I would get rid of my US number completely, however, i have so many different accounts with 2FA. I hear google phone works, but if youre not in the US at least once a year they can deactivate your account.

My plan is to keep my number for 2FA purposes, and get a local sim for everything else. Right now we are paying for international package and its killing us.

  • MrJim911@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I use Mint. But only for 2FA reasons. I don’t get calls or routine texts on my US number.

  • Seiyo777@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    On T-Mobile you can reduce your service to like text and calls only and it was pretty cheap. Maybe 25$?

  • othergaming@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My wife and I have been using Google voice and we were out of the US for over a year. Since then we have visited but we were gone over a year before we did. I don’t even know how Google would really check where I was because I can VPN, spoof my gps, login from multiple devices… Etc. so how would they realistically know? Anyway I don’t have any reason to believe that they’ve ever tried nor was I warned about potentially losing my number based on my location when I set it up. You have to pay one time to port your number over to Google voice and you really have to do it before you leave because you need a different throwaway number that you can verify on your device the first time you set it up. You can use a cheap prepaid or even a free mint sim trial. If you get a new phone while you’re out of the country it can be a little bit of a headache to get it working on the new phone, it’s hidden in settings, but it always works on the computer and it can be done on the phone too. The best part in my opinion about parking my number with voice is that I can continue to use it. I don’t have to teach elderly family members to use apps so I can contact them, I just call them like normal. All my existing 2FA works but once you port your number a lot of sites can tell that your number is now a virtual number and they won’t allow you to set it up for 2FA. Overall though, I definitely recommend it.

  • packetintransit@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Google voice - I have been away for more than 4 years and I am still using it for banking etc.

    You just have to transfer your number to Google voice either while you are in the US or using VPN if you are already abroad.

  • Captain_taco27@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Mint comes with issues, they are cheap for reason, however I’m pretty sure I used them before T mobile took them over so they may have improved I could not use my mint number when travelling in Europe last year however my AT&T number worked fine

  • kgargs@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I just had to work through this and I went with a new plan where I am and transferred my EEUU/US number to google voice.

    99% of your communication internationally will be in whatsapp probably.

    Google voice works like an app that routes your US number to your phone (if it’s deployed in whatever destination country) and if it’s not deployed then you just use a webbrowser to access it.

    You can listen to voicemail, make calls, text from it. You do lose the bubbles to IOS people but I was able to get rid of me ~$200/month verizon bill.

  • TheRensh@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have used Google Fi for last 5 years ex USA, no issues with 2FA Auth at any level. $25 a month.