This has worked flawlessly for us, especially for key situations like getting a verification code via text message to reset a password or access a bank account (which will happen when you are travelling abroad because the bank won’t recognize the IP address from which you are accessing its site). You can even sign in and respond to the text through their platform (you only get so many of those for free per month). They deliver instantaneous email notifications of any texts or voicemails. For $3 per month per number, they will “port” your cell phone number and then “park” it online. We found the perfect solution in Tossable Digits (FYI we’re not getting a commission or anything from them). But we just wanted to be able to receive notification of any text messages or voicemails while keeping our phone numbers. For example, if you want your old phone number to ring on a new phone number (i.e., international call forwarding), you’ll need a VoIP like Google Voice. There are different ways to do this, and your choice will depend on what you want to accomplish. So, instead, you need to “port” your cell phone number (i.e., move it) and “park” it somewhere, which means you put it somewhere online to keep ownership of it. But what do you do if you aren’t switching to any carrier? If you just cancel your contract, you’ll lose your phone number. This is pretty simple if you’re just switching from Verizon to AT&T to Credo or whatnot. So a carrier is required to relinquish your cell phone number to you if you so request. Under FCC regulations, you have the right to keep your cell phone number (it doesn’t belong to your carrier). Figure out where to “park” your phone number: You will need to search by your phone/plan/carrier online to see if your phone is locked and how to unlock it (if it is locked, the process will generally involve contacting your carrier to get your phone unlocked). But it will depend on your carrier, plan, and type of phone. This is not always the case-for example, Verizon generally does not sell locked phones anymore (although that may be changing). The only way you can use a SIM card is if your phone is “unlocked.” In the United States, when you get your cell phone at a reduced price from your carrier, sometimes the carrier will provide you a “locked” phone, which means that the phone can be used only with that carrier. You’re going to want to be able to use SIM cards abroad (more on SIM cards below). After lots of online researching (we didn’t find a one-stop explanation about this…), we ended up with a solution that allows us to keep our cell phone numbers and receive any texts or voicemails into our email inbox for just $3 per month-exactly what we wanted! Here is how we did it in four steps: 1. But, at the same time, we didn’t want to lose the cell phone numbers we’d each had for ten years or so, and, ideally, we were hoping to be able to still receive texts to those numbers in case anyone tried to contact us (and, as it turns out, this is necessary for text verifications for signing into bank accounts or resetting passwords, etc.). We had no intention of paying for an already expensive monthly Verizon plan that would require very expensive add-ons to use abroad. When we decided to take a one-year trip, one of the most confounding pre-trip logistics was what to do with our cell phones.
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