One concern of many USA expats here has been the use by banks and CC card companies of SMS texts for OTP codes when trying to log on to online banking apps and cc's. Since, typically, US cell phone providers would not allow permanent roaming in the Philippines, getting the OTP 2FA codes became a problem, having no access to the USA cell network to receive SMS texts. Some people mention T-Mobile. I think T-Mobile allows roaming here for 6 months before suspending text, voice and data.
I have used the google voice hack and that worked well and still does for my institutions but others have said GV doesn't work for them. For some reason, my OTP texts make it to google voice even though it is VOIP which is a format said to be blocked by most banks. But BV must be doing something to make hteir number look more like a cell network number. Still, I consider it unreliable. It is free and I don't expect it to work forever. Also, it might not work for some banks and CC's.
MagicJack numbers do not work at all for 2FA. Institutions easily discern MJ as not being in a cell network. MJ is totally VOIP. None of my 2FA texts make it to magicJack but it may work using the voice option instead of text, if available.
I suspect banks do not like VOIP numbers because the internet can be easily hacked.
So my banks always insisted on sending the codes to SMS over the cell network. To solve the reliability problem, I installed Google Fi during my last trip to the USA. This is a paid service that must be installed in the USA with defined terms and conditions and guarantees that call, texts and data will work in a certain list of countries as stated, and the Philippines is one of them.
Google Fi does give reliable voice and text service to/from the USA while in the Philippines. It does not suspend text/voice after 6 months like T-mobile although it slows data after 90 days (which is fine with me because I only need text, which is free). It works excellent for text 2FA and also is very nice for making reliable calls to the USA over the cell network at a cost of 20 cents per minute. For calls to banks and other businesses in the USA ii is much better than using MagicJack which is very hit and miss for call quality. Google Fi works.
Google Fi basically solves the USA 2FA OTP code text problem for authorized access to your accounts.
In recent months there have been many reports of "sim card swapping" scams. In those cases, a hacker has your number transferred to the hacker's sim and by receiving your sim SMS texts, he uses the OTP codes to log in so he can wire transfer your money wherever he wants.
This totally wipes out the security of the SMS 2FA text method these banks have been using!
It is possible that banks have become more sensitive to this scam. As I have recently seen more reports of SIM swapping scams, coincidentally I have been getting no requests to send them the texted 2FA codes anymore. Have they stopped doing this (hopefully?).
If they are discontinuing this method that will be good news for many reasons. Now it seems, they have taken my fingerprint and made it a passkey for logon in addition to my regular passwords.
If SMS text 2FA goes away, then I can cancel my (reliable but a bit expensive) international google fi cell service.
I have suspected that banks and cc card companies will eventually move away from text and towards phone authenticator apps for 2FA like Google Authenticator of Microsoft Authenticator. That would be highly secure. However, for many elderly expats, they may need to be sort of a geek to get authenticators working. I am not speaking about we internet experts on this thread lol. Once you do get it established, it is an excellent method for 2FA...until you decide to get a new phone but that us a different subject.
I am wondering if anybody else has similar (or quite possibly, dissimilar) experiences.
