[ThePowerOfFuet]

Why cancel your old phone number in that country when you still have a bank account there?

I suggest a bank which doesn't suck, such as bunq.

[snappieT]

It can be costly.

I moved from Ireland to the US and kept my Irish number active - the cost was a €5 topup every 6 months.

Going in reverse is much harder - a lot of the budget phone providers in the US don't have any roaming offering. Best I can tell, you really need to have an account with a real provider, and that realistically looks like $20/mo (Google Fi), 20x more expensive than the reverse.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

Then it sounds like changing bank is a better answer for many.

[snappieT]

This oversimplifies the situation - if every US bank uses SMS and you want to retain a US bank, what do you do?

[ThePowerOfFuet]

That's such a huge "if" that an alternative immediately came to mind:

TransferWise doesn't require a US phone number, but you can have a US account number with them.

[Ensorceled]

Maybe they didn't know they needed a phone number to maintain access to the account?

Let's not blame the victim here.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

The bank is at least equally at fault, if not more so.

[spicybright]

I would never think my phone # was the only proof of identity.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

If that's what your bank had been using during the login flow...

[2rsf]

if you immigrate, like I did, but still have some pension funds or saving accounts in your home country. Why would I want a local phone line?

[ThePowerOfFuet]

So your bank can send you the SMS you need to sign in (which in itself indicates their security is poor).

[2rsf]

most banks don't support international numbers if that what you meant

[ThePowerOfFuet]

No, that's not what I meant.

[2rsf]

what did you mean then?

[ThePowerOfFuet]

Banks which rely on SMS 2FA should not be trusted with your money.