Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
How to Handle Two-Factor Authentication When Travelling
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Business Platinum Card from American Express
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Thank you for this post – super helpful and has saved me a lot of money.
I’m with Lucky Mobile in Canada. Lucky’s SIM card doesn’t work overseas (no roaming).
What then?
I’ve been using Fongo for this since 2017. Only fee I pay is $9.99 every 6 months to be able to send CAD SMS. Making and receiving calls and receiving SMS to/from Canada is free.
SMS short codes are dodgy on all VOIP providers. I use Authy (same as Google Authenticator) for Paypal. Most others I use the option for them to call me on my Fongo VOIP number and speak the code which always works.
What if you put your sim card into an old (backup?) phone connected to a charger here at home, and make a call forward to a cheap number you’ll be using overseas?
This way, you could use a Google Fi or anything else really overseas, and still get your texts/phone calls forwarded at a favourable rate.
Yes, I get it, that means that you don’t have your line once you land back and until you get home – but all other options arw far from perfect too.
I recently had to update all of my accounts and discovered one of the institutions will not accept a VOIP number for 2FA. I can’t remember which one, but it definitely throws a wrench in my strategy.
Also, friendly reminder to try to uninstall/remove any old devices from your accounts, as it can be very frustrating trying to get codes sent to devices that you no longer have.
It’s a pain to get notification by text oversea with Roam at Home plan like those by Rogers. As soon as you received a text, you are instantly hit with the Roam at Home fee for the day and it resets based on Eastern Standard Time.
You forgot Brim. Not on the list and they use Two-Factor Authentication with Email confirmation. Please add them to the list.
Brim is probably the most tech-friendly, easiest to track expenses, pay online foreign purchases, Google pay, and just in general pay while overseas. I have been blocked on my HSBC Mastercard and Scotiabank AMX cards at many retailers where Brim or TD Visa worked out as a last resort. As for withdrawals… using the global ATM alliance I have had better luck with ATMs working and even exchange rates with Canadian Scotiabank debit cards rather than with Tangerine debit cards. Tangerine uses a worse exchange rate than Scotiabank despite both not being charged the ATM fees. Tangerine also has longer hold times on the phone when stuff goes wrong which can become very costly or time-consuming while making an overseas call. Google voice drops after about 30 minutes.. so if you’re on hold for a while it can be a pain.
I have used pretty much every financial institution and found the easiest way around this two-factor authentication problem for banking apps, amazon, steam, points apps… etc is to briefly turn your roaming on but with the data off while still on a secure WiFi connection before entering the app or trying to log in. You’ll receive the code and then you can turn off roaming again immediately.
I am currently Rogers and this works with them… but Rogers has been going downhill lately especially since Rogers Mastercard really has so few overseas benefits for Rogers customers now… and with the ever-increasing roam like home fees and the worsening of their WE Mastercard even with their new credit card on the market waiving a couple of roam like home days a year it doesn’t seem worth it to keep going with them. I am thinking of going over to FIZZ for my mobile services and giving it a try for texts or emergencies overseas alongside a local country-specific sim card. The only thing is you can’t pre-pay your FIZZ account and they don’t accept AMX… FIZZ only accepts VISA & Mastercard like Videotron, so those points to keep in mind. Not sure the best card to use for Fizz and Videotron maybe a card that gives benefits on recurring bills if it counts? The reason I mention FIZZ is that you can set up a cheap phone line with them for less than 15 CAD a month to receive texts anywhere and adapt it to your needs as you go. I haven’t personally tested it out yet but will soon.