iPad mini Deactivating Prepaid Verizon Service on my First Generation mini, Have Questions

[Yebubbleman]

I have a first generation iPad mini on Verizon as both the title of the post and my signature would suggest. For a multitude of reasons, I would like to suspend/deactivate (whichever word is more appropriate) my prepaid service (as in, it was activated from within the iPad mini itself and is, not linked to my post-paid Verizon account).

For additional context, I am doing this temporarily; though I'm guessing that by the time I find myself wanting to re-activate prepaid service, I'll have more or less replaced this iPad mini with a Verizon version of the model that succeeds the current (second generation) "iPad mini with Retina Display".

That said, I have a few questions:

(1) Can I, either via the iPad mini itself, or via Verizon, tell it to stop billing and de-activate service starting the NEXT cycle? Or do I have to time my cancellation just right so I get the most out of what I paid them this billing cycle?

(2) If I want to re-activate the iPad mini (either prepaid or if I want to add it to my postpaid account) will I need to get a different SIM card? I've been told that, while I shouldn't in theory, on the first generation iPad mini on Verizon, in particular, re-activation doesn't go 100% smoothly. (I'm wondering if anyone can attest either way.)

(3) Are there any other issues or hiccups that I should know about in either de-activating cellular service on this iPad or in potentially re-activating it at a later time? Again, specifically, I'm dealing with Big Red.

(4) Bonus question out of curiosity: Will my iPad mini retain its phone number even though it will have been de-activated at this point?

 

[Night Spring]

1 Go to Settings, Cellular Data, View Account, and cancel the plan. I think you might see options for ”cancel right now” and "do not renew once the time/data runs out," but if you don't see such options, go ahead and cancel, the default should be when you cancel, it doesn't suspend service immediately, it just stops automatically renewing your plan.

2 I once cancelled the data on my mini, and managed to reactivate it a few months later on the same SIM card. But my understanding is if you wait too long between reactivations, not sure if it is five months or six, your SIM card becomes permanently disabled and you need to get a new one.

3 can't think of any

4 don't know, haven't checked.