No one ever said that life would be easy, but there are a few particularly painful tasks. One particularly unpleasant job is making changes to your account with your cell phone carrier.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- How to Cancel Your Own Cricket Wireless Service
- How to Cancel a Deceased Loved One’s Cricket Wireless Service
- Frequently Asked Questions: Canceling a Cricket Wireless Service
Granted, it’s not the employees’ fault, so you should never take it out on them. The systems to complete such processes are complicated, as both technical and financial considerations are in play.
In an effort to simplify the process of canceling your Cricket Wireless account, we’ve done the necessary research and created a step-by-step guide. We hope this saves you time and simplifies what can otherwise be a frustrating experience.
How to Cancel Your Own Cricket Wireless Service
Cricket Wireless is a prepaid phone service owned by AT&T. Like most other prepaid cell phone providers, Cricket Wireless customers are not required to sign a contract to utilize this service. They simply fund their accounts, and when the balance goes to zero, the phone is no longer in service.
Typically, there is a grace period on prepaid wireless services. This means that your phone number won’t be released to the general bank of numbers immediately. This allows you to take a small break before you fund your account and use the same number.
If you’re ready to sever ties with Cricket Wireless Service because you wish to transfer to a traditional wireless carrier or another prepaid service, here are some tips. We wish we could say that you can complete the process in a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, it’s typically more complicated than that.
Step 1: Back up your phone
Before you do anything with your phone’s service provider, make sure you back up your data. It’s a pain to collect and re-enter your contacts into your phone, and you don’t want to risk losing the video of your dog doing that really funny thing that your friends have to see.
Whether you back up your phone to the cloud or another device, completing this step might enable you to speed up the process of porting your number into another phone.
Step 2: Choose a new wireless carrier
Chances are, you haven’t decided to get off the grid completely or return to a landline phone. It’s crazy to think about, but most of us will never completely sever ties with a cell phone provider until we die (and even then, your family members may need to take steps to close your account).
If you wish to transfer your current phone number with Cricket Wireless to a new carrier, choose that company before you shut off your services with Cricket.
Once you do a little shopping around, you might realize that the deal you had with Cricket Wireless wasn’t bad. You might recognize that the additional perks you could receive from T-Mobile or AT&T aren’t worth the higher monthly bills. You might also realize that the coverage for some of the providers isn’t great in your location.
However, if you’re determined to cancel your Cricket Wireless service, visit the store or contact customer service for the provider you want to use. Those customer service representatives will contact Cricket Wireless to transfer the phone number to your new account.
You might not always want to keep your phone number. If you want to start fresh with a new number, you’ll just cancel services with Cricket Wireless and start an account with the new provider, which will give you a new phone number.
Step 3: Contact Cricket Wireless
You may need to contact Cricket Wireless at some point in this process. If so, call 1-800-CRICKET (274-2538). The phone is answered Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
How to Cancel a Deceased Loved One’s Cricket Wireless Service
We would like to offer our sympathy if you recently lost a loved one. While nothing can emotionally prepare you to lose someone you love, Cake does provide resources to help you with the tasks that need to be completed immediately following a death.
If your loved one used Cricket Wireless services, here are the steps you’ll need to take to close their account. As far as cell phone service providers go, working with a prepaid service is easier than most. The process should be relatively straightforward as there is no contract.
The only complicated matter that may arise is if your loved one’s phone was part of a multi-phone plan. You might also deal with additional complications if you wish to keep your deceased family member’s phone number.
Here is some helpful advice on completing this process.
Option 1: Cancel the auto-payment service on your loved one’s account
The simplest way to cancel a deceased family member’s Cricket Wireless service is to stop the automatic payments from leaving their account. This would require that you have their Cricket Wireless login and password information or access to their credit or debit card used for payment.
As soon as Cricket stops receiving payment, the cell phone is not usable.
Option 2: Call or chat with a Cricket Support Advocate
If you would prefer, you can cancel your loved one’s service by calling or chatting online with a Cricket Support Advocate. Again, the number is 1-800-CRICKET (274-2538), and you can start an online chat from their website.
Contacting Cricket Wireless directly may be necessary if you need to remove your loved one’s line from an account with multiple users.
Neither of these options requires that you obtain a death certificate of your loved one. You will need a copy of the death certificate to close bank accounts or to submit to insurance companies, but you won’t need one to shut off your deceased family member’s prepaid phone.
If your loved one used a traditional wireless carrier, research what happens to a cell phone contract when a person dies.
Frequently Asked Questions: Canceling a Cricket Wireless Service
We’ve covered a lot of ground on this topic, but you might have a few more questions.
If you have a specific question about your loved one’s account, we recommend that you use Cricket Wireless’ chat function. Most customer service lines have long wait times. Even if there isn’t a real live person “chatting” with you, most of these systems are sophisticated enough to help you find the information you need.
How much does it cost to cancel a Cricket Wireless phone contract?
Customers don’t have to sign a contract for Cricket Wireless. This means there isn’t a cost to cancel a Cricket Wireless phone contract.
If you’re trying to get out of your contract with your cell phone company, see if another company will assist you with this. Of course, the new company will require you to sign a contract with them.
Who’s allowed to cancel a Cricket Wireless contract for a deceased loved one?
Customers are not under any contracts with Cricket Wireless. But you might be wondering who is allowed to shut off your loved one’s cell phone service after they die.
Many of these duties fall on the executor of the estate. Part of the executor’s duties is to pay off the estate’s debts, including any credit card balances or hospital bills. Since Cricket Wireless is a prepaid service, there shouldn’t be any debt under this account.
If there isn’t a formal executor overseeing the estate, a family member or close friend may take care of closing accounts with no balances.
Do You Need Help Finalizing Accounts?
Cake is your one-stop-shop resource for information on wills, estates, and finalizing accounts after the death of a loved one. Look through our helpful blog to assist you with the process.
Source:
- “Contact Cricket Wireless.” Cricket Wireless. cricketwireless.com