Travel Tip - What to do about your phone number

I’ve been DN’ing for about 9 months now and have been wanting to share some tips about what I’ve learned, but I’m a terrible writer, so here we go!

If you have dual sim / e-sim

You’re golden. Prices for e-sims tend to be higher than getting a physical one, often by a good amount, but most people I’ve talked to are fine paying for the convenience.

If not

• be sure your phone is unlocked so you can get local sims and data plans
• Ideally before you leave, get a google voice phone number
• Get WhatsApp
• bring a sim card removal thing or a needle (you should bring needle and thread for broken buttons anyway - yes, I’ve needed it more than I anticipated)
• When you get the sim card, ask about the need to register and have the attendant point out the link if you don’t speak the language.

Before you leave, change/add this number to your financial institutions and test them with 2FA to be sure that they actually send it to the new number. Google Voice is great for getting texts. I’ve had issues where I thought I updated the phone number, but it went to the old one. So double check. It’s also more difficult to do it after you leave. Doable, but more difficult.

WhatsApp is ubiquitous outside the US. I’ve almost lost reservations because I didn’t see their confirmation in WhatsApp. People use it for business, airlines use it. Just get it.

As for where to get local sims, travel blogs are good. In Latin America, Claro seems to be the universal best.

As for that registration thing, many companies try to do stuff about spam or something, so after about a month, if you’re not registered they’ll block your number. You have to do this on their website and there’s often another website where you can check if you’ve been blocked. This happened to me twice in Colombia with Movil Exito. They were overall fine, but their infrastructure doesn’t seem to be the best. I got it resolved over WhatsApp since most providers give you WhatsApp data for free. The registration is usually on their website and they should text you a link.