Keeping US cell phone number for text & talk when moving there

[Soykoy]

Are there applications that work for identification/receiving codes from banks? I no longer have a US SIM and it's important for me to be able to receive codes via SMS. If not, is there a good place to order SIM cards to be sent here? Anyone know of carriers that allow SMS receiving outside the US?

 

[Alfred_Arnold]

Are there applications that work for identification/receiving codes from banks? I no longer have a US SIM and it's important for me to be able to receive codes via SMS. If not, is there a good place to order SIM cards to be sent here? Anyone know of carriers that allow SMS receiving outside the US?

How did your google voice troubleshooting go?

 

[Soykoy]

How did your google voice troubleshooting go?

I have a Google voice account on an older Google account that I accessed. It is no longer attached to a Google voice number and I don't have a US number to set it up with. When I try signing into the app with the account that has Google voice it says that it's not available in my country.

 

[FrankPintor]

Are there applications that work for identification/receiving codes from banks? I no longer have a US SIM and it's important for me to be able to receive codes via SMS. If not, is there a good place to order SIM cards to be sent here? Anyone know of carriers that allow SMS receiving outside the US?

I don't see how you can receive SMS if you don't have the SIM card and number that was registered with your bank. There are some ways of receiving the SMS on a phone (with the SIM) and then redirecting it to some application on a PC, for example, but you're still going to need the SIM.

I also don't believe a mobile phone emulation that you can run on a PC, like BlueStacks for Android, would handle this case (and you need the SIM to set it up initially anyway).

Receiving an SMS outside the US on a US SIM shouldn't be a problem, once you have roaming set up. It's transparent for your bank, they have no idea where your SIM is. You'll pay to receive the SMS of course.

The banking application on your phone might receive authentication codes (mine does), or maybe you can tell your bank you want auth codes sent by email.

 

[Soykoy]

I don't see how you can receive SMS if you don't have the SIM card and number that was registered with your bank. There are some ways of receiving the SMS on a phone (with the SIM) and then redirecting it to some application on a PC, for example, but you're still going to need the SIM.

I also don't believe a mobile phone emulation that you can run on a PC, like BlueStacks for Android, would handle this case (and you need the SIM to set it up initially anyway).

Receiving an SMS outside the US on a US SIM shouldn't be a problem, once you have roaming set up. It's transparent for your bank, they have no idea where your SIM is. You'll pay to receive the SMS of course.

The banking application on your phone might receive authentication codes (mine does), or maybe you can tell your bank you want auth codes sent by email.

My banks app doesn't function outside the US sadly and they don't use email for verification anymore.

 

[FrankPintor]

My banks app doesn't function outside the US sadly and they don't use email for verification anymore.

Not even with a VPN on your phone? I use ExpressVPN, it sucks sometimes but mostly works, and I can set my location to wherever they have a server. Having said that, it doesn't always seem successfully mask your actual location, we've had that experience with a Venezuelan bank which is quite annoying really. It does work in other scenarios.

 

[Soykoy]

Not even with a VPN on your phone? I use ExpressVPN, it sucks sometimes but mostly works, and I can set my location to wherever they have a server. Having said that, it doesn't always seem successfully mask your actual location, we've had that experience with a Venezuelan bank which is quite annoying really. It does work in other scenarios.

I tried using Tunnelbear VPN and it didn't work but I haven't tried any other VPN providers. I will give it a shot.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

It's great that so many of you have got workarounds for mobile phone communication with your banks but I would recommend having a fall back position of a plain old home based cellphone. The fastest growing sector of consumer banking crime in the US and USA is currently 2FA fraud and since much of this conversation looks like a seminar on how to get around banking systems, expect that sooner or later these loopholes will be closed. I just use a UK-based PAYG phone for banking 2FA calls and bite my lip over the overseas use charges.

 

[Soykoy]

It's great that so many of you have got workarounds for mobile phone communication with your banks but I would recommend having a fall back position of a plain old home based cellphone. The fastest growing sector of consumer banking crime in the US and USA is currently 2FA fraud and since much of this conversation looks like a seminar on how to get around banking systems, expect that sooner or later these loopholes will be closed. I just use a UK-based PAYG phone for banking 2FA calls and bite my lip over the overseas use charges.

I'm glad my bank is proactive and warns me about fraud. It's saved me a few hundred dollars by automatically detecting payments that I didn't make. On the other hand, I've been locked out of my account many times for using cards in new places or buying from websites I hadn't previously used. A blessing and a curse.

 

[dilmah]

I don't see how you can receive SMS if you don't have the SIM card and number that was registered with your bank. There are some ways of receiving the SMS on a phone (with the SIM) and then redirecting it to some application on a PC, for example, but you're still going to need the SIM.

Google Voice and several other VOIP providers definitely are able to receive SMS to US number without any SIM card.
They are typically forwarded to email.