Many people are beginning to recognize the value of making your main phone number not a magicJack number, but instead, using a preferred Google Voice (GV) number to forward calls to a local number randomly assigned by magicJack.  That way, no matter what happens with magicJack, your GV number will always work no matter what magicJack-assigned number or numbers it’s pointed at.

The problem is that now that so many people are porting their preferred numbers back away from magicJack servers, magicJack has decided to attempt to try to charge $30 for an outward port fee. This is probably not legal in the United States. but the area is a bit gray legally, so magicJack seems to be exploiting that little loop hole, or at least attempting to.

Ignore the Port FeeWhen you attempt to port your preferred phone number away from magicJack, you may receive an email requesting you to give your credit card essentials to pay a $30 port out fee. Members of the phoneservicesupport.com website suggest that they have no trouble ignoring the fee-request email, and that it might take an extra day or two, but that the port will go through without paying the port out fee.

It’s these kind of fees that make GV more useful as a phone number home base than magicJack.

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10 Comments

  1. Magic Jack recently sent me an Email requesting $17.00 to cover the government mandated 911 calls initiated from an internet based phone. There is no such fee for internet based, cellular or landline phones. The Email continued by stating that Magic Jack does not profit from the surcharge, because the funds would pass-through to the 911 officials. I have called 911 and confirmed that there is no liaison between Magic Jack and any authority that administrates the 911 system. Also, there is no provision in place to transfer the levied funds.

    1. This site has a whole section devoted to this issue. Apparently magicJack is going to bill you, but they’re not going to pull teeth to make you actually pay the fee. You may not know this, but if you own a land line or cell phone already, you are probably paying this kind of fee with that telephone provider. Last February, the federal government decided that magicJack is not two separate companies. Nobody uses the ‘magicNumber’. The device is sold to use a telephone number, so they have to bill for 911 service, just like all other phone providers. There is a possibility that in the future, if you don’t pay the fee through this device, your local county may bill you a flat yearly fee for the service.

  2. I ported out a number from ATT/Uverse to MJ WITHOUT being told that there is a $10.00 to port in the #. The unit DID NOT work with my phone system and I ported BACK to ATT/Uverse. NOW, I GET A EMAIL FROM MJ SAYING THAT THERE IS A $32.34 CHARGE FOR PORTING BACK. I have been in the phone business for over 10 years and I KNOW FOR A FACT that FEDERAL LAW SAYS THAT THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR PORTING IN OR OUT. I REFUSE TO PAY THIS AMOUNT. I spoke to the billing department a few minutes ago and was greeted by a VERY RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT. When I told her about Federal Law, she said “Fine, then we will not release the #.

    MAGIC JACK
    5700 Georgia Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33405

    I am in Florida….I will be there tomorrow and I will also be calling the FCC, the FTC and my Attorney

  3. MagicJack is a scam. Every single phone caller complains to me that we have a bad connection and that they can not hear me. Half the time my calls don’t even come through. Sometimes my phone rings and get’s disconnected before the caller has to call in. MagicJack has cost me time and money in lost business. Now they want a port-out fee??? My ass!

    1. Yeah… Don’t pay the port out fee. It’s a last ditch grasp for money that seems a bit shady. They can’t stop you from porting out. But you will have to pay the port fee at the company you’re porting to, if they require it. Best of luck.

  4. 4/3/2016 This scam is still very alive and healthy! They want $32.24 to port out my number in spite of the legal problems they encounter with this!

  5. This is interesting. I’m trying to port from Google cell service on my iPhone to TextNow cell service. I was overall happy with the Google features but the cell signal where I live is too weak. The problem is I’ve been going back and forth between the two companies. TextNow keeps saying that it never goes through because Google says either the PIN or address is wrong. I’ve studied both scrupulously and verified what I had was correct with Google. I’ve verified twenty times over two months with TextNow and they even entered the information on their side and repeated it to me. We’re pretty sure it’s Google but the companies will not work together and insist I keep going back and forth but it never works. I believe it would be well worth $30 if I had that option and I knew it would finally work. Too many people have my number so I hate giving it up but it looks like that will be my only option and I am getting angry enough to spread my experience online to warn others.

    1. Well that’s disappointing. Sorry you’re having to go through this! I’m curious why you wouldn’t simply keep the number with google voice, then use google hangouts to accept google voice incoming calls. I use google hangouts to handle both text and calls for google voice. I suspect you could do it even on a wifi-only tablet. I like using Google voice with hangouts. When I’m home with unlimited wifi, I don’t have to worry about texts being delayed because we’re so far away from any tower. I don’t have a google phone or google fi. I’m just using an android phone with the hangouts app. Sometimes family and friends do group messages with huge amounts of conversation, much of which may have little to do with me, so I can delay notification until I’m no longer working on a project and then catch up. Google voice in combination with hangouts is pretty versatile. We also have google voice forwarding to the magicJack and make magicJack spoof our google voice number, so when we call from the magicJack, it looks to others I’m calling like I’m actually calling from my google voice number, even though I’m calling from the magicJack. Versatile!

      Consider doing a group call to get both companies on the phone and make them hash it out while you listen in. That will make them sit up and pay attention. For my part, I’d get shed of textnow and just stick with google voice. I hope you’ll find a solution that works for you!

      Good luck!

      Chris

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