[Mattasher]

Agreed that emails aren't a good permanent identifier. Though using phone numbers as any part of identification is even worse. I've had the same email for almost two decades (through my own domain name), but I've gone through nearly a dozen phone numbers in the same time period, and regularly find that a website has opted me in to 2fa with an old number, or I've forgotten they had an old phone number to begin with.

I am currently paying a ~$150 per month "tax" to AT&T to keep my US number while living abroad just so I can get login codes for websites that still have that number, and out of fear that if I dump it I'll lose access to some occasionally vital service that I've forgotten to update, or I can't because you need to have a US number.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

> I am currently paying a ~$150 per month "tax" to AT&T to keep my US number while living abroad just so I can get login codes for websites that still have that number

Port it to a VoIP company like DIDww, spend $2.50/month, and received SMS can end up in your inbox if you wish.

If you ever want the number on a mobile account again, port it back out to your choice of carrier.

[Mattasher]

Will that work seamlessly overseas and with my iPhone? I've had issues in the past getting verification calls and SMSes with "virtual" carriers.

[BrainBacon]

You don't need to pay that much to keep a US number for use abroad. Convert any 2fa you can to use an app like Google Authenticator, then convert your number to Google voice. You can get text messages for free using your old number that way. If you don't want Google involved at all, there are many other time-based authentication apps and you can use www.tossabledigits.com for texts.

[mililani]

The problem with your idea is there are lots of services that blacklist VoIP #'s like Google Voice from being used for 2FA. They also don't have modern 2FA options like TOTP.

[astura]

>I am currently paying a ~$150 per month "tax" to AT&T to keep my US number while living abroad

I don't know why you're paying so much - you can just port the number to a VIOP provider and pay a few bucks a month.

Even for a normal phone service that's exorbitant - I pay less than $100/month for two lines.

[pomian]

Agree with poweroffuet, to try to convert to VoIP. I was lucky on one house move, where my personal office phone number was not acceptable to new area, but I was able to transfer to a VoIP account. At the time internet was slow so after awhile, I quit using the Ethernet phone adapter, and just used that number for receiving calls. Voice and fax calls are all sent to me by emails. It's been over 20 years now. Works great. (Since I don't have a device to connect, my yearly fee is fairly low.) I assume that at some point I could always hook up telephone, and take advantage of the modern internet. Although, I really like this system, and it isn't connected to any particular location.

[BobaFloutist]

If I choose to change phone carrier, I can take my phone number with me. The same cannot be said for my email address.

[Spivak]

Which is why you buy a domain for $10/yr and use the "custom domains" feature of your email host.

Like it sucks that getting a permanent identifier is an annoying technical process but DNS is the closest thing to a universal global identifier you can own in a meaningful sense.

[mixmastamyk]

A month and not a year?

Switch to a FLOSS OTP solution and/or Fido2 key. If you’re service providers don’t accept them, replace them with one who does.

[Spivak]

The number of places that only offer SMS/email 2FA is such that this is infeasible.

[mixmastamyk]

I don’t use my phone for any 2FA, with exception of a t-mobile account, which seems understandable.