Hello!
I’m curious to know what other people to do maintain their US phone numbers while in Taiwan. My wife and I have some plan that is ~$150 / month on T-Mobile, which I’m hoping isn’t necessary given that we also have Taiwan SIMs.
It looks like T-Mobile has some downscaled voice-only plan (for cents / minute) and there’s Google Fi as well.
Are all plans equivalent that this point or are there clear winners / losers between US Telcos when it comes to Taiwan?
how much are you willing to pay per month to keep the number?
You can get a Skype number and unlimited calling / SMS to the states for under $10/month, though be warned that many banks can’t send authentication SMS messages to it (what I’m running into right now)
I just use Skype call and you can have a US number. Its $50 a year
Skype provides a cell #, that someone in the U.S. can call and then your Skype rings for you?
I thought the cheapest cell plan was Mint Mobile. Like U$15/month if you sign up for a year. 3Gb of data/month, unlimited calls, blah blah blah.
I transferred mine from ATT to Google Fi a few years ago…it’s 25 dollars a month for one number, probably a discount if more than one. It has the benefit of working just about everywhere else in the world so there’s no messing around with buying local plans when traveling. If your phone supports electronic sim, it’s even more convenient. Another thing I like about it is that the SMS can come through other parts of the Google ecosystem for things like account verification/2 factor authentication and such without having to switch over to it on the phone.
I guess if you use iPhone all of this is moot unless you are willing to switch or maintain the US number within Android/Google.
Also for anyone going this route, don’t use it as your exclusive/main service when living in your permanent home abroad. There are reports that they are cancelling accounts of people doing this. I only use mine for calling/data when I’m traveling outside of Taiwan and of course within the US.
Yes, you can even choose an area code. I get calls from the US daily now from telemarketers 
On the website, it says $20 a month but you need to pay for the data separately like $10 per GB.
Hushed
US number & SMS
around $50/year
I have a Skype phone number. I thought it was free except when I add money to make calls but I could be wrong.
Yes that’s right, I couldn’t remember exactly. My bill is around 25 per month when I don’t do a lot of travel. I believe they refund a pro-rated amount if you don’t use what’s included in the 10 bucks of data.
If you do have free US phone number via skype let me know. I would certainly like a free option.
I get billed ~40 us dollars annually for a US phone number.
But for SMS messages to and from financial institutions it is very hit and miss. Some I have no issues but some cannot receive SMS messages for account verification stuff.
I think you can keep your existing number for no money at all by using Google Voice. However, the wifey took care of this, so I’m not sure if there are hidden costs or not.
Porting a number to Google Voice costs $20, but you have it for life with no monthly costs. With WIFI, the Google Voice app on your mobile can make/accept calls or SMS text msgs.
You can port your mobile phone number to Google Voice for $20, text and phone can work through your PC or smartphone with the proper settings.
If you want to keep your number at Tmobile you can go online and see the menu of available plans you can switch to. I used to keep my number using a $3/month minimal plan, and then switching to a prepaid month plan for short visits. If you have a great plan with Tmobile you may not be able to switch back, so keep that in mind.
If you’re literally not using the number but just want to retain it, you can “park” it with an outfit like Number Barn. It’s a couple of bucks a year US.
Just came upon this.
Not used it, but the website says:
TextNow is the only app that offers free nationwide cellular service supported by ads. Just buy a SIM Activation Kit to get started.