Expats keeping a phone number in their citizenship country (aka MagicJack not working).

[JimmyJ]

~~~~~~~

[JimmyJ]

Keeping a home country identity involves keeping bank accounts:

 

"Banks Are Closing Customer Accounts

With Little Explanation."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/your-money/bank-account-suspicious-activity.html

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

Keeping a home country identity involves keeping bank accounts:

 

"Banks Are Closing Customer Accounts

With Little Explanation."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/your-money/bank-account-suspicious-activity.html

Thanks for posting that excellent -- and disturbing article...  The banks' behavior in some of those cases is virtually criminal...

 

A few lessons to be learned there..

 

1. Dont keep all yr assets in one bank, leaving at the mercy of their whims.. Have multiple banking relationships...

 

2. The mega banks in the US are the WORST, and that's where those kinds of abuses are most likely to occur.

 

There should be a federal law, if a FI decides to close a customer's account, they should be require to give at least some specific meaningful kind of reason, and have some minimum notice time to the customer before locking funds or closing accounts.

 

[Furioso]

On 4/2/2022 at 7:29 PM, JimmyJ said:

I can confirm that to receive codes/OTP's on TextNow it is now necessary to spend money.

 

I went for 4.99 USD per year to retain one's phone number. Not necessary to make 1 call or text per month to retain # after paying for this.

 

Using the account to text/call still free but cannot receive codes without paying.

 

 

I have a TextNow App and for a few months it worked great. I paid about $10 for 200 minutes of talk/text. BUT, the other day I wasn't receiving an authentication text from my bank.

1. In an act to fix the problem I signed out, now it won't let me log back in. 

2. I am using a VPN.

3. Now it also says "Your current region, App..is not supported". 

4. No answer from their help desk. 

 

I'm thinking my best plan is to reduce the amount of U.S. financial websites down to as few as 3..and these are the ones that I can log into with no need from SMS authentication OR they will send SMS to my AIS Thai number. 

 

I do have to make an occasional call to the U.S. I think I can call via my AIS Thai # for 8 cents a minute. 

 

Yes, I would like a U.S. number but it seems too difficult nor do I want to pay a monthly fee. I would love to log back in to my Text Plus app but I think that ship has sailed, that dog won't hunt, those were the days. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, Furioso said:

I'm thinking my best plan is to reduce the amount of U.S. financial websites down to as few as 3..and these are the ones that I can log into with no need from SMS authentication OR they will send SMS to my AIS Thai number. 

Most of the US FI's I deal with typically want some kind of US mobile number on your account record when you first set up and open a new account.

 

But once the accounts are up and running, IME, most of the ones I deal with will give you the choice of them sending the 2FA online banking log-in code either to an email address or mobile number you have on file for your account.

 

[gamb00ler]

4 hours ago, Furioso said:

1. In an act to fix the problem I signed out, now it won't let me log back in. 

2. I am using a VPN.

3. Now it also says "Your current region, App..is not supported". 

It sounds like you were using the TextNow smartphone app.  Try temporarily disabling the "location services" (that's what it is called on an iPhone) for that app or for all apps.  Then try to login again.  Remember to re-enable the service when done with TextNow.

 

Do you have a laptop/desktop computer?  You can try to login to TextNow from one of them still using a VPN.

 

I used to have a free TextNow account and it worked from both my phone and desktop after I moved to Thailand.  I let my assigned number lapse so I no longer can use it.  I can't remember for sure, but I think I never used a VPN while using TextNow.

[riclag]

Just came back from the states!

I got and activated a UltraPaygo account, $3 a month in the states.

I funded the Ultrapaygo wallet !

I called CS about paying my bill and it seems , I either have to set auto pay from using my Credit Card or pay manually using my wallet balance.

I would love to have Ultrapaygo take my monthly  bill from my wallet but I dont know if thats possible.

Anybody please

 

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, riclag said:

Just came back from the states!

I got and activated a UltraPaygo account, $3 a month in the states.

I funded the Ultrapaygo wallet !

I called CS about paying my bill and it seems , I either have to set auto pay from using my Credit Card or pay manually using my wallet balance.

I would love to have Ultrapaygo take my monthly  bill from my wallet but I dont know if thats possible.

Anybody please

 

$3? Yikes! I just paid my annual Mint bill. 

[riclag]

11 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

$3? Yikes! I just paid my annual Mint bill. 

I have mintmobile as well $15 p/m 

Ive had that since 2019.

So now I have two phones and plans to combat the never ending changes by financial institutions for verification processes .

[Pib]

4 hours ago, riclag said:

Just came back from the states!

I got and activated a UltraPaygo account, $3 a month in the states.

I funded the Ultrapaygo wallet !

I called CS about paying my bill and it seems , I either have to set auto pay from using my Credit Card or pay manually using my wallet balance.

I would love to have Ultrapaygo take my monthly  bill from my wallet but I dont know if thats possible.

Anybody please

 

Yes, it's possible and probably the norm for the bill to be paid from the wallet balance.  When you have AutoRenew enabled it basically pays you monthly $3 bills and adds any remaining amount to your wallet like if you had AutoRenew enabled to pay around $5/month.  And actually I think it adds the AutoRenew amount to your wallet for a split second and then the monthly fee is then deducted from your wallet.

 

Anyway, I have two UM Paygo numbers....have been using them for around 2 years.....I do "not" use AutoReNew to pay the monthly bill....I have AutoRenew Turned Off as shown in below snapshot from one of my accts...the other acct is setup the same way.   I just keep my wallet topped to around an average of $20...in the $10 to $30 ballpark...and each monthly $3 charge and any interim changes are "automatically" paid from my Wallet.  I do not have to do anything manually.  

 

Now when initially getting the UM SIMs and playing around with my online acct I messed around a little with the AutoRenew setting below by changing it to AutoRenew On for a few seconds and then setting it back to the AutoRenew Off.  Then for the next month or two each monthly $3 billing would still occur automatically....money automatically taken from my wallet balance....but I would get an email or two saying the AutoRenew failed so the monthly fee was taken from my wallet balance.   After a month or two those emails stopped....I expect once changing it from AutoRenew On and then back to Off that it took UM's billing system a little time to stop sending me these squirrelly  emails about AutoRenew....ever since then I haven't played around with the AutoRenew setting.   I leave it turned off and just add money to my wallet periodically to topup.

 

And yes, I know at the bottom of the snapshot below it says my turning AutoRenew Off I understand I will need to pay my bill manually each month.  That sure implies a person would need to logon and initiate a payment but there is no way to initiate a monthly payment.....all you can do is "add to your wallet balance."  So, what I expect what UM is trying to say in a vague, kinda misleading way is we sure would like you to use AutoRenew because you'll probably add more money that needed to cover your monthly bill and that's like money in the bank for us as it can't be refunded...instead it just builds-up your wallet balance.  Plus, notice the sentence at the top of the AutoRenew setting where it says AutoRenew automatically recharges your wallet which is where UM really pulls the monthly payment from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[riclag]

23 hours ago, Pib said:

Yes, it's possible and probably the norm for the bill to be paid from the wallet balance.  When you have AutoRenew enabled it basically pays you monthly $3 bills and adds any remaining amount to your wallet like if you had AutoRenew enabled to pay around $5/month.  And actually I think it adds the AutoRenew amount to your wallet for a split second and then the monthly fee is then deducted from your wallet.

 

Anyway, I have two UM Paygo numbers....have been using them for around 2 years.....I do "not" use AutoReNew to pay the monthly bill....I have AutoRenew Turned Off as shown in below snapshot from one of my accts...the other acct is setup the same way.   I just keep my wallet topped to around an average of $20...in the $10 to $30 ballpark...and each monthly $3 charge and any interim changes are "automatically" paid from my Wallet.  I do not have to do anything manually.  

 

Now when initially getting the UM SIMs and playing around with my online acct I messed around a little with the AutoRenew setting below by changing it to AutoRenew On for a few seconds and then setting it back to the AutoRenew Off.  Then for the next month or two each monthly $3 billing would still occur automatically....money automatically taken from my wallet balance....but I would get an email or two saying the AutoRenew failed so the monthly fee was taken from my wallet balance.   After a month or two those emails stopped....I expect once changing it from AutoRenew On and then back to Off that it took UM's billing system a little time to stop sending me these squirrelly  emails about AutoRenew....ever since then I haven't played around with the AutoRenew setting.   I leave it turned off and just add money to my wallet periodically to topup.

 

And yes, I know at the bottom of the snapshot below it says my turning AutoRenew Off I understand I will need to pay my bill manually each month.  That sure implies a person would need to logon and initiate a payment but there is no way to initiate a monthly payment.....all you can do is "add to your wallet balance."  So, what I expect what UM is trying to say in a vague, kinda misleading way is we sure would like you to use AutoRenew because you'll probably add more money that needed to cover your monthly bill and that's like money in the bank for us as it can't be refunded...instead it just builds-up your wallet balance.  Plus, notice the sentence at the top of the AutoRenew setting where it says AutoRenew automatically recharges your wallet which is where UM really pulls the monthly payment from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that explanation!Glad to see someone else thinking their wallet / auto renew monthly billing is vague in context !

I will leave my auto renew untouched and wait for them to take the $3 from my wallet balance.

[gamb00ler]

I just received my registered UltraMobile PayGo sim.  Now I'm looking for a low cost phone to accept the nano sim full time rather than switch it out with my Thai sim.

 

Will the phone need to support WiFi calling if I'm only going to receive SMS from US banks, etc.?

 

Looking for a recommended phone for this job.

[riclag]

55 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

I just received my registered UltraMobile PayGo sim.  Now I'm looking for a low cost phone to accept the nano sim full time rather than switch it out with my Thai sim.

 

Will the phone need to support WiFi calling if I'm only going to receive SMS from US banks, etc.?

 

Looking for a recommended phone for this job.

Its all my opinion 

Try to purchase a phone that has 5g capabilities, to avoid the software being sunsetted in the near future! One that is new or second hand !

I bought a used IPhone SE 3rd generation on ebay for $200 .

The newer phones should feature wifi calling! If not shouldn’t be a problem. Stay tuned others will come along.

all imop

[EVENKEEL]

On 6/16/2023 at 9:22 PM, riclag said:

Just came back from the states!

I got and activated a UltraPaygo account, $3 a month in the states.

I funded the Ultrapaygo wallet !

I called CS about paying my bill and it seems , I either have to set auto pay from using my Credit Card or pay manually using my wallet balance.

I would love to have Ultrapaygo take my monthly  bill from my wallet but I dont know if thats possible.

Anybody please

 

Can you keep your old number?

[riclag]

9 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Can you keep your old number?

https://www.ultramobile.com/ufaqs/can-i-keep-my-phone-number-2/#:~:text=Yes%2C you can transfer your,address from your current carrier.
 

I used a new number (activated in the states)but the link above indicates you can.

not sure if you can perform the change outside the USA

[Yellowtail]

7 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

I just received my registered UltraMobile PayGo sim.  Now I'm looking for a low cost phone to accept the nano sim full time rather than switch it out with my Thai sim.

 

Will the phone need to support WiFi calling if I'm only going to receive SMS from US banks, etc.?

 

Looking for a recommended phone for this job.

 

Replace your primary phone with a new one and use the old one for your US phone. 

[gamb00ler]

6 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Replace your primary phone with a new one and use the old one for your US phone. 

Of course I have considered your suggestion but I don't need all the whiz bang features that the social media addicted youngsters love on either my main phone or the 2FA phone.  I just need to receive SMS's reliably and am happier to pay for only the features that are useful to me.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, gamb00ler said:

Of course I have considered your suggestion but I don't need all the whiz bang features that the social media addicted youngsters love on either my main phone or the 2FA phone.  I just need to receive SMS's reliably and am happier to pay for only the features that are useful to me.

I have found wifi calling very useful over the years with Chase, Fidelity, SSA & IRS.

[bamnutsak]

On 6/17/2023 at 11:22 AM, riclag said:

I would love to have Ultrapaygo take my monthly  bill from my wallet but I dont know if thats possible.

Yes, that works. That's how I fund both of my UltraMobile accounts. Just use a credit card to fund your wallet. The limit per transaction/adding value is $20 (I think $21.10 for me with sales tax).

 

I too leave Autorenew "OFF". That results in an SMS (from 6700) saying that autorenew didn't work so they took that month's payment from my wallet.

 

16 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

Can you keep your old number?

Yes. I ported by T-Mo number to UM, at activation. It was easy because UM was basically managing my T-Mo account, and now T-Mo is buying UM. (UM is/was a T-Mo MVNO.) But you can port in any provider's number.

 

17 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

Looking for a recommended phone for this job.

 

I've had issues getting WiFi calling to work. The only handset I could get working reliably with UM/WiFi calling is a Samsung A51, purchased here.

 

 

 

[bamnutsak]

1 hour ago, bamnutsak said:

I've had issues getting WiFi calling to work. The only handset I could get working reliably with UM/WiFi calling is a Samsung A51, purchased here.

screenshot...

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

I have found wifi calling very useful over the years with Chase, Fidelity, SSA & IRS.

T-Mobile and its various MVNOs are great for providing working wifi calling and SMSing capability when abroad, such as in Thailand, provided that the user's phone actually supports wifi calling on that particular network.

 

Samsung phones, whether from the US or from Thailand, seem to be very good about that... Though the advantage of Thai market Samsung phones is that they're pretty much all dual SIM, whereas a dual SIM Sammie phone from the US market seems almost a non-entity.

 

These days, I have two dual SIM Sammie phones at home... the more recent 5G one loaded with my two Thai SIMs, and the older but still very functional LTE Sammie loaded with my two US T-Mobile network SIMs....

 

Whether for Thai or the U.S., always believe in having an available backup option just in case something goes wrong at some point with my primary provider/account.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

PS - just recently renewed by annual MagicJack subscription... now going on more than 10 years of ongoing service...

 

Annual MJ price with taxes and fees is now up to about $45 per year...  But still an excellent value and resource that's been my mainstay U.S. home phone for all my years in Thailand.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

PPS - on a related matter, this thread prompted me to check something and discover that the Obihai 200 series box I've been using for many years to enable a home/landline phone interface to my Google Voice number/account is due to be End of Lifed at the end of 2023.

 

This doesn't directly impact or cancel my GV account in any way. But it does seem to threaten the device/service that I've long been using to make the GV number available via a traditional landline-type home phone device.

 

https://www.obitalk.com/info/products/obi200

 

"The End of Engineering support date and the End of Service date for all OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 products will be December 18, 2023. OBiTALK calling service will continue to be supported for the OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 until December 18, 2023.

 

OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 devices may continue to work after the end of service date, but they will not be able to get added to the Google Voice service after December 18, 2023. OBi200, OBi202 and OBi212 devices registered prior to the End of Engineering Support date won’t be able to be provisioned via OBiTALK after the December 18, 2023 and can only be managed and provisioned locally (manually)."

 

[bamnutsak]

I too have an oBi 200, a gift from one of the founders. And it has my two GV lines terminated, it can support up to four lines.

 

But I haven't used in a few years. I just use GV on my mobiles. I currently hit 100% on GV usage for OTP SMS; works everywhere for me and I use it two or three times daily. I also use GV a couple of time each week for longer calls (60+ minutes) to friends and family who are on their mobiles.

 

 

[gamb00ler]

10 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

I have found wifi calling very useful over the years with Chase, Fidelity, SSA & IRS.

I've used Google Voice for 100's of calls to USA/Canada from Thailand.  It's pretty decent but there is a short lag so that conversations are sometimes not so smooth.

 

Is the WiFi calling via UltraMobile better than that with GV?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, bamnutsak said:

I too have an oBi 200, a gift from one of the founders. And it has my two GV lines terminated, it can support up to four lines.

 

But I haven't used in a few years. I just use GV on my mobiles. I currently hit 100% on GV usage for OTP SMS; works everywhere for me and I use it two or three times daily. I also use GV a couple of time each week for longer calls (60+ minutes) to friends and family who are on their mobiles.

 

The only issue with GV for folks who have already set it up the first time using a linked U.S. mobile number is that some US financial institutions don't support sending their OTP / SMS codes to GV numbers...only to traditional mobile numbers. But other than that, it's a charm!

 

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

I've used Google Voice for 100's of calls to USA/Canada from Thailand.  It's pretty decent but there is a short lag so that conversations are sometimes not so smooth.

 

Is the WiFi calling via UltraMobile better than that with GV?

I'm not familiar with UM or GV

[bamnutsak]

17 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

I've used Google Voice for 100's of calls to USA/Canada from Thailand.  It's pretty decent but there is a short lag so that conversations are sometimes not so smooth.

 

Is the WiFi calling via UltraMobile better than that with GV?

For me, same-same GV, UM, SKYPE, even LINE. Maybe once in a hundred calls I get some unmanageable delay. Just hang up and call again.

 

14 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

I'm not familiar with UM or GV

UM=UltraMobile

GV=Google Voice

[gamb00ler]

I am wondering if I upgrade to an iPhone that has eSim capability can I switch my True account to use an eSim, and then use my UltraMobile PayGo nano sim in the sim slot on the iPhone?

 

I understand computers well, but not mobile phones.

[Yellowtail]

7 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

I am wondering if I upgrade to an iPhone that has eSim capability can I switch my True account to use an eSim, and then use my UltraMobile PayGo nano sim in the sim slot on the iPhone?

 

I understand computers well, but not mobile phones.

I think (but do not know) that you can only use one sim at a time. 

 

I looked into it when I got the mint phone a few years ago.