Using a US telephone number in Europe

Hello Everyone, I was wondering if any expats here have experience using apps like Google voice allowing them to keep a US telephone number while living in Europe or any other non-US location? What is your experience? Any recommendations?
Thank you,
Anton

Personally I’m very happy with Google Voice. I’ve been using it for almost a decade now. No problem keeping it active outside the US, and it’s great/cheap for international calls.

I’d still recommend getting a local sim card & number wherever you’re actually living, of course, rather than using your GV number for your local needs.

Just make sure to NEVER EVER give banks outside of the US your US phone number, unless you have already declared that you are a US person and filled out a W9.

A US phone number is one of the main hints in “FATCA indicia”, and WILL get you noticed quickly if you have declared that you are not a US person and filled out a W8-BEN. Save yourself the headaches and explanations.

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Thanks, the idea is getting a Google voice account and using a local prepaid sim where I plan to live. This way I can use both a US and local number.

Thank you Thomas, my idea is to have a Google voice account with my current US number for business reasons. I would make calls using the data from the prepaid service I purchase in the country I am living in. If I am not mistaken, this will allow me to have both a US and local number. Am I correct?

Yes that’s correct. You can use Google Voice through the Google Voice app (iOS/Android/web) and the local number through the default phone and messaging app.

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I use snapchat, which is free. I convert my t-mobile account to prepaid and only use it when calling t he US.

You can use voip phones anywhere with any national number. The issue is that if you have accounts in financial institutions in the US, you need a US phone number that can also receive verification codes and banks do not send verification codes to voip phones (I assume they have means to know). This can be resolved if you have a US cell phone subscription, but that is expensive to keep for an occasional use. BTW, banks do not accept google voice, or other free internet phone accounts.

Thank you Dr. Vittorio,
Can you confirm which US banks you have worked with in the US that do not send verification codes over service like Google Voice?
I appreciate your insight.
Best
Anton

I’ve used local SIM cards and WhatsApp. Makes it easy to speak with friends all over the world, no matter where I am.

This whole FATCA reporting is a bit overwhelming…
I did some digging, and bills were introduced back in 2017 to have it repealed but didn’t seem to make it out of committee.
I’ve sent emails to the sponsors in the House and Senate and I’ll let you know if I get anything back from them…

I think all my US banks works with my Google Voice number for 2FA, except one—which I believe might be Chase, but in that case I’ll just use their email option instead. It has never proved to be an issue for me.

Banks I’ve used with GV successfully:

  • Charles Schwab
  • Emory Alliance
  • Patelco
  • BofA
  • Simple
  • Capital One (although I had some issues with their peer to peer payment app using it)
  • Mercury
  • Barclaycard
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Just wanted to update that Chase no longer sends shortcodes through email. Only through a non-voip US number. (I learned that the hard way.) The only other option is to ring customer service and jump thru a bunch of hoops just to get a shortcode.

Has anyone found a workaround to keep a US-based number that forwards texts to a Europe-based number?

@ikigai that’s a good catch!

T-Mobile offer e-SIM that can be set up from anywhere in the world if you need a “real” US phone number. The cheapest plan to keep it alive is a $15 prepaid option. However, as long as you enable WiFi Calling you can both receive calls and texts for free worldwide (on WiFi).

If you don’t have a phone supporting e-SIM I’d recommend getting a second-hand iPhone SE 2020 (it being the cheapest iPhone that supports e-SIM, at maybe $100-200 used). If you use iPhone/Mac/other Apple devices, you can just stick it in a drawer and you’ll still receive the messages on your other iDevices (needs some setup to share messages via iCloud).

That’s a great tip @tkrunning! :slight_smile: Haha, I actually have the iPhone SE (the newish one) so I’ll check it out. Is that 15usd/mo? I’ll see if they have prepaid plans or something.

Yeah, it’s $15 per month for the cheapest prepaid plan that supports e-sim. You can of course port the number elsewhere later/when convenient, for example to Ultra Mobile PayGo which is $3 per month, but does not support e-sim. IIRC they do support WiFi calling, so as long as you have a free sim slot in a phone that should work, too. Not 100% sure if the activation works abroad, though.

Note that when activating the T-Mobile e-sim from the EU (I never used it in the US first), I couldn’t get it working on the mobile network, even though you’re supposed to be able to activate abroad. So if you can’t get it working right off the bat make sure you’re on WiFi and have WiFi calling enabled for the e-sim. That worked for me.

Were you able to eSim from outside the US and receive messages?
I talked with T-Mobile, and they said I need to be on a $40/month plan to be able to receive SMS and calls internationally and there will be a pay-as-you-go cost on top of it for receiving every call and SMSes

comes with an Estonia number and a US number. Buy the sim, pay per use.

if you need e-sim they have a version that has Estonia number but you can for $80/yr add a US number they certify will be accepted by US banks for PIN verifications etc. Again pay per use otherwise.

Not the absolute cheapest but they have been around for a really long time doing international plans (got started doing calling cards) and are generally as good as other options if not better. I have used them at various times in the past with good results. (I don’t need the service currently so I am not currently a user.)

My latest adventures with esim and US numbers. My phone (iphone 13 mini) has a Verizon sim card. I did not want to keep pulling out the sim card. So ended up getting an Orange Sim Holiday esim card when I was in France. (bad idea) 20 euros for 14 days which then had to be topped off for 30 days which extended the life of the French number to 6 months. The Orange customer service was horrible, could never get anyone that spoke English. The recharge process had issues, the data would not work in UK and the CS wanted me to reset the phone ( I think not !) Worked great in France though.

But I was able to keep wifi calling on my US number, the cellular data on the Orange plan. So the default for voice calls was the US number, I was still able to make calls on the Orange number and receive them. The Iphone allows you to designate if a contact is associated with your US number or an esim (Orange in my case)

Now in Portugal, got another esim this time with Vodafone (MEO and NOS were the other options), came with a Portuguese number.Same top off arrangements, but more data 5gb for 10 euro 14 day life . However, when I leave Portugal I can change my plan and drop it to 5 euro per 6 mo to keep the number alive.

My chat with Apple tech support before I left verified that if I were to change phones they could port over all the esims. Vodafone in Portugal said they would port over the number but it would be a new esim.