KEEPING US CELL PHONE NUMBER

There are many answers to your questions but I will try to give you some food for thought.

If you have a cell phone with a Claro Sim card you can still access your American bank accounts and use 2 factor verification.  If the issue is you don't want them seeing an out of country phone number then you will need an American cellular account.  If that's the case, I would suggest a second cellphone as well.  You can purchase an inexpensive second phone and use it with your American cell account only when needed.  This will keep everything separate.  Most people use "whatsapp" in this country for most of their communication experiences.  No cost calls to North America and most of the world.  Text and voice Messaging, video calls, picture, document, video sharing etc.  It's an excellent app if you don't already have it.  It's best to have it installed on the phone you usually use and let your friends know the phone number of that phone.

If you want to have your American friends and business contacts call you on a US phone number, then you might want to look into having a magicjack which will allow you to have free unlimited North American calling while utilizing an American phone number.   The cost of this is approx. $10 USD per month.  I use this device connected directly to my router with a set of wireless phones throughout my house.  You can also have your current phone number ported to your magicjack in most circumstances.

Hope this helped a bit.  Good luck and welcome to the DR!

@alvarez7361check.out Simple Mobile , free international roaming in the DR. Also you can buy Skype number.

I use mint mobile for USA # and Claro for local D.R. # , e-simm for both and just set configuration for My USA #'s calling to use USA esimm # and everything else goes to Dominican e-simm . As far as calling USA , I use my USA # via wifi calling to not have any roaming or international charges. This is how I manage any verifications goverment or banking.

@alvarez7361 Good afternoon.

Initially, I moved to Santo Domingo from the DC area with two phones, one for T-mobile and the other for Claro RD. I had no issues with the services, but it gets annoying carrying two phones. I spent $120 monthly for T-mobile and roughly $20 monthly for Claro RD.

Last year, I began splitting my time between Santo Domingo and Mexico City.  That's when I decided to change from T-mobile to Google Fi on one phone. The other phone I use Mexico AT&T eSim and Claro RD chip. I recieve text messages from both lines on this phone and switch WhatsApp number depending on which country I am in. Now, I pay $55 for Google Fi, $21 for Claro RD, and $21 for Mexico AT&T (which also works in the US). That's less then $100 for 3 cell phone plans.

I must admit that Google Fi does not work as efficient as T-mobile but it is doable and much cheaper. You may have issues using Claro RD outside of DR but you can receive phone calls and texts when connected to WiFi. Mexico AT&T works well in Mexico, US, and Canada.

Also, there is Google voice which many use in place of a US number. I use it since my US number is actually a Puerto Rico number and some systems recognize ithat number as a foreign phone number. Google voice would allow authentication or verification for some systems, but I think it is best to maintain a US phone plan.

I hope this info helps.

@alvarez7361

I have my US phone number with WhatsApp. I find smaller business and ppl use whatsApp and my experience with Claro and CEMP is that they require a DR number so i have a second prepaid claro phone .

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

Sorry I use Simple Mobile , 26 buck usa a month, no international roaming charges, however only 3G internet. However, use my Claro 5g and phone mostly , even in the states since my plan with Claro includes international roaming and 1000 call minutos.

@alvarez7361

Hi! We've been living in DR for almost 4 years now, and I've experimented with a number of options, including OpenPhone. OpenPhone worked well for phone calls and was okay for texting - I didn't like having to use the OpenPhone app. We started having more and more issues with vendors, particularly banks, needing a true US cellular number for 2FA. They recognized OpenPhone as VOIP and would not/could not send authentication codes.

Last August, I ported our US phone numbers from OpenPhone to Mint Mobile. We have 5 GB plans for $15/month ($180/year) that have worked really well! My Mint is on an eSim in my iPhone and my husband has a second physical sim in his Samsung. We keep the data turned off on these sims and use our Claro sims for data when we are in the DR. When we return to the US, we switch the data from Claro to Mint and immediately have 5GB in data to use while visiting. With our old setup, I had to purchase a temporary sim for data when I was in the US or purchase a roaming plan for my Claro.

I've done a ton of research over the last 5 years to try to find the best solution, and this is by far the best value and most seamless option! 

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

Hey, just FYI for you and other readers:

We tried to do a Skype number this last February.  Didn't work out at all -- folks who tried to call us got messages that they had to agree to pretty expensive charges to complete the call. 

Did I do something wrong in setting it up???  We terminated the service after two months of non-working (due to that problem).

We believe we followed Skype's directions...but did we miss some step or activation??

Jim

@ExpatRusher did you set it up with USA number or Canadá?

I have lived here for 2 years. I have a T-Mobil US phone number that I use for almost everything. I do have a Claro phone number in the same phone but I barely use it. I have 2 whats'app accounts and I have Claro fiber optics at the house for internet so I use that most of the time. T-Mobil said it would only be good for 6 months but every 6 months I get a message that says welcome to the DR. The T-mobil cell phone number internet is really slow without wi-fi but it works

Verizon has a $100 usd/month international plan that gives you 20gb / mo and calls as well   

You have to call them to start it and then to stop it as well.  we also have postpaid RD cell numbers through Claro at  cost of 1700rds/mo  To get that youll need residency   without, you can still get prepaid   

Between those two and wifi we rarely have issues. 

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

In reference to your question -- we set it uo as a US number that in theory would fillow us anywhere in the world via skype. 

I do the same as @ddmcghee pretty much.

US cell number using physical SIM with Verizon pre-paid for $25/mo.

DR number using e-SIM with Claro for 775 pesos/mo. (current conversion is about $13/mo)

I have a Samsung Galaxy S22.  Using the SIM manager on the phone, I keep the Verizon SIM turned off unless I need to receive a text message for verification purposes.  Then I'll turn it on, receive the text, then turn it back off once I'm done with business.  I have found that some apps will try to use the Verizon SIM and get hung up in the process because it can't complete what it needs to do.  So, I just keep it turned off in order to force the apps to use the Claro SIM.  I use the Claro SIM for all local calls, WhatsApp, data, whatever, in the DR.

If I need to make a call with the Verizon number, I turn off the Claro SIM, and turn on the Verizon SIM, and do a wi-fi call.  Wi-fi calling doesn't seem to like having both SIMs active.  The only thing I haven't done or tried is to receive an unexpected call on the Verizon number via wi-fi.  If someone tried to call me without telling me first and I don't have that SIM turned on, the call won't come through.  But if I leave the SIM turned on, it seems to cause trouble with other apps trying to use the Claro SIM, so...

Samsung keeps updating their system periodically so maybe some of these quirky issues are fixed.  I have to try to find out.

When in the US, I turn off Claro and turn on Verizon.

Total monthly cost - about $39 USD.

EDIT:  Also, I got most of my family members in the US started on WhatsApp, and we've used that many times for calls and texts instead of trying to figure out normal/wi-fi calls/text.  Mostly texts but call quality is very good.  Plus, it claims 'end-to-end encryption'.