AmberKey

Playbook

Phone Carrier — Keep the Number Alive

Platform claims verified July 6, 2026

What this mechanism is

Your phone number is a master key. Banks, brokerages, email providers, and nearly everything else send two-factor login codes and password-reset links to it by text message. If the number is cancelled before your survivors finish settling your accounts, those codes go nowhere — or worse, the number gets reassigned to a stranger who then receives them. This playbook keeps the number alive and under your family’s control until the very end of the estate process.

Set it up now

  1. Create a phone carrier card in AmberKey. Record: the carrier, the phone number, the account number, whose name the account is in, and whether it’s postpaid or prepaid.
  2. Escrow the account PIN/passcode to Layer 2. All three major carriers authenticate callers with an account PIN or passcode. Your survivors will need it to manage or transfer the line:
    • Verizon: your Account PIN (My Verizon > Account Settings).
    • AT&T: your account passcode.
    • T-Mobile: your account PIN (6–15 digits).
  3. Understand the transfer PIN — do NOT pre-generate it. Moving a number to another carrier requires a one-time Number Transfer PIN, and these expire fast: Verizon’s is valid 7 days (dial #PORT or use My Verizon), AT&T’s expires in 4 days (app, or dial *PORT — the current process is at https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1447526/). Escrowing one now is pointless; instead, note on the card how to generate one, and escrow the account PIN that makes generating one possible.
  4. Turn on port-out/SIM protection to guard against hijacking while you’re alive: T-Mobile’s free Port Out Protection and SIM Protection (T-Life app or t-mobile.com), AT&T’s Wireless Account Lock, and Verizon’s Number Lock. Note on the card that this is enabled — survivors may need to turn it off before transferring the number.
  5. If your spouse or another trusted person can be added as an authorized user / account manager on the carrier account, do it now. It makes everything after your death dramatically easier.
  6. If you’re on prepaid, note it prominently on the card: prepaid numbers lapse quickly if nobody refills them (see Gotchas). Consider whether an account that matters this much should be postpaid.
  7. In your executor instructions, write in bold: “Keep this phone line active and cancel it last, after every other account is settled.”

What AmberKey stores

  • Layer 1 (metadata): carrier, phone number, account number, account-holder name, plan type (postpaid/prepaid), whether port-out protection is on, and the cancel-last instruction.
  • Layer 2 (bearer secrets): the carrier account PIN/passcode, and the device passcode of the phone itself (so survivors can read incoming 2FA texts on the physical handset — often the single most useful secret in the whole vault).
  • A pre-generated Number Transfer PIN is not worth storing — it expires within days. Store the account PIN that lets survivors generate a fresh one.

What your survivors do

  1. Do nothing to this account yet. Keep the phone charged, keep the SIM in it, and keep the bill paid — set up a payment from your own card if needed. This number receives the security codes you’ll need to settle everything else.
  2. Find the device passcode and carrier account PIN in the AmberKey vault. With the passcode you can unlock the phone and read incoming verification texts; with the account PIN you can talk to the carrier.
  3. Within the first month, call the carrier, explain the account holder has died, and ask to transfer the number to your own account (they may call it “assumption of liability” or “transfer of billing responsibility”) rather than cancel:
    • Verizon: verizon.com/support/deceased-account-handling/ — bring a death certificate and executor paperwork; they review in about 3 business days.
    • AT&T: 800-331-0500 — they accept a death certificate, an obituary, or an accident report. AT&T does not charge early-termination fees for a deceased person’s line.
    • T-Mobile: 1-877-746-0909 — no death certificate required; have the deceased’s name, number, date of birth, and last four of their Social Security number.
  4. Once the number is on your account, carry on settling the estate. Every time a bank or website texts a code to the deceased’s number, it now arrives on a line you control.
  5. Months later, when every account is closed or transferred — cancel the line last. Before cancelling, skim the deceased’s accounts one more time for anything still using this number for login codes.
  6. If a phone was being paid off in installments: ask the carrier about the balance. Verizon forgives the remainder if you return the device; AT&T waives remaining installments if the device is returned.

Required documents

  • Verizon: death certificate and executor paperwork (they may ask you to upload the death certificate).
  • AT&T: any one of: death certificate, obituary, or accident report. Plus your ID.
  • T-Mobile: no death certificate — the deceased’s name, number, date of birth, and last four of SSN.
  • To transfer (not just cancel) the number, expect a credit check or ID verification in your own name.

Expected timeline

  • Reporting the death / starting a transfer: one phone call; Verizon quotes about 3 business days for review.
  • Keeping the number alive: as long as the bill is paid — plan on 6–12 months, the typical span of settling an estate.
  • Number transfer PINs (if moving to a different carrier): Verizon’s lasts 7 days, AT&T’s 4 days — generate one only when you’re ready to use it.

Gotchas

  • Missed payments cancel the number silently. A postpaid line that nobody pays gets suspended and then disconnected; a prepaid line lapses even faster — Verizon and T-Mobile prepaid accounts close after a short grace period without refills (check the carrier’s current prepaid policy). Put the phone bill on autopay from a survivor’s card in week one.
  • Cancelled numbers get given to strangers. The FCC requires only a 45-day minimum “aging” period before a disconnected number can be reassigned (fcc.gov/reassigned-numbers-database). The new owner of the number will receive the 2FA texts meant for the deceased. This is why “cancel the phone last” is a rule, not a preference.
  • Transfer PINs expire in days. Don’t escrow one; escrow the account PIN and instructions to generate a fresh one (#PORT on Verizon, *PORT or the app on AT&T).
  • Port-out protection blocks survivors too. If the deceased enabled Number Lock / Wireless Account Lock / Port Out Protection, it must be disabled (using the account PIN) before the number can move anywhere. That’s the point — but it means the account PIN in Layer 2 is essential.
  • Voicemails can be destroyed by the transfer. T-Mobile warns that transfers and cancellations permanently delete voicemail messages and greetings. If a saved voicemail matters emotionally, record or export it before touching the account.
  • The account can’t just keep running in the deceased’s name. AT&T explicitly requires the account be transferred or cancelled (with a narrow Oklahoma exception). Don’t plan on quietly paying the bill forever; do the transfer.
  • The phone itself may be the second factor. Some services use authenticator apps or passkeys on the device, not SMS. Keeping the physical phone, unlocked via the escrowed passcode, preserves those too. Don’t factory-reset or trade in the phone until the estate is fully settled.