When going abroad and wanting to purchase something online or make a payment the OTP code goes to your phone. However, it can be problematic when you have changed sims with a local provider.
I have found a solution. Banks actually allow you to call them and they manually change it to send the OTPs to your email! Perfect!
I have so far changed both my Taishin and HSBC cards over to send OTPs to my email and I will later call to change the rest of them.
Or you can just use a dual SIM phone.
Exactly. Mine I use all esims and it works. But this is a good backup for when I have no signal.
Also… some people are leaving or have left Taiwan and don’t want to pay to maintain a phone number lol
You don’t have to. I’m sure there are several prepaid phone options that work.
My Philippine SIM is still working. Gotta give it some load as they call it to use it when I get back, but it’s been working to access Shopee there.
With E.SUN, I always receive the OTP three times: 1) text message, 2) email and 3) push notification.
But only the OTPs for credit card purchases - some OTPs (e.g. when installing the banking app), are text message only…
From my experience, at least some Taiwanese SIMs simply have no service abroad…
Exactly, and this can be changed with a phone call. 
I heard CHT and others don’t allow the receiving of text messages abroad (For prepaid customers)
They do. I have had prepaid SIMs work abroad. For many years I only used prepaid.
For this purpose specifically.
Forgot the “some”. When I was using Circles.Life (RIP…), the phone never had service abroad.
The issue about this is that you might not find out until you’re abroad and want to receive an OTP…
With Cathay at the 3DS otp screen I can choose sms or email natively. CTBC would allow also for push notifications, but that option has never been enabled for me (maybe one of the usual 外國人沒辦法 BS)
Yep as the app still isn’t functioning the way it should lol. However, I am going to try asking them to send all OTP codes to my email
That’s why I go to the store beforehand and confirm and activate if necessary.
I learned the hard way when I moved to TW and my Canadian plan did not activate here, but seemed fine in HK.
Now I ask.
I keep a $49nt/mo postpaid plan open for this purpose. If a bank goes to renew your card they will on occasion call your cell number to see if you are still attached to that number. If they find out you have moved overseas or are away from Taiwan any length of time because your number is gone, some banks are known to cancel your card.
Some banks go a step further and call the employer number you have on file. If they find out you’re not there anymore …
Which company is that with?
One backup I have is the card readers… they are a good way to verify things for bank transfers etc… but don’t do much for credit card OTP though.
What plan is this? Mine is 199nt
Fareast but it was a retention plan when I went to close the account years ago.
Give them a call if you are an existing customer and see if they have the $49 200MB plan available. Not sure if they will give it to a new client though.
This may be helpful for some. When I asked Fubon how I would be able to receive OTP when abroad they said I could enroll to emails for OTP. I now get SMS (when in Taiwan) and emails.
