The reasons to activate a prepaid phone account from outside Canada are: To give to someone who will be in Canada sometime in the future, or if an inconvenient need arises to switch providers. A prepaid account is more economical and the preferred choice for light users like me. This Community has already identified the requirements of a Canadian address and Canadian means of payment. I found that activating a new prepaid account from St Lucia was not difficult and expect that postpaid would be equally simple. The hurdle was registering the new account on Koodo Self Serve. For my purposes I needed to access Self Serve to port in my existing number. A verification code must be received by text to the selected new/temporary activation number to register Self Serve. Postpaid accounts are capable of international roaming so I could have received the verification code free. Prepaid has no international roaming so the verification code would mean a workaround like sim swapping with a friend in Canada to register Self Serve (too complicated). If the verification code could be received by a different number or perhaps an email then I could have completed porting in my number to the new prepaid account. I must assume that Koodo overlooked providing these options or decided to tie verification to the new number for security reasons. Does this experience sound familiar to others? Does anyone see alternate solutions?
Want to set up a prepaid Koodo phone from outside Canada?
With a prepaid plan, you will not be able to use it outside Canada or the U.S. with roaming add-ons and you will continuously need to top up to keep your account active.
There are better options if you only want to make or receive calls and text messages from a Canadian number. You can download an app such as Fongo and pay a minimal amount for a period up to 12 months of Canadian or international texting.
If the phone number is extremely important, you can port over for a one-time fee of $25 and keep it while being able to use it on the app. https://www.fongo.com/services/fongo-mobile/transfer-your-number
In the past, prepaid sign up was tied to creating a self serve account at the same time. I do not know why Koodo decided to break this into 2 steps now.
In the mean time you will need to request a callback to speak with a Koodo rep. The callback number must be a working canadian number.
You can request a callback visa koodo assist.
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