Phone / Cellphone

Please note that some of the information on the page might not be compliant with the law or policies of some banks and other institutions. Proceed at your own risk. The information on this website is by no means intended to be legal or accounting advice. Consult with your own attorney, accountant or financial advisors before doing any of this!

Start preparations at least 6 months in advance

If pushed a minimum of 3 months is needed to put things in place so you have time to test and verify that what you are putting in place is working and can correct locally before you leave the country.

Keep your cellphone number(s)!

Your well known trusted (cell)phone number is a key part of your online identity. Don’t be cheap and keep your cellphone number! When you call a bank large online business etc they will check your phone number to what is on file so keep it!

More importantly, you need to be able to receive SMS messages from your bank and other websites for 2-step verification. Also, if needed you need to be able to receive or make a phone call from a trusted cellphone number. Luckily American banks are catching up to more modern 2 Factor Authentication / One Time Password methods like verifying a login on their smartphone app or a 2FA application so you no longer need to receive a text mesage.

VoiP service

If you need to have a US-based phone number to make or receive frequent phone calls without having to worry about the roaming cost associated with a cellphone plan use Google Voice for about $12.50 per month and you can make unlimited calls and SMS messages using a true US-based phone number. For example you can port over your landline to Google Voice and later add your cellphone number to it once the dust of the big move has settled down.

NOTE: banks and most websites do not accept these VoiP numbers for 2-step verification by SMS. You might be able to choose to receive a call with the number.

Note: Google Fi doesn’t allow clients more then 3 months outside the USA - so this is not a solution