How do any of you deal with receiving 2 factor authentication while abroad? Especially for banking and things like that.

Besides having it set up before leaving and not leaving your cell phone w/ a trusted family member or friend.

I would get text messages from the states when phone is on "Wifi Calling" but it wasn't consistent. It's possible because my wifi connection in the apartment wasn't good enough.

I was thinking of going to the Starbucks in Aeon Mall 1. Does anyone have any tricks/hacks that would work ?

I also purchased an extra service from my MetroPcs plan called "Global Voice".. ugh we will see.

This can be a royal pain in the ass. I have a Telcel SIM from Mexico that works in Canada, the US and Mexico as well as one from Canada on a pay as you go plan. The Canadian one is useless however I can get text messages in both VN and Cambodia on the Telcel number even when I don't top it up and have no money on it. All of the accounts etc. I need the 2 step authourization for have the Telcel number as an option. This is becoming a problem more and more as some places it will not work (Madagascar for example) and you are hooped. I had the same issue for Google sign in. I wanted to check my gmail and it asked for 2 step authourization as there was something suspect going on with logins (according to them, it was ME FFS!). Since I was In Mada at the time I was essentially locked out until I left. Fuck was I pissed off.

This has been my experience. I am sure some one more tech savvy can give you a better fix.

Google Voice can do it. It might take some tweaking in the setup (e.g., forwarding to email, to avoid having to sign in, etc.), but it should be able to handle 2-factor authentication. No SIM card needed. Or payment either. As long as you have a wifi signal, it's like you're calling/texting from your US number. At least that's how I've used it. (I think it only works though when it's first linked to a non-VOIP American or Canadian number.)

T-Mobile....Capital One

No need to have Wi-Fi calling on, just Wi-Fi on with cellular turned off.

That phone stays off and only gets turned on when I need a 2-factor authentication code sent to me to my US number.

Roryborealis wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:51 am Google Voice can do it. It might take some tweaking in the setup (e.g., forwarding to email, to avoid having to sign in, etc.), but it should be able to handle 2-factor authentication. No SIM card needed. Or payment either. As long as you have a wifi signal, it's like you're calling/texting from your US number. At least that's how I've used it. (I think it only works though when it's first linked to a non-VOIP American or Canadian number.)

Thanks .. looking it up now but I need to keep the same number I currently have.

The problem you may have with MetroPCS, which is actually Metro by T-Mobile now, is that it is a prepaid phone service and the majority of US banks, according to their disclaimer, won't send authentication codes to them. I was initially going to change from T-Mobile when I planned on coming here with one of their prepaid plans but found out that it wouldn't work with my bank.

It's been my experience that most of the big US banks won't accept Skype, VOIP, Google Voice, prepaid, numbers. I have heard some people being able to get it to work but I didn't want to take the chance.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 8:00 am would they accept a skype number?

Depending on who the sender is (as noted above, e.g., certain banks are more restrictive), you may have more luck receiving an audio verification/message on a Skype number than an SMS verification. If audio verification is even an option.

BklynBoy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:16 am How do any of you deal with receiving 2 factor authentication while abroad? Especially for banking and things like that.

Besides having it set up before leaving and not leaving your cell phone w/ a trusted family member or friend.

I would get text messages from the states when phone is on "Wifi Calling" but it wasn't consistent. It's possible because my wifi connection in the apartment wasn't good enough.

I was thinking of going to the Starbucks in Aeon Mall 1. Does anyone have any tricks/hacks that would work ?

I also purchased an extra service from my MetroPcs plan called "Global Voice".. ugh we will see.

Text 2f-a is a massive security hole

Use non text 2-fa where possible.

Install Authy and set it up and then u get ur 2-fa codes from the app, phone number in range is irrelevant

SMS is woefully unsafe, the sooner banks move to a proper 2FA app on your phone the better (the better ones do already). Otherwise just have roaming turned on & enable by your carrier & off you go surely?