Guide · Updated October 7, 2026
How to Get a US Phone Number While Living Abroad (and Whether You Can Keep Your Old One)
By the ChromePing team
You can get a US phone number while living abroad in minutes: an internet number, issued from most countries, that rings in an app or a browser tab. Keeping the number you already have only works if you set it up before leaving the US. No internet number, ours included, is the right tool for bank text codes.
Two questions hide behind this one. This post sorts every route by what the number is actually for — bank and ID codes, voice calls from people, the caller ID you show when you call home — and by where you are standing right now: still in the US, or already abroad. ChromePing (ours) is one route: a US or Canada number that rings in your browser, with its limits in the same paragraphs as its strengths.
What is the number for? Codes, calls or caller ID
Vendor lists come later. The useful question comes first: what will the number do? A US phone number for expats does one of three jobs, and the job decides the route before price does.
- Bank and ID verification codes by text. Only a line from a US carrier, or one of its resellers, does this dependably. Banks screen out internet numbers on purpose, and the next section has their published rules.
- Voice calls from people and institutions. Family, a doctor’s office, a landlord, a bank calling back about a charge. A kept carrier line, Google Voice, a forwarding number or a browser number all do this.
- The number you show when you call the US. A carrier line shows itself. A rented browser number can be set as your caller ID, so people see one number in both directions.
Most readers have two of these jobs, and the answer is usually two inexpensive things, not one expensive one: a $5-a-month US line kept alive for codes, and a number for calls that rings wherever you are. Ours costs $2.99 a month from credit and does the second job only.
Why banks reject internet numbers for text codes (and why ours never receives texts at all)
The forums call it random: a code arrives one week and not the next. It isn’t random. Services that send codes look up the line type first. Lookup databases file every number as mobile, landline, fixed VoIP (an internet line tied to a device) or non-fixed VoIP (obtained online with no device behind it; Google Voice is the standard example). The lookup providers’ own guidance tells services to screen out non-fixed VoIP before sending a text code, because those numbers correlate with bots.
The institutions that publish the rule say so plainly (their own help pages, October 2026). ID.me, which the IRS uses for sign-in, requires a number on a physical SIM on a carrier network and rejects VoIP numbers as “not tied to a physical device”; a prepaid phone has to be on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon. Wells Fargo does not text landline or VoIP phones. Capital One says VoIP- and Wi-Fi-based services cannot receive its one-time PIN. Bank of America will not enrol a VoIP, landline or Google Voice number in Zelle. Google’s own help page warns that some services, banks and subscription services among them, will not text Google Voice numbers. Many services publish no rule at all.
One exception helps: some services read the code out in a phone call. PayPal lists a have-us-call-you option among its security checks, and Wells Fargo sends its Advanced Access code by phone call as well as text. A voice-only number receives those.
Which is where ours stands. ChromePing numbers have no SMS at all: voice calls only. A bank that phones you with a code gets through; a text never arrives. That is a design limit, and it is why this post keeps saying two routes: a carrier line for codes, something else for calls.
Keep your US phone number while living abroad: do this before you fly
One precondition for this whole section: you are physically in the US with the number still active. Carrier lines activate on US towers, and ports start from inside the US. Three routes; a week to spare is plenty.
Route 1: move the number to a low-cost US line and use Wi-Fi calling
This is the route most expats land on, with one correction. Tello, on its own pages: plans from $5 a month (300 minutes, unlimited texts, no data), $8 for unlimited talk and text, and once the line is active a $3-a-month Park Number plan that keeps the number with no calls, texts or data. Wi-Fi Calling has no extra fee abroad: calls and texts draw from your plan as if you were in the US, and bank passcodes arrive over Wi-Fi (picture messages do not). A US mobile number ports in within about two hours to two business days. The correction: activation and port-in must be completed while physically in the US, because the phone has to connect to a US tower the first time. Every order also needs a valid US address, which stays on file to keep Wi-Fi Calling active. If the plan lapses there is a 12-day grace period, then the number expires for good.
US Mobile (its $8 Light Plan gives unlimited talk and text with 2 GB) requires the line to be activated and used inside the US first, with Wi-Fi calling switched on while you are there. Mint’s roaming terms say the account holder must reside in the US and the device must first be activated on the home network before international use, and primary voice and text use must occur in the US. On all three: buy, activate on a US tower, turn on Wi-Fi calling, then fly.
Route 2: port it into Google Voice
Porting a mobile number into personal Google Voice costs a one-time $20, refunded if the port is cancelled. Google’s conditions: an active US mobile number, the request made and updated while in the US, personal accounts only, up to 48 hours for calls and three business days for texts, and your old carrier cancels service when the port completes. What the free price leaves out: Google may reclaim a number after about three months without calls or texts. A warning names the reclaim date, any call, text or voicemail check keeps it, and you have 45 days to recover it. The bank-text caveat above is Google’s own, and personal Voice is available only in the US. Abroad, Google says calling might not be available where you are and calls you make are charged international rates; on a computer the voice.google.com tab must be open, because a sleeping tab will not ring.
Route 3: park it, or forward it
Parking keeps the number alive while it rings nowhere. NumberBarn charges $2.99 a month plus a one-time $5 port-in; callers hear a parked message, call logs are kept, texting is $1 a month and voicemail $2, and you can port out any time with no fee. Park My Phone’s Deep Freeze is about $2–3 a month paid annually with a six-month minimum. Forwarding sends calls to a phone abroad: Tossable Digits forwards to any phone worldwide for $3.49 per number plus $0.12 a minute, or $7 a month for one number with 60 minutes, with forwarding outside the US and Canada billed at international rates. Either way the number is now held by an internet provider rather than a carrier, so expect bank-code screening to treat it as one, whatever texting add-on it carries.
Why keeping your big-carrier plan isn’t a plan
The simplest-sounding option, keep paying your carrier and roam, is the one the carriers’ own terms rule out for residents, all from the carriers’ own pages:
- T-Mobile: more than half your voice or data off-network for any two billing cycles in 12 months violates the terms, the fine print says you must reside in the US, and offending lines get roaming data blocked for 12 months.
- Verizon: more than half your talk, text or data in any 60-day period outside the US, and those services may be removed or limited; TravelPass is $12 a day ($6 in Canada and Mexico).
- AT&T: the agreement allows suspension for living or predominantly using service outside its network, with no published threshold; International Day Pass is $12 a day, capped at ten fees a cycle.
- Google Fi: use primarily in the US; a majority of usage abroad over a consecutive 90-day period suspends international data, while calls and texts keep working; cellular calls abroad are 20¢ a minute on eligible plans.
Wi-Fi calls to US numbers cost nothing extra on all four (on a T-Mobile plan without unlimited minutes they count against your allowance; on Fi only on its travel-eligible plans), so a kept line on Wi-Fi is the workable version of keeping your carrier.
Already abroad? What you can and can’t do with the old number
If you are reading this from Lisbon or Buenos Aires with the number still live on a US carrier, your options narrowed when you boarded. Tello will not activate an eSIM outside the US, US Mobile and Mint both require a first activation on their US network before roaming or Wi-Fi calling will work abroad, and you cannot start a Google Voice port from outside the US. The one workaround people use is a trusted person in the US activating a line on a US tower and then mailing you the SIM; it works technically, but the carriers’ terms say the account holder must reside in the US, and until the SIM reaches you that person sees every code sent to it. We can’t recommend it; we can only tell you it exists. Otherwise you keep the current plan on Wi-Fi calling, knowing the usage rules above catch up with residents.
If the number is already gone, because the carrier closed the line or because it was a Skype Number (those ended in May 2026 with no port-out), accept it and do the real work once: list every account that used the old number and move each to whatever comes next. The bank and ID accounts will need a carrier number; family, the doctor and the landlord will be happy with a number that rings. Where you are sitting now, the UK, Canada, Australia or India, decides which new-number routes are open, and that has its own section below.
Getting a new US (or Canada) number from anywhere
Three kinds of provider sell a new US number to someone outside the US. Prices are from each provider’s own pages; the generic five-way comparison, including developer platforms and eSIM second lines, is in how to get a virtual phone number and is not repeated here.
Route A: app-based numbers
Hushed sells a US or Canada number with unlimited calls and texts for $6.99 a month or $66.99 a year, or prepaid at $7.99 for 30 days. The catch is where you are: Hushed lists 35 countries where the app is not available, including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and says voice calling is not guaranteed in Mexico, Brazil or Turkey. TextNow’s number is free, but TextNow is only available within North America, a new number expires within 24 hours unused, and after that there is no fixed rule, only a warning, unless you pay for Lock In Number. That, with Google Voice for US residents, is the plain answer to “can I get a free US number”: yes, inside North America, and not for bank codes.
Numero lists its US number at about €5 a month or €39.99 a year with two-way SMS and no documents, and by its own explainer it is a VoIP number. SlyNumber ($14.99 per three months or $49.99 a year) calls its numbers real mobile lines, meaning they are registered as mobile in carrier databases while calls and messages still reach its app over the internet. Sonetel starts from about $1.79 a month on long prepaid terms and requires an address and an ID number.
Route B: business phone systems
Business phone systems are sold per user: seats with call menus, shared inboxes and team features. Right if you run a business from abroad; an office phone system if you are one person who wants a number family can call. Seat prices are in the virtual-number post above.
Route C: a number that rings in your browser (ChromePing, ours)
This is the route we sell, so read it knowing that. A ChromePing US or Canada local number costs $2.99 a month from the same pay-as-you-go credit you use for calls. You pick the number by area code, it activates instantly with no US address, ID check or app, and calls to it ring in any open ChromePing tab, on a laptop or in a phone’s browser, in any country. Incoming calls do not spend per-minute credit; you can keep up to five numbers, switch ringing on or off per number, and release any of them month to month.
The limits, in the same breath. Voice calls only: no SMS, so not for bank codes or app sign-up texts. It rings only while a ChromePing tab is open somewhere; there is no forwarding to a handset and no push, so a call that arrives when nothing is open is logged as missed. It cannot port your old number in. If a renewal cannot be covered by credit, there is a 3-day grace window, then the number is suspended and released, and the same number may not come back. How a US or Canada number that rings in your browser works, in full, is on its own page.
A US phone number for expats and international students: getting one from the UK, Canada, Australia or India
The route depends on where you are sitting, not where the number is. From the UK, Canada or Australia the carrier routes are closed (activation needs a first connection on a US network, and Tello also needs a US address), Google Voice is US-only, and TextNow cannot register you outside North America, so the realistic choices are an app number or a browser number. From India the list is shorter still, because Hushed lists India among the countries where its app is not available. A browser number is issued from any country with no US address or ID, which is why it fits an international student who never had a US number, or an expat who lost one: people in the US can call you on it, and you can call them back showing it as your caller ID. Incoming calls spend no per-minute credit wherever you are; what calling back costs is below, starting with the US at 1.9¢/min and the UK at 5.9¢/min.
| Option | Texts and bank codes | Rings where | Monthly cost | How you lose it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kept US carrier line on a low plan (e.g. Tello) | Yes — a carrier line; bank passcodes arrive over Wi-Fi calling (MMS does not) | Your handset, over Wi-Fi calling, anywhere | From $5 (300 min, unlimited text); $3 parked; activate and port while in the US, with a US address | Plan lapses: 12-day grace, then the number expires and cannot be recovered |
| Ported into Google Voice | Texts from anywhere, but Google warns some services (banks among them) won't text Voice numbers; it can't send texts to short codes | Google Voice app, or voice.google.com while the tab is open | Free after a one-time $20 port; the port must be requested from inside the US | About 3 months without a call or text: warning, reclaim date, 45 days to recover |
| Parked (NumberBarn) | Texting is a $1/mo add-on; held by an internet provider once parked | Nowhere — callers hear a parked message; call logs kept | $2.99/mo plus a one-time $5 port-in; no port-out fee | Cancel or stop paying; no contract, port out any time in 3–10 business days |
| Forwarded (Tossable Digits) | Unlimited person-to-person SMS; an internet provider's number, so expect bank-code screening | Any phone worldwide, billed per minute; outside US/Canada at international rates | $3.49 per number + $0.12/min pay-as-you-go, or $7/mo with 60 minutes | Cancel; $5 fee if you port out within 30 days of porting in |
| App number (Hushed) | Yes on US/Canada numbers; acceptance by banks varies — check the provider | The app; not available in 35 countries, voice not guaranteed in Mexico or Brazil | $6.99/mo unlimited, or $7.99 prepaid per 30 days | Prepaid numbers expire on a fixed date; restore typically within 7 days, not guaranteed |
| ChromePing browser number (ours) | No — voice calls only; a bank that phones you with a code gets through, a text never arrives | Any open ChromePing tab, laptop or phone browser, in any country; no forwarding or push | $2.99/mo from credit (about $5.98 on the account to buy); incoming calls not metered; no port-in | A renewal the credit can't cover: 3-day grace, then suspended and released; the same number may not come back |
How to get a US phone number while living abroad, step by step
Whichever route you take, it is the same five decisions, and the second one is the one the vendor pages skip. The sections after this cover what the calls then cost.
- Decide whether you’re keeping a number or getting a new one. If you still hold a US mobile number and you’re still in the US, you can keep it: move it to a low-cost US line, port it into Google Voice, or park it. Once you’re abroad, or the number is already gone, the job is getting a new US number that rings where you are.
- Decide whether it has to receive texts and codes. If banks, brokerages or identity checks will text this number, you need a line from a US carrier; internet numbers are screened out for codes by design. If it only has to ring, every route on this page works.
- Pick where it should ring. A kept carrier line rings on the handset over Wi-Fi calling. A forwarding number rings on whatever phone you point it at, billed per minute. A browser number rings in an open tab on any laptop or phone browser.
- Sign up and choose the number. Carrier lines need a US address and a first activation on a US tower. Internet numbers are issued from most countries; US and Canada numbers usually activate in minutes with no address or ID.
- Test it from abroad and note how you lose it. Have someone in the US call the new number. Then read the provider’s inactivity and non-payment rules — idle months, a lapsed plan or a failed renewal is how most people lose a number.
What it costs to call home, and to call locally where you now live
Receiving is half the job. The other half is what a call to your mother in Ohio, your landlord in Guadalajara or the clinic in Madrid costs. Tello Wi-Fi calling draws from your plan minutes as if you were in the US; Google Voice charges international rates when you call from another country and keeps them inside the account, so we do not quote them; a carrier day pass is $12 a day on AT&T or Verizon, and Google Fi is 20¢ a minute over cellular abroad.
A browser dialer bills one flat rate per destination. Ours: the first minute in full, then per second, so a 30-second call costs one minute. The rates below are rendered from our pricing engine, not typed, so they match the live rate index on the day this page was built:
- US and Canada: 1.9¢/min
- Mexico: 5.0¢/min
- Colombia: 5.3¢/min
- Peru: 3.1¢/min
- United Kingdom: 5.9¢/min
- Germany: 11.3¢/min
- Argentina: 66.3¢/min
- Spain: 101.3¢/min
Read the bottom of that list before the top. Spain, Argentina and most of Central America are not low-rate destinations on our route; a kept carrier line with a calling add-on, or a local SIM, will usually beat us for local calls there. Mexico, Colombia, Peru and the UK are where the per-minute route earns its keep. Live translation, when you switch it on, adds 10.0¢/min on top.
You pay with credit packs of $10, $50 or $100, or with a monthly plan: Line at $4.99 includes 60 minutes a month to a list of lower-rate countries (US, Canada, the UK, Mexico and more), with no dedicated number; Plus at $8.99 includes 120 minutes on the same list, 15 translation minutes and a dedicated number; Pro at $16.99 includes 250 minutes, 20 translation minutes, $6 a month of credit that works for any country, and a dedicated number. If you want the number and the minutes in one price, Plus or Pro is the shape to look at. New accounts can claim 1 free minute by verifying a mobile number. The claim is a one-time SMS check of a real mobile number, from any country — an app or VoIP number will not pass, for exactly the reasons above — on the free-minute page.
One number in both directions: your caller ID
Caller ID gets two words on most vendor pages and deserves a paragraph, because it decides whether people back home call you back. A rented ChromePing number can be your outbound caller ID. On your Numbers page, each active number has a “Show this when I call” control; press “Use this” and your calls display that number instead of the shared ChromePing number. Your US contacts then see one number whether you call them or they call you. To show a phone you already own instead, verify it once with an SMS code under Settings → Caller ID; the details are on the verified caller ID page. It is display-only: the call still leaves from our line, so the per-minute rate does not change and choosing a caller ID spends no credit. It does not erase a spam label a number already carries, and we make no claims about how any carrier scores it.
Receiving calls while overseas: the honest mechanics
Can you receive calls while overseas? Yes, three ways, each with a condition. Carrier roaming rings your handset wherever the carrier has a partner, costs a day pass, and trips the 50-percent and 90-day rules above if you live there rather than visit. Wi-Fi calling on a line you kept rings the handset over any Wi-Fi at your plan’s rates, but has to be switched on before you leave on US Mobile and on Verizon’s iPhones. Day passes and travel eSIMs are the traveller’s answer, not the resident’s.
A browser number’s condition is the open tab, and Google Voice on a computer has the same rule, which is worth knowing before you choose between them on that point. Each ChromePing number has its own ring on-off switch, so a number kept for one landlord can stay quiet until you need it. The rest of how a number that rings in your browser works is on its own page.
Calling US phone menus from abroad: the touch-tone catch
Many of the US numbers an expat has to call, banks, agencies, insurers and airlines, answer with a menu that listens for touch-tones. A ChromePing call cannot send touch-tones today, so it cannot press 1; those calls belong on a kept carrier line or Wi-Fi calling, where your phone’s keypad behaves as it does on any call. Our route suits numbers where a person picks up: a parent, a clinic receptionist, a landlord. Which other internet routes handle keypads is in our landline-from-the-internet comparison.
Translating local calls in a language you are still learning
The calls that frighten new arrivals are the local ones: the landlord, the clinic, the utility company, in a language you are still learning. A ChromePing call you place can translate itself live, in both directions, on a real phone call: you speak your language, the person on the ordinary phone hears theirs, and live captions in both languages run in your browser. Translated speech typically arrives within a couple of seconds, captions faster. It covers a growing set of major languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch and Hungarian, and you switch it on per call in the dialer. It adds 10.0¢/min on top of the destination rate, and the captions are live only, with no transcript afterwards. It is for calls you place; how live call translation works is on its own page, and how it compares with a phone feature or an interpreter is in how do I translate a phone conversation.
Which route should you take?
- Still in the US, and your bank texts you? Move the number to a $5 US line before you fly, or port it to Google Voice for $20, and keep it alive. Nothing on the internet side replaces this.
- Already abroad, and the number is gone? Rent a number for calls, update the accounts, and expect the few accounts that insist on texts to need a carrier line you can only set up from inside the US.
- Mainly need people to be able to call you, and to call them back at per-minute rates? A browser number set as your caller ID, with a tab open when you expect calls.
- Call US phone menus a lot? Keep a carrier route for those; our calls cannot press 1.
- Run a business from abroad? A business phone system, priced per seat, with the menus and shared inboxes you will actually use.
If the browser number is your route, the order is: add $10, $50 or $100 of credit, then pick the number, then set it as your caller ID. Keep a little credit on hand for the renewals, keep a carrier line for the codes, and tell the people who matter the new number once.