk..how do I transfer everything over?…Ive been told everythings not on your Simm card…some things are In the phones memory…any help would be good!…oh both of these phones are Unlocked.
You can break it down into three parts.
Transferring your phone service. See Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM.
Then you need to migrate the data on your phone. Some of this can be done by syncing with your Google account.
Google may not move things like your text messages.
since both phones are Samsung, you might want to check out this.
http://www.tomsguide.com/faq/id-3535146/migrate-samsung-galaxy-note.html
So I bought an iphone 5 with the ST sim and put it in my Galaxy Note 5 on Verizon and it works fine. You said this would cause problems later on what did you mean by that it wasn’t very clear. I would like to use my note 5 over the iPhone but want to keep my number and what not from the iPhone.
While moving the SIM does work, your iPhone 5 is the phone still registered on Straight Talk’s Verizon network. If you ever try to reuse the iPhone 5 on Straight Talk you’ll have issues. You can get a new SIM and transfer your service to the Note 5. That would be the proper way to do it. While not so much recently, for a long time I’d hear about more problems with ST’s verizon network than their ATT and T-Mobile network, so its a preventative step. And I have heard of people doing what you did only to find their service is disconnected when they forgot about their old phone and someone else activated it.
I have a LG Stylo 3 and I it has a message on my screen that won’t go away, so I was told to get a new phone and I did just that. I have a Verizon Wireless iPhone 6 that doesn’t have a sim card, but I want to transfer my service to that phone. Will you or someone please help me because I’m stressing very badly. Thank you so much in advance.
See Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM
Verify your iPhone 6 is eligible for use with Straight Talk
Checking If You Can Use Your Verizon Smartphone with Straight Talk Wireless
Thanks! I got the info I needed here
Glad it helped..
I have a Huawei AT&T phone and I would like to use my Straight Talk SIM card in my new phone. Is this possible and if so, how?
Hi
Did you read the article and watch the video?
Hello. I had to buy a new phone from Wal-Mart. Which is a straight talk phone. My old straight talk phone had gotten broken. I tried to retrieve all my contact s ect. But I cant. I don’t remember my password for my gmail.Can I take out my old SIM s card and put it into my new straight talk phone and get all my contact s and stuff back ? Thank you so much. I need help .
The information on your old phone isn’t stored on the SIM cars, so no. While it is possible to store phone numbers on the SIM card, most phones aren’t set up that way anymore. Your best option is to try and recover your google password and see if your information was backed up into the cloud. If you have the same number and shared your number with Google, it think you may be able to get google to text you a password recovery option. If you have another email address you have used that as a recovery option.
You could put the old sim in your phone to see if you could recover phone numbers from it but I doubt they are there. What type of phone was your old phone?
I just bought a new Iphone 6. I already had an iphone 6, both purchased on straight talk. The new phone is making me use the new sim card, but I’ve lost visual voicemail now. Any ideas on how to get it back? If I switch back to the old sim card, it says no service. HOWEVER, when I initially transferred to the new phone, I had the old sim in, and everything worked for a few minutes, then no service popped up. I changed sims and it works, everything except visual voicemail. Going to return the phone if I can’t get it to work properly!
Laura,
Straight Talk does not officially offer Visual Voicemail as a feature, only regular voicemail. However most, but not all, customers have found that if you are using Straight Talk’s Verizon towers Visual Voicemail worked. But a few customers have told me when they called support to about problems or when it stopped working, support was aware of what they were talking about.
In your case, the most likely explanation is that is the your old iPhone 6 was using the Verizon towers and the new one is using the AT&T towers and in that case you will only get regular voicemail. Let me know if you are using the AT&T or Verizon towers. You can contact Straight Talk support via online chat, tell them your phone number and ask which towers your phone uses.
I have a Verizon Galaxy S8 Plus. Can I buy the Straight Talk activation package and get it to work on my Verizon phone? I know all the other galaxies only work on one network but the S8 works on all of them. Anyways if I can do this I want to transfer from Verizon to straight talk ASAP
Your phone will work with Straight Talk’s AT&T sim card, but you’ll need to check the serial number of your phone to see if you can use it with ST’s Verizon network.
See Checking If You Can Use Your Verizon Smartphone with Straight Talk Wireless.
If you are interested in using the Verizon network, see . Note both Straight Talk and total wireless no longer have the 5MB max download speed.
I have a iPhone 5se I bought it and it came with the SIM card and I’m wanting to trade my iPhone for a s6 Verizon phone will my SIM card work in that phone or do I need to get a new SIM card kit?
Ashlee,
I covered this in the article was something not clear?
I have a Droid Turbo 2 that I have through Verizon. I had been mentioning going back to straight talk to save some money. Well a family member bought me a straight talk phone and a service card. My question is assuming the SIM cards are the same size, can I just use the SIM card that came with this new phone, and place it in my Turbo 2?
Hi John,
Assuming you want to use the Turbo 2 on Straight Talk’s Verizon network, you should go check the phone’s meid to see if it’s eligible. If so order a Straight Talk Verizon SIM for 99 cents and sign up. Return the other phone or pass it along to someone who can use it. You should also consider Total Wireless and Verizon prepaid. See Two Other Options: Verizon Wireless Prepaid and Total Wireless
My wife currently has a straight talk iPhone se and is wanting to get the straight talk iPhone 6 … I am going to be getting her SE … Will the SE sim work in the 6 and can I use the 6 sim in her old SE ?
The SIMs will fit as the are both nano SIMs. They should work too. If your both using the ST ATT network you can just swap. If you either of you are using the STR Verizon network you really should get new SIMs and transfer the service. The new iPhone 6 should come with a sim card.
If I successfully move my sim card to another phone will my contacts and and messages be saved?
Thanks.
not on a smartphone…you’ll need to backup and restore data to the new phone.
I have a straight talk iPhones 5 16gb. I have a friend that gave me his iPhone 6 64gb that was on sprint. I have checked online and it says this phone will not be compatible with straight talk, but I tried swapping my SIM card anyway. It works in the new phone. In your article it says this can cause problems later on. If I buy a activation kit and put the sprint sim in will it work? If I deactivated my iPhone 5 to give to my step dad is this going to cause problems with my new phone? I really want to use this iPhone 6. In your opinion what is my best option?
Hi Crystal,
See my reply here: Using a Sprint iPhone 6 With Straight Talk BYOP
Hey I have a question so my other phone got smashed in prices and the sim won’t work on the new phone which is an iPhone SE and its AT&T my question is how can I transfer all the data from the broken SIM card to a new one
If you are using Straight Talk’s AT&T network and want to transfer your service to a new SIM, see Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM. If you are an AT&T customer, just go to an AT&T store and they will replace it.
I just bought a new phone and need to get it activated with my active straight talk number
See Transferring Your Existing Straight Talk Service to a New Straight Talk Phone or SIM
My phone broke and I’m getting a new one. Both are straight talk compatible, they use the same size sim, and the old runs on verizon towers while the new is unlocked. They are both Galaxy s5. However, a customer service rep told me that the sim cards can never be switched between phones as when you activate them you bind the card to the phone, and it cannot be used with any other so I must buy a new one. Is this the case, and if not, will I have to go through straight talk at all to have the service switched? I don’t have the password to the account.
If the two phone were BYOP when put the ST Verizon SIM in your new phone it should work. If they are straight talk purchased phones it might work. You really should register the new phone and transfer the service to a new SIM as they do want the phone’s MEID registered on the Verizon network. In your case no one will ever use the broken phone so it shouldn’t be an issue.
You should be able to recover the account email and passwork on straighttalk.com
The 5x is new. Never been used on another network.data, mms, worked fine. It showed at&t at the top then switched to Home. Thank you for the response. Your site helps alot:)
I have the straight tallk branded LG sunset too. It runs off at&t towers. I took the sim out the LG and put it in Honor 5x. It worked. I left it in all day. But the the next day around 2pm it said no service.took sim out and put it back in LG. Following day I tried in the 5x again and it worked. Why did it do this?
I don’t know. If you continue to have problems transfer your service to a new SIM. Could be straight talk, doesn’t want you using the SIM in the phone. Could be a problem with the 5x. Is the 5x new? have you used it with any other service?
I just bought a Galaxy Note 4 that is unlocked and I currently have a LG SUNSET or LG [l33l] which is a prepaid phone through Staighttalk wireless. The SIMPLE card is Active so I just moved it to the Galaxy Note 4 and everything works but Internet, I am able to make phone calls but no service. And the Galaxy reconizes that it is not a Verizon SIM.
If your LG was using the Straight Talk AT&T or T-Mobile network, you’ll need to set the APN. If it was using the ST Verizon network, you can try setting the APN but you’d be better off transferring your service to a new SIM. see