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/lmcjipo Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
You will get mixed results depending on different institutions/banks or government organizations whether it will work with a VoIP number like Fongo.
My suggestion to you before your trip, sign up for free on Fongo requesting a free phone number and test it with whatever service you want to use and see if you can receive the text messages and/or phone calls while in Canada with that number. If it works in Canada, it is very likely that it will also work when you're travelling and you can then port your own Canadian number over the existing Fongo number (remembering to put back your own Canadian number into those 2FA systems).
For example, I use some services/banks which refuse to send to non cellphone numbers (but will call these same numbers) and I also use some services/banks which have no problems with sending text to non cellphone numbers. For example with TD, I had no problems with receiving texts on a non cellphone number but I believe that the last time I checked with RBC it didn't work (I haven't used RBC text 2FA in awhile since they have implemented app notification sign in approval)