Rule card · Mexico

Keep your AT&T number active while abroad

AT&T Mexico's prepaid page cancels a line with no balance after 90 days. A remainder freezes 365 days from the day after validity ends, then the line goes too.

Checked against official pages on September 28, 2026. Rules move; when this one does, it goes on the changelog.

Rule at a glance

prepaid accounts only

If you do nothing: 90 days with no balance and no recharge, or 365 days of freeze for a remainder, counted from the day after validity ends
Cheapest way to hold it: A package or balance recharge before the case the line is actually in runs out
Roaming needed to receive codes abroad: Unverified (The plans page states when the line is canceled. It does not describe incoming texts during either case)
Twelve months away, roughly: A package or balance recharge before the case the line is in runs out

Deactivation clocktwo separate cases. The 90 days are the case of a line without a balance. The 365 days are the freeze of a remainder, counted from the day after the recharge's validity ends. The plans page states the 90 days as their own case.

AT&T's prepaid plans page states two cancellation cases, and they depend on whether any money was left when the recharge expired. The general recharge lineamientos at att.com.mx/lineamientos-generales-de-las-recargas-de-saldo-de-at-t-mexico.html returned HTTP 403 to curl on 28 September 2026, and curl received the same 403 for the plans page. A browser fetch that day returned the plans page. The sentences below are from that copy.

A remainder, counted from the next day

The plans page freezes what is left: "Cuando una línea AT&T Prepago cuente con saldo de recarga y al término de la vigencia de la recarga quede un remanente de saldo, el remanente se congelará durante 365 días naturales contados a partir del día siguiente al vencimiento de la vigencia." If the line has recharge balance and something remains when that recharge's validity ends, the remainder freezes for 365 calendar days counted from the day after the expiry.

The ending of that freeze is the next sentence on the plans page: "En caso de transcurrir 365 días de congelamiento del saldo sin una recarga, el remanente del saldo se perderá sin posibilidad de reembolso ni recuperación y la línea se cancelará." After 365 days of freezing with no recharge, the remainder is lost, with no refund and no recovery, and the line is canceled. Both the money and the number go at the end of this case.

The count starts the day after validity ends. Telcel's frozen Amigo balance is 365 days counted from the original expiry date. Same length, different first day. The standard's 365 is a further difference: more than 365 days after the balance expired, and only where balance is still pending to be consumed.

A line that has nothing left

The other case is the line with nothing left. The same page says: "En caso de que una línea no cuente con saldo y transcurran 90 días naturales sin que se realice una recarga de paquete o de saldo, la línea será cancelada." If the balance is already gone, and 90 calendar days pass with no package recharge and no balance recharge, the line will be canceled.

That sentence says the line will be canceled. It does not describe a period in which calls or texts still arrive during those 90 days, and it does not describe one during the freeze. Telcel's incoming phase is a different carrier's document.

Before you fly

Look at the line before you count. A remainder is the 365-day freeze. No balance is 90 days.
The freeze starts the day after validity ends, not on the expiry date.
A package recharge or a balance recharge is what the 90-day sentence treats as the thing that did not happen.
The plans page cancels the line at the end of either case. It does not describe a later grace in which the number can still be recovered.