Update: Readers of this blog have found different ways to locate the account number in the account page at Virgin Mobile’s web site. Please read the comment for alternative methods to locate your account number to talking with a rep at Virgin Mobile.
This past weekend, I decided to switch from my current wireless carrier, Virgin Mobile USA, to T-Mobile. I did this for several reasons.
- One was to upgrade my phone to a gratuitous iPhone 5C 32 GB in blue color.
- The second is to take advantage of T-Mobile’s new free international data roaming plan that takes effect in October 20 for new customers and October 31st for existing customers. Yes, I’ve read the fine print. For what it’s worth, it’s sufficient for my needs. My Virgin Mobile USA iPhone 4S was SIM-locked for the Virgin Mobile network in the USA and since I plan to travel abroad more frequently in subsequent years, the convenience is worth the rate increase.
- Third reason is to return to T-Mobile’s familiar customer-oriented service that I’m accustomed to for 7 years before switching to AT&T for two years and then Virgin Mobile USA for one year.
I have to say, the reception and service of T-Mobile has increased drastically since my 3 year hiatus with them and I am delighted to return. The only reason I originally switched out of T-Mobile was because they did not offer the iPhone at the time I threw my Nexus One against the wall out of sheer frustration with the Android ecosystem. Now not only do they have better coverage, but are also far more competitive in terms of their plans and phone offerings. These reasons were the main reasons for me to return.
I paid for the iPhone 5C in full and also sold the Virgin Mobile USA iPhone 4S 16GB for a cool $300.00 (approximately 75% of what I’ve originally paid; they retain their values very well), which basically paid for over half of the 5C upgrade. I am well aware that the 5C basically has last year’s iPhone 5’s internal wrapped in a new colored poly-carbonate shell. I became impatient waiting for the iPhone 5S, which was sold out everywhere, with at least a 3-4 week wait period and decided to settle for the 5C.
Since Virgin Mobile USA does not voluntarily disclose subscriber’s account number on the account management page online, and since they do not issue billing statements, I did a few research. What resulted were various answers ranging from the account number being the wireless number to being a separate number that can only be obtained by calling the Virgin Mobile USA customer service center.
I originally gave T-Mobile my Virgin Mobile USA wireless number, assuming it was my Virgin Mobile USA account number. After 72 hours of seeing that my existing wireless phone number has yet to transfer over to T-Mobile, I called the Virgin Mobile USA service center at 1-888-322-1122 and spoke with a representative. When I requested my account number, I was asked for my full name, phone number and 6-digit pin number, which I gave. And sure enough, I was given a 9 digit number that is completely different than my phone number. The rep asked why I needed my account number for feedback purpose and I simply told her that I plan on traveling internationally a lot in subsequent years and needed a phone that is not SIM-locked to the Virgin Mobile USA network. The rep was kind about it and noted my comment as a feedback.
Coincidentally, a rep from T-Mobile called me an hour later informing me of difficulties associated with transferring my Virgin Mobile USA phone number over due to incorrect account number provided (as they said they would). I gave the rep the correct account number while on the line and my existing number ported over to my T-Mobile account within 3 minutes — while on phone with the T-Mobile rep. I’m very happy with T-Mobile’s customer service in the 72 hours of returning to them.
Once the lady’s contract with AT&T expires later this year, we’ll switch her back to T-Mobile with an iPhone 5C upgrade of her own (she was also on an individual T-Mobile plan for about a decade and also switched because of her experience with Android). Once we’re both settled in T-Mobile’s plan, it’ll be time to sell off the rest of our vestigial iPhone 4 and 4S devices:
Now that T-Mobile is a contract-free carrier and its Simple Choice Plan offers unlimited talk, text and data and ability to upgrade phones up to twice a year, our move back to T-Mobile is a sound decision. T-Mobile also now includes international data and text roaming in 100 countries. Data speed, I believe, is limited to 2G, but that’ll suffice. It abolish the inconvenience of buying local sim cards and trying to connect to a local Wi-Fi in a foreign language.
Still not sold on the new T-Mobile? Check out their landing page.
None of these ban-id search methods are working for me on either Firefox or Chromium… Dammit, Virgin, this is really annoying.
They’re probably catching on, lol.
I’ve actually been with Virgin Mobile for over a decade. I have to say they were extraordinarily pleasant with me when I just called to get my account number. They transferred me to an account specialist and I was expecting to get question after question after question. But the account specialist only asked me: 1. why do you want to leave us. I answered truthfully that I’ve had Virgin for over a decade and in the last year I’ve noticed the service has gotten much worse. 2. What carrier are you switching to? I fibbed here a little bit and just told them I wasn’t sure but I knew I wanted to switch (I’m going to ATT’s prepaid service). 3. She made me a really good offer to stay for $25/month (still eligible for $5 off with autopay) for the next 6 months. It was a very tempting offer and better then I expected but I declined. At this point she was really nice thanked me for my many years of service,apologized that their service no longer met my standards and read the account number to me. She even ASKED ME to repeat back what I had written down to make sure I had written down the correct numbers. Then she thanked me again and told me if I ever feel like switching back not to hesitate to call. The entire call was 8 minutes….including hold time with the transfer. It could not have went more pleasantly. I actually feel bad now about switching the customer service for getting my account number was so surperb and I value customer service greatly….but I know I’m making the right decision
As of 7/5/2016 method doesnt seem to work anymore using google chrome
It doesnt seem to work for me either.
This no longer works with any browser. Guess i will have to call.
OK, here’s one for Chrome.
Login here: www2.virginmobileusa.com
Don’t bother with the page source of the MyAccount homepage.
Go to “Account History,” instead. A subwindow should pop up. The page source of this subwindow is what you want. CTRL+F “ban,” it’ll take you right to it.
Thanks so much for this! I was desperately looking for this information and couldn’t find it until now. No way I’m talking to a customer rep, so thanks yay!
took me a while to find it. when i right clicked and clicked on “view page source” i did not find the Ban-ID. Instead i clicked inspect and searched for the Ban-ID there. I was using chrome. i don’t know why it was there.
Yes! After finding similar info on other sites and trying this until my fingers bled, This worked!
It seems like VM has caught on and removed this code from their page source file. I was also able to find it by following all these steps, using Inspect and just typing in ‘ban-id’ in the ctrl+F search command (chrome browser).
Thank you!!
July 2016, still works with both Firefox and Chrome. However, two warnings:
– As several posts back somebody said, you have to use this url to login:
https://www2.virginmobileusa.com/login/login.do
– I did find the ban-id number searching the page source, but I could not find it searching it in the cookies if I selected “inspect element”
HEY VIRGIN SUCK IT
Thanks so much. It was frustrating trying to find out where to get this info! Had to call 2 times because I had two different phones to switch.
Thanks for publishing this info!
Still works. Thanks a million and Happy New Year!
Fingers crossed for me! BanID entered and on-to a iPhone 6S with another carrier! Cheers to you technological geniuses! I owe you a drink.
-ERod
Verified on December 1st, 2015 that viewing HTML source still works.
Learned during my attempt:
1. Was not able to view source or find cookies using Android Chrome. I had to break out the laptop and use PC Chrome in order to view the HTML source.
2. The ban-id you are looking for is way down at line 1508 in the html source, so be sure to use your browser’s “find on this page” tool.
3. Here is what you will find:
470236629
55524361146
4. Ignore the subscriber-id, and focus on the ban-id.
5. The PIN that I had to give to Cricket Wireless is the 6 digit pin used to sign into your account on Virgin Mobile USA’s website.
Thanks for the help, Mark
Correction edit on what is located at line 1508:
<!– 470005527 –>
<!– 52924361008 –>
Used ban-id to get account number without any pain!!! Kudos to you.
happened upon this site looking for my damn virgin mobile account number and that saved the day, thanks brent, whoever you are;)
Sept 2, 2015 the method still works
1. log into your account online on virginmobileusa.com
2. right click on webpage and select view page source
3. search for ban-id
4. the number following the ban-id is your account number
The reason that virgin hides this information is so customers can’t easily transfer to another service.
To virgin idiots: you have been exposed and defeated
Hi Brent, you are are great. I struggled for a while and did not find the account # to port to T-Mobile. You are rock solid. Thanks. Victor
Hi all, the way to see the html source code is different with different web browser. Please google search for the way that fits your needs. Brent Jones way is for Chrome. Worked for me. Thanks, Victor
Thanks Brent! It worked! UNREAL!
Perfect!! Thank you so much for the tip Brent!
Awesome, it worked
Thanks a lot Brent!! I was searching around in emails and my account for over 30 minutes…
Bang on the mark – dead right. Ace info Brent – you the man!!
u r a god
Yay! That worked. Darn Virgin Mobile and their sneaky “You can’t leave us. If we can’t have your account number, no one can!” ways.
Brent, thank you so much. I searched & searched everywhere for the acct # and finally found this page and you. The ban-id # worked easily. Wish I thought to google first. Virgin Mobile – no wonder people want to leave you, not a good way to treat your customers making it impossible to find their own acct #. Now lets see if they keep charging my credit card for service. Thanks again, Brent. Hope this saves others from grief too.
Thank you, Great
Thanks Brent you are the man. I am trying to switch to Metro PCS from Virgin Mobile in Baltimore MD because I am paying $75.00 to Virgin Mobile and I can get the same plan from Metro PCS with 4g LTE and my phone can used as a hotspot for FREE for only $50.00 a month for 2 phone lines that also includes all tax as well. I will save $25.00 a month or $300.00 a year. Metro PCS charges only $25.00 a month for a family plan with unlimited calling, texting, Data and of course 1 GB of text and then it switches to 2 or 3 G unlimited !! I was told that if you call Virgin Mobile and ask for your account number and tell them you are going to switch providers they can put a block on your phone number and you cannot switch carriers . I was also told that Sprint will do the samething. Thanks again man YOu ROCK !!
Oh Metro PCS uses the T mobile network and Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network and I am having issues getting a 3 or 4 G LTE connection in many spots in the Baltimore MD area !! So I hope to save $300.00 a year and I hope the T Mobile connection is better than Sprint !!
I can confirm that Brent’s method works when using desktop Chrome. Thanks Brent!
please help me!
i have crome and just tried it there’s no ban-id on the page
Thank you very much!! This worked perfectly!
I wanted to switch providers and it was outside of Virgin Mobile’s live representative hours, so I contacted them through their online support. Then I found this article and tip and it worked! The next morning, however, I got an response from Virgin Mobile: ” Due to our current policies, we are unable to provide your account number via e-mail. You would need to contact one of our representatives at the number mentioned below as they must implement procedures on our system to assist you the proper way.”
Thanks Brent for showing us how to “implement procedures” on our own!
Thanks Brent! A simple google search showed your result and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the help, much appreciated!
can confirm this still works February 27, 2016
Should have said used this on Firefox on a MAC. I’d have stayed with virgin if it were possible to use data on the phone when I travel outside the US. Being dependent on wifi is no way to travel.
Still works April 14, 2016. Used CTRL-F to search the HTML. Tracfone here I come!
😉
This still works as of April 2016. I provided the number found I found this way with my online AT&T acct application. When I got the phone delivered and turned it on, voila, instant service, no hassles at all
thanks
Hello, i have followed the steps on my chrome browser but I cant seem to find the ban-id # i hit CTRL + F and searched and scrolled the page for a while now? Any idea what im doing wrong or where it may be?
Lily G. I had the same problem. I discovered use the methods if I logged on to Virgin mobile with
https://www2.virginmobileusa.com/login/login.do
Not the http://www.virginmobileusa.com or the one that starts with myaccount.virginmobileusa.com.
Hope this helps
Orodrig971 you’re a lifesaver. Your tip was the clincher. That still works! 🙂
It’s June 2015, and Jonah’s tip still works. Thanks!
Thank you a million. I just love when people post little tricks like this- makes life so easy! 🙂 Perfect solution!!
Thanks, this worked great. Number switched!
Thanks for your help, found my account number and it worked!
Thank you Jonah and Doc!
The “inspect element” method didn’t work for me, as there was no “Resources” tab. But simply viewing the source and searching for “ban-id” worked. As far as how in the world someone ever figured this out, I would guess that some enterprising and helpful soul who already knew their Virgin account number figured maybe it was embedded somewhere on the web page, and just viewed the source and searched for their account number, and voila!
Many thanks to whomever went to the trouble.
By the way, when you call the Virgin Mobile service number (1-888-322-1122) the main menu does not give you an option to speak with a representative. You have to press zero (0), which is not one of the choices mentioned, to access a “secret menu.” Then you can select “technical support” from the new list of options.
The representative I spoke to was very polite and told me my account number right away. When I asked why it wasn’t on the web site, she told me that Virgin Mobile purposefully makes account numbers difficult to access for “security reasons.” I told her maybe they’re not doing such a good job of keeping that number secure if you can look it up in your cookies anyways. :/
It’s also accessible from within the session cookies. If you’re using Chrome, you can do the following:
1.) Right-click the page;
2.) Select ‘Inspect Element’;
3.) Click the ‘Resources’ tab;
4.) Expand the ‘Cookies’ group;
5.) Select ‘www2.virginmobileusa.com’, and;
6.) Check the list that appears in the right pane for the Name ‘ban’. The nine digit number you see assigned in the Value column next to that Name is your account number.
7.) Tell everyone you know that Virgin Mobile is aware of this issue and still chooses to make it unnecessarily difficult for their paying customers to obtain their account numbers. Confound Virgin Mobile USA’s plans, and a pox on their houses.
Thank you Jonah! Your information was really helpful and saved us the hassle of calling Virgin. This kind of real information was exactly what I was searching for but doubted I would find. Thanks again!
Thank you for this list of very clear instructions! I called VM as well to double-check, and the number they gave me exactly matched the number I found using your method.
Jonah, you just helped me a great deal. Perfect information. Perfect result. Nothing is better.
Thank you for this information. I got the number without calling now I can port to any company, Thank you so much……………………:)
Thank you so very much for the info!
Bless you, sir!
thank you very much,
THANK YOU! Huge help….saved me the hassle of calling Virgin, I really appreciate it 🙂
Jonah!!
You are the best…..after the usual suck-ass phone service from virgin (both in general signal strength/coverage and their support) decided to switch to verizon……all went smoothly until I received a call from Verizon about my virgin account # (assumed to be my phone# ) being incorrect prompting a call to virgin. Amazingly their system was down and they said they’d call me back. I have to work tomorrow and wasn’t about to wait for a bad 1st date never gonna happen call-back.
thanks google and you! followed your advice and withn 10 minutes BINGO all is well again in my (cell phone) world
Thanks Jonah!!!
Your tip works as of July 21, 2015. I was able to port my number over from Virgin Mobile USA to T-Mobile without issues 🙂
If you login to your account page on the VM website, and view the source of the webpage that shows your basic account information, look for an element called – the value in this element is your Account number.
an element named ban-id
Thanks!!
Interesting. I don’t anyone would’ve figured that out with prior knowledge. Thanks for sharing!
ban-id worked for me too. No issues with my transfer.
somehow I still can not find my account id with your method. need some extra help
tmobile is a very poor choice for me. they still only offer 2G service in my area and according to them there are no plans to expand. I am switching from Virgin Mobile to the new Cricket this week. 4G and decent inexpensive phones. Cricket was bought out by AIO wireless so its not the old service.
Understandably, T-Mobile is not for everyone when coverage is a concern, especially if you reside in suburban areas. Does Cricket SIM-lock their phones to their US network only like Virgin?
Thanks for this. Needed to get my Virgin Mobile account number so that I can enjoy the LG G3 with another carrier.