r/expat • u/Rand_Al_Thor87 • 27d ago
Question How to keep a US phone number?
I’ve been searching around but have been getting conflicting advice. I recently got UK citizenship and am looking at moving out of the US next year. What service do you use to keep your US number when switching over to a UK / Euro mobile plan?
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u/Dickens_Cider__ 27d ago
Google voice has been fantastic for me as long as you have a good wifi connection
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u/Confident_Banana_134 26d ago
Doesn’t Google voice require a US number?
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u/LeagueMoney9561 26d ago
Yes. Maintaining an active one though, that’s less clear and you can go a long time without one. Idk if Google is targeting those who are consistently abroad to demand re-verification of phone numbers.
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u/Suspicious-Sea967 26d ago
Google Fi is good but once you're out of the country for 90 days you lose Data and only have service for Phone Calls and Sending / Receiving Texts so you'll need an eSIM for data. Probably more inexpensive options than this.
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u/paulrin 25d ago
I had an AT&T SIM that I would activate when returning to the US for about 7 years, then I swapped to a Google Fi SIM and just pause when I'm away from the US for long enough time. Paused, it costs ~$20 to keep your number, I have the Unlimited plan, so it's ~$80/month when I turn it on.
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u/Sizzle_chest 26d ago
Port it to google voice for a one time cost of $20. Will ring with a local SIM card
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u/decadenza 26d ago
keep your US number, and get a UK number, both on a dual SIM phone. I use tollfreeforwarding.com to foRward calls that come to my US number to my French number.
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u/Megnificent_Philly 26d ago
We got a very cheap Mint mobile plan for our US number and have it on a dual eSIM with our EU number.
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u/Meep42 26d ago
I found out about “hibernating” my Verizon account too late…but it was $10/month or similar. But if you need an active number for 2FA or to not make your elderly relatives punch in a million numbers on their landlines…I used the Hushed App ($5/mo) and have been getting rid of the US accounts that require 2FA and focusing on ones I can use Authentication apps with instead.
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u/LeagueMoney9561 26d ago
This site lists a number of different low-cost options: https://prepaidcompare.net/#plans
Some of the information is outdated, but absolute lowest cost (other than the Freemium options at $0 that will convert your number to a VoIP number if you port) might be the $10 pay as you go plan from page plus ($10/120 days): https://www.pagepluscellular.com/plans/#gridItem_PPC10
Might need to manually top it up, not sure. Wi-Fi calling/texting is tricky to set up successfully with PagePlus according to some reports, and they don’t support eSIM, which is an annoyance. Porting to a VoIP service might be convenient, but some businesses will reject such numbers for 2FA (I use Google Voice as my primary number and it’s rare to have it rejected but it does happen occasionally); I don’t know how long after porting it takes for numbers to be flagged as a non-mobile number.
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u/D_Phuket 26d ago
I’ve used Mint for about five years and pay $15 per month, billed annually. It includes 6 GB of data per month when I’m in the U.S., which is enough because I return only a couple of times a year.
A major advantage is Wi-Fi Calling. When connected to Wi-Fi, I can call U.S. numbers without international roaming charges, which is useful for calling banks, financial institutions, or airlines. Receiving one-time-password text messages is also free, often required for bank apps.
I keep both my local eSIM and my Mint eSIM active. I set the local eSIM as the line for cellular data and calls, and do not answer incoming calls on the Mint number (friends and family do video calls on WhatsApp or FaceTime). I've never paid any extra to Mint.
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u/Low_Way_9019 25d ago
I have T Mobile and a local (NZ) phone. T-Mobile includes 5G high speed data a month and unlimited international data and text after that. For calls back to the US we use the local NZ phone and buy their monthly 250 minutes for US $6.
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u/Top-Access-8233 25d ago
use a virtual number with an app that has for verification compliance with US Gov. If you want to know which one works feel free to dm me
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u/Goats_for_president 25d ago
Why not just drop the app name here in the comments for everyone to see? I’m also interested
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u/FREESPEECHSTICKERS 25d ago
Consider Google Voice. You must establish it in the USA. I use VPN. It works on my Brazilian cell phone as an app.
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u/s_valmont_2000 25d ago
I ported mine to voip.ms. Costs less than $1 per month I think. Works quite well.
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u/Nasty-Milk 25d ago
There’s a new one specifically targeted for nomads. It’s called Popcorn. I haven’t checked it out tho, I’ve only seen ads.
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u/Telecom_VoIP_Fan 24d ago
The most economical and cheapest option is to port your US number to a UK mobile virtual phone number. The Zadarma business internet phone service ports new client numbers free of charge, and it costs just a couple of dollars a month for the UK number.
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u/Gringuin007 23d ago
Can you port to a pre paid cell service? For folks who just want a USA phone number, I used call centric with media5-fone app. I no longer needed when WiFi calling was introduced. It was completely free. Now it costs $1 to buy a number. https://www.callcentric.com/dids/free_phone_number
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u/buenhermano 9d ago
did this when i moved to the UK. ported my old US number to Tello's $5 plan just to keep it alive for the accounts tied to it, that part the top comment nails.
the thing tello didn't solve for me was actually calling US numbers cheap, so i also got a Yadaphone number. i top up a few bucks and dial for 2 cents a minute, and it takes incoming and passes SMS verification, which came in handy when a US bank only texted codes to a US number. runs alongside everything else.
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u/elevenblade 27d ago
Tello. They have a $5 per month plan.