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Author Topic: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?  (Read 1846 times)

CalSaver

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Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« on: August 06, 2021, 05:23:49 PM »
My wife and I are planning on being out of the country for 11-12 months and I'm pondering the best way to keep our phone numbers without continuing our current cell phone payments. I've been thinking about going to the $2/day ATT plan, where I understand they don't charge if you don't use it, but I am interested in other ideas.

Advice on the best way to do this? We'll use local sim cards or wifi wherever we are, so we won't actually need our US numbers.
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Paul der Krake

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2021, 05:41:40 PM »
The term you're looking for is "number parking". If you search for that, there are a bunch of services that offer it for around $20-40/year.
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CalSaver

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2021, 05:42:09 PM »
Thanks!
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reeshau

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2021, 05:35:35 PM »
Not quite what you asked for,but here's what I did.

I transferred my land line to iPlum, and used that for all US business.  (banks, bills, parents)  It rang through to my local number mobile phone through their app.  Now it's my US mobile number, which I moved to Google Fi 6 months before we returned.  (It has to be activated in the US.  We were home for Christmas)  We had excellent service with Fi in Ireland, with no difference in price.
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The 585

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2021, 05:52:11 PM »
When I moved to Italy I ported my number over to Google Voice (one-time $10 charge I think) and got a local sim card and plan. This worked perfectly because I could still call/text using my US number but had the Italian number too. When I moved back to the US, I got a new plan and ported my US number in from Google Voice.
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iluvzbeach

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2021, 07:47:15 PM »
Quote from: Geographer on August 07, 2021, 05:52:11 PM
When I moved to Italy I ported my number over to Google Voice (one-time $10 charge I think) and got a local sim card and plan. This worked perfectly because I could still call/text using my US number but had the Italian number too. When I moved back to the US, I got a new plan and ported my US number in from Google Voice.

Yes, exactly this ^^^. I came to the thread to make this suggestion.
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Rdy2Fire

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2021, 11:49:52 AM »
I used Google FI and, not sure now, but at the time it was $0 to port the number. I used this while traveling for months and I believe I paid about $15 a month + $10 per gb and since I didn't use it much don't think my bill was ever over $25 and never had any problems in any country using it.
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CalSaver

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2021, 08:42:39 AM »
Quote from: iluvzbeach on August 07, 2021, 07:47:15 PM
Quote from: Geographer on August 07, 2021, 05:52:11 PM
When I moved to Italy I ported my number over to Google Voice (one-time $10 charge I think) and got a local sim card and plan. This worked perfectly because I could still call/text using my US number but had the Italian number too. When I moved back to the US, I got a new plan and ported my US number in from Google Voice.

Yes, exactly this ^^^. I came to the thread to make this suggestion.

This is a good idea. It just occurred to me if I use one of the number parking services I might not be able to use Whatsapp from my original number, which we will be using a lot. Thanks for this.
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innkeeper77

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2021, 11:29:48 AM »
Quote from: less4success on August 21, 2021, 08:57:19 AM
Note that if you port your number to Google Voice it won’t work for Venmo, Facebook, some banks, etc.

The number will become a VOIP number, and many services don’t allow those due to spam/scams from such numbers.

I ported my number to Google Voice a long time ago, and I’ve regretted it ever since :(

Even after porting it back out?
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Paul der Krake

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2021, 04:18:27 PM »
Software companies use a vendor like Twilio to determine who services the number. Those databases aggregate data from all over the place, and as such they are imperfect and can lag quite a bit. But eventually it will be tied back to the correct carrier, and you should be able to sign up.
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reeshau

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2021, 04:58:41 PM »
I never had problems having ported my number to iPlum.  No guarantees that it would be true today (was from 2018-early 2020) but one of the key things was to minimize changes for my banks.  I did have trouble with some bank websites from Ireland (so signed up for a VPN) but never had a problem on the phone.
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zolotiyeruki

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2021, 01:13:52 PM »
RedPocket has an Annual Plan that's $2.50/mo. You could transfer your number there and park it for a year, then transfer back out when you return. Or just stay with RedPocket, since they're reasonably priced.
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katsiki

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Re: Out of US for a year - cheap way to keep phone number?
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2021, 07:05:52 PM »
Quote from: reeshau on August 21, 2021, 04:58:41 PM
I never had problems having ported my number to iPlum.  No guarantees that it would be true today (was from 2018-early 2020) but one of the key things was to minimize changes for my banks.  I did have trouble with some bank websites from Ireland (so signed up for a VPN) but never had a problem on the phone.

Thanks for mentioning iPlum.  I had not heard of them.
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Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!