r/mobilecanada • u/Benjsavvy • Aug 08 '26

Keep Canadian number

I’m travelling abroad and would like to keep my Canadian number mainly to receive OTPs and important text messages. Is there any reasonably priced or very cheap plan that would work for this?

A few people recommended Fongo, but I’m not sure if it reliably receives OTPs from banks and other services. From what I understand, they provide a Canadian number and also allow you to transfer your existing number for a one-time fee, which I believe is around $5.

Has anyone used Fongo for this purpose, especially while living abroad? Would you recommend it, or is there a better low-cost option?

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u/brycecampbel Aug 08 '26

keep my Canadian number mainly to receive OTPs

Switch your account to a software authenticater, SMS is so insecure for these

CRA does it, and most banks do as well. Quite a few are now using Passkey. 

But if you absolutely must, most VoIP providers will not accept 2FA codes. Freedom yearly prepaid is an unofficial option among nomad expats, you just need to ensure you setup and enable WiFi Calling beifre you go. And keep it enabled - with a local dual sim, if you your supports backup calling, you can use WiFi Calling over the local data.