Best Plans for Keeping a US Phone Number While Living Abroad in 2026

Every ranking of phone plans for people living outside the United States is written by somebody who took a two week holiday. They rank on data allowances and roaming speeds, because that is what matters on a holiday. It is not what matters when you live somewhere else and run a store, and the gap between those two situations is where readers lose their bank access.

I run a high ticket store from Bali. The US number is not a convenience for me, it is infrastructure. Suppliers call it to verify dealer applications, and the answer rate on those calls decides whether the application gets approved. My payment processor texts it. My bank texts it. If it goes dark, the business goes quiet, and no amount of fast data in a new country fixes that.

So this ranking uses a different criterion, and it is the only criterion I think is honest: what can a reader who is already abroad verify, from published vendor documentation, before handing over money? Five questions. Published monthly cost. Whether the vendor publishes any limit on extended international use. Whether Wi-Fi calling abroad is published. Whether inbound SMS abroad is published. And whether activation requires you to be physically inside the United States.

That last question is the one nobody writes about, and it is the one that quietly disqualifies most of this list for a reader who is already overseas. I have given it a column.

Disclosure, before the first paid link. The Tello links on this page are affiliate links and this site gets paid when somebody signs up through them, up to ten dollars a signup. Google Fi and Quo are also monetised here, so neither of those is a neutral comparison either. Mint Mobile, US Mobile, Ultra Mobile, NumberBarn, Tracfone and Google Voice pay this site nothing at all. Two of the options below cost less than the one that pays us, and one of them has better written terms for living abroad. I am going to say so, in those words, because otherwise this page is an advertisement with a table in it.

The Five Things You Can Check Before You Commit

Ranking criteria are usually a way of hiding a conclusion. Mine are chosen to be checkable by you, on the vendor’s own site, in about ten minutes, which means you can audit my answers rather than trust them.

Published monthly cost. Not the introductory rate quoted in isolation. Where a vendor runs a new customer offer, the introductory price and the renewal price both belong in the same sentence, because you are buying a utility you intend to hold for years.

Any published limit on extended international use. Some vendors publish a hard number of consecutive days. Some publish a vague intent clause. Some publish nothing at all, which is genuinely different from publishing a limit, and which I have marked as silence rather than as permission.

Wi-Fi calling abroad, published. This is the mechanism that makes a US number usable from a house in Southeast Asia. If the vendor’s own page for the plan you are buying does not mention it, I am not going to assume it.

Inbound SMS abroad, published. Specifically inbound. Receiving is the job. Replying is a bonus.

Activation inside the United States required. Yes or no. This decides whether the plan is even available to you today.

The Whole Field On One Screen

Service	Cheapest published price	Publishes a limit on living abroad?	Wi-Fi calling abroad published?	Inbound SMS abroad published?	Must activate in the US?	Pays this site
Tello	$5/mo, 300 minutes and unlimited text, no data	No day limit published. Terms say services must be used within the US, unresolved	Yes, explicitly for use abroad	Yes, and one time passwords named	Yes, hard requirement	Yes
Mint Mobile	$15/mo intro and $15/mo renewal on the 12 month 6 GB plan	No day limit and no return to the US requirement published	Yes, in body copy, with a caveat below	Yes, free to receive while travelling	Yes	No
Ultra Mobile PayGo	$3/mo for 100 minutes, 100 texts, 100MB	Not published	Not mentioned on the PayGo page at all	Roaming SMS paid from PayGo Wallet, no data roaming	Not published either way	No
Google Fi	$20/mo Flexible plus $10 per GB	Yes. Warning at about 50 days of use outside the US	Yes	Yes, free texts abroad	Yes, use in the US at least one day first	Yes
US Mobile	From $10/mo shared data, 1 line, 2 GB	Yes. More than 90 consecutive days of international use with no domestic usage	Not the point, see below	Yes, for short trips	Yes, stated in its terms	No
NumberBarn Park	$2.99/mo per number	Not applicable, it is parking not service	Not applicable	Named list of senders that fail, see below	No	No
Google Voice Basic	$0 for personal use	Number reclaimed for inactivity, period not published	Not applicable, it runs over data	Yes, and Google names the exception	No	No
Tracfone	Not retrievable from its own pages	Not published	Wi-Fi calling stated, not said to work outside the US	Not published	Not published	No

Read the activation column first. Four of these require you to be standing in the United States to start, which for a reader emailing me from Lisbon or Chiang Mai means the decision is not between eight products, it is between the four that do not, and two of those four do not publish an activation requirement either way rather than confirming there is none.

1. Tello, If You Can Activate It Inside The US

Tello wins on published documentation for the exact job, and the win comes with two conditions that I am putting before the recommendation rather than after it.

The plan ladder is four named tiers, all with unlimited talk and text: Starter with 2 GB at $10 per month, Everyday with 10 GB at $15, Power with 20 GB at $20, and Max at $25 for unlimited data, which means 50 GB at full speed and then reduced, with a 10 GB hotspot allowance. Underneath those sits a build your own configurator where 300 minutes with unlimited text and no data costs $5 per month. That $5 tier is the famous one and it is the reason people arrive at Tello.

What makes Tello the top of this list is not the price. It is this sentence, which Tello publishes on two separate pages of its own site.

“Once Wi-Fi Calling is active, you can receive One-Time Passwords (OTPs) and verification texts from your bank even if you are outside the US.”

No other vendor in this set publishes a statement that specific about the thing our reader is buying the number for. Tello separately lists two factor authentication code reception as an included plan feature, and states that Wi-Fi calling keeps working even when international roaming is switched on. For a store owner whose payout changes hinge on a code arriving, a vendor committing that to writing is worth real money.

Now the two conditions.

Condition one is the activation gate, and it is absolute. Tello says its service cannot be initially activated outside the US, that to activate an eSIM you must be physically located within the United States, and that international roaming only works if the line has been used in the USA before roaming is enabled. Porting a number in also has to happen from inside the country. If you are already abroad and have never had a Tello line, Tello is not available to you today. That is not a hurdle, it is a wall, and I would rather tell you now than sell you a plan you cannot start.

Condition two is a contradiction in Tello’s own paperwork. Tello’s Terms say all Tello services must be used within the US and all orders must have a valid US address for tax purposes. That sits directly against a landing page titled “Keep Your US Phone Number While Abroad”, a promo page offering to keep your number for five dollars a month when abroad, and roaming in more than 200 countries. Whether “used within the US” is a tax nexus statement or a genuine usage restriction is ambiguous as written, and I am not going to resolve it for you because I cannot. If your business depends on this line, get written confirmation from Tello support before you build on it. Our full Tello review covers that contradiction and the grace periods in detail.

There is a third thing that is not a condition so much as a trap, and it changes which tier I recommend. Tello’s own configurator warns that data is required to send or receive an MMS, and that any text message including a file such as a picture, video, emoji or a website link becomes an MMS. Tello also publishes that while standard texts work over Wi-Fi, picture messages do not. So a verification text containing a link is an MMS, and on the no data tier it has nothing to arrive on, and over Wi-Fi calling abroad it does not arrive at all. The $5 plan is fine for holding a number and for plain text codes. It is not the plan to bet account access on. Pay for data.

2. Mint Mobile, Which Has The Best Written Terms And Pays Us Nothing

If the criterion is “whose paperwork is least hostile to somebody who lives abroad”, Mint Mobile wins outright, and Mint pays this site nothing. I am putting it second only because of price and because of one documentation gap, not because Tello’s money moved it.

Mint publishes no day limit for use outside the United States and no requirement to return to the US periodically. I went looking for one specifically so I could report it. It is genuinely absent, not merely hard to find, and absence of a published limit is the most permissive term anywhere in this set. Compare that to Google Fi publishing a warning threshold and US Mobile publishing a hard consecutive day count.

Mint also publishes the inbound half of the SMS question cleanly: receiving text messages while travelling is free of charge, and replying to one requires a Minternational Pass. For our reader, receiving is the job. Replying is optional. The passes themselves run one day at $5 with 1 GB, three days at $10, ten days at $20, and there is a 30 day talk and text pass with no data at $5, which is the closest comparable number holding option. Note the allowances differ: that pass carries 100 minutes and 100 texts against Tello’s 300 minutes and unlimited text at the same price.

Pricing has to be quoted in pairs because Mint’s headline numbers are new customer offers for the initial plan term only. On the 12 month term, 6 GB is $15 introductory and $15 on renewal, with no step up, which is the cheapest true steady state price I found anywhere in this comparison. The other 12 month tiers step up: 17 GB is $15 rising to $20, 23 GB is $15 rising to $25, and unlimited is $15 rising to $30. On the six month term, 6 GB is $15 rising to $20 and unlimited is $15 rising to $35. On the three month term, 6 GB is $15 rising to $25 and unlimited is $15 rising to $40. Quote any of those single numbers on its own and you are misleading somebody.

The gap is Wi-Fi calling documentation. Mint’s body copy says Wi-Fi calling lets you call and text abroad without using up international roaming, which is exactly what you want to read. The on page FAQ answering that same question renders with no answer in it. If Wi-Fi calling is load bearing for you, and abroad it usually is, confirm it with Mint in writing first. Our head to head on Tello versus Mint Mobile puts the two price ladders side by side.

Mint also requires US activation. Its own help documentation frames the abroad case as conditional on the plan having been activated in the US. Same wall as Tello.

3. Ultra Mobile PayGo, The Cheapest Real Line In The Set

Three dollars a month. Ultra Mobile’s PayGo plan gives 100 minutes of talk, 100 texts and 100MB of data for $3 per month, with overages at three cents a minute, one cent a text and three cents per megabyte. That is two dollars a month cheaper than Tello’s cheapest build, it includes a small data allowance that Tello’s $5 tier does not, and Ultra Mobile pays this site nothing. Those are the facts and they are not flattering to the option that pays us.

The limitation is published and it is significant. Ultra states that voice, SMS and MMS roaming is paid for through your PayGo Wallet balance, and then says plainly that the PayGo Plan does not come with Data Roaming. On top of that, Ultra’s PayGo page does not mention Wi-Fi calling anywhere. Ultra’s regular monthly plans do list free Wi-Fi calling, but the three dollar plan’s own page is silent on it, and for a reader sitting on home Wi-Fi in another country hoping a code lands, that silence is the entire question. I am not going to answer it on Ultra’s behalf.

Ultra’s paid monthly tiers, for completeness, are talk and text with 500MB at $13, 4 GB at $19, 8 GB at $24, 24 GB at $39 and unlimited at $49, and all of those do list free Wi-Fi calling plus unlimited talk and text to more than 90 international destinations. I am deliberately not publishing Ultra’s multi month bundle totals because they rendered inconsistently when checked and I could not verify a single reliable figure.

So Ultra PayGo ranks third: cheapest, real wireless, and undocumented on the one feature that makes a US number work from abroad.

4. Google Fi, Which Publishes The Most And Costs The Most

Google Fi is the incumbent answer on this site and it deserves a correction rather than a recommendation. One of our own older posts said a warning at 50 days becomes suspension territory at 90 days, and we have since corrected it. That is wrong on both the number and the consequence, and it needs stating plainly.

What Google actually publishes is that an extended period of use outside the US, typically 50 days, triggers a warning, and that international data is suspended 30 days after that email. Only international data. Google’s own words are that after international data is suspended you can still call and text. International data access is not restored until you use significant data in the US for at least 30 days. Google also says to activate and use your service in the US for at least one day before using it abroad. The 90 day figure people attach to Google actually belongs to US Mobile, which is a different company with a different rule, and our Tello versus Google Fi comparison walks through that correction in full.

Standard pricing, not introductory: Unlimited Premium is $65 per month with international data in more than 200 destinations. Unlimited Standard shows as a discounted $25 against a standard $50, so the price you renew at is $50. Unlimited Essentials shows as $18 against a standard $35, so the real number is $35. Flexible is $20 per month plus $10 per gigabyte. Calls abroad are 20 cents a minute with free texts.

The real problem is not the price, it is the terms. Google Fi’s Terms say the services are offered only to residents of the United States, must be primarily used in the United States, and are not intended for extended international use, and Google reserves the right to suspend the account, terminate service or limit roaming for excessive off network usage. For somebody who lives abroad permanently, that is a written statement against their use case. Tello’s Terms are also against them. Neither company is clean here, and I am not going to pretend the one that pays us is.

5. NumberBarn, Which Is Parking And Not Phone Service

NumberBarn parks a number for $2.99 per month per number, the cheapest figure on this page. Forwarding is $6.99, a business line is $9.99, an unlimited tier is $19.99, and porting away is free. Porting a number in costs $5 per number. NumberBarn’s help pages describe that fee as waived on the annual parking plan, though its public pricing and parking pages both show the fee without naming the waiver, so confirm it at checkout rather than budgeting on it. Callers to a parked number hear a customisable thirty second message. There is no activation location requirement, which is why it ranks at all for a reader already overseas.

NumberBarn also publishes the single most useful piece of evidence in this whole category, and it publishes it about its own product, which takes some integrity. Its numbers are classified as wireline rather than mobile, and it names what that breaks. Its wording is that because NumberBarn phone numbers are classified as wireline numbers, support for these messages depends entirely on the company sending them, and that NumberBarn cannot guarantee a third party company will send verification messages, authentication codes or short code texts to a wireline number.

Then it lists them, and the real list is longer than this extract. Bank of America and Schwab are on its working side, so it is not a clean split between banks and everyone else. Confirmed working: Amazon, Apple ID, DoorDash, Facebook, Instagram, Google Duo, GrubHub, Mailchimp, Signal and TikTok. Confirmed not working: Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Capital One, American Express, PayPal and Zelle, plus LinkedIn, X and ChatGPT.

Here is the precision that matters, and it is easy to get wrong. That failing list describes NumberBarn’s own wireline numbers. It is not a list of banks that reject Tello, and it is not a list of banks that reject any wireless carrier. Nobody should read it as saying Chase will not text a Tello line, because NumberBarn did not say that and I have no evidence for it. What the list demonstrates is narrower and still valuable: that number class gets filtered by named senders, and the filtering is each sender’s own policy rather than a technical law.

There is also a live documentation contradiction at NumberBarn. Its pricing page shows Park including SMS forward to email, while its number parking page says text messaging is a one dollar per month add on that is not included in parking. Both statements are published. Confirm which applies before relying on it.

Use parking for a number you want to keep and do not need codes on. Do not use it as your payment processor’s contact number, because PayPal is on the failing list.

6. Google Voice, Free, And Google Names The Catch Itself

Basic Google Voice is $0 for personal use on a personal Gmail account, with no paid Workspace requirement. Voice Starter standalone is $10 per month, Standard is $20, and the Workspace add on tiers are $10, $20 and $30 per user per month, but those need paid Workspace. No activation inside the US is required, which again matters for a reader already abroad.

Google’s own documentation says you can get text messages from anywhere in the world, and in the same document says some websites, such as banks or subscription services, will not send text messages to Google Voice numbers, and that in those instances you may need to use your mobile carrier number. Google does not name which banks and does not frame it as a VoIP classification issue, so I will not extend past that wording.

The other risk is dormancy. Google reclaims numbers for inactivity, with a 45 day window to recover after the reclaim date. The inactivity period that triggers a reclaim is not published, which means you cannot plan around it, which is a poor property in a number your business depends on.

Free is a real advantage. For a secondary number, for old contacts, for services that are not your money, Google Voice at zero dollars is hard to argue with. For the number your processor texts, Google has told you not to.

7. US Mobile, Which Disqualifies Itself In Writing

US Mobile is last among the real carriers here for the cleanest possible reason: its own international service terms rule out what our reader wants to do. It says the plan is designed to support short term trips outside the country and is not intended for extended or permanent use outside the United States. It says that in cases of violation, or more than 90 consecutive days of international use with no domestic usage, it reserves the right to limit or restrict roaming access, suspend the plan feature, or remove the feature entirely. It also says a US Mobile line must first be activated and used within the United States.

That 90 day figure is the one that keeps getting misattributed to Google. It belongs here.

Pricing, for the record: the cheapest verified option is shared data from $10 per month for one line with 2 GB and unlimited talk and text. Unlimited Starter works out at $16.58 per month on the annual plan, which is $199 for year one renewing at $270. Unlimited Flex is $17.50 per month. Unlimited Premium is $24.92 per month annually, which is $299 for year one renewing at $390. US Mobile’s own page metadata claims a plan from only $5 per month, but no such plan appears on any of its plan pages, so I am not publishing that number. Its networks are named only as Light Speed, Warp and Dark Star, and which major carrier each runs on is not published, so do not let anyone map them for you.

Tracfone, And Why Unreadable Pricing Is A Disqualification

Tracfone gets one paragraph, because one paragraph is all its own website supports. All four of its plan pages serve unresolved JavaScript template placeholders where the prices belong. What is readable: Tracfone Freedom unlimited at $45 per month with auto refill, referenced regularly at $50, an anniversary promotion at $35 after discount or $30 with auto refill, and a bring your own phone offer of a six month Tracfone Freedom plan for $135, which works out at $22.50 per month. Its Wi-Fi calling statement says connecting to Wi-Fi enables unlimited calls and texts without using data across all plans, and does not say whether that works outside the United States. International calling is limited to Canada and Mexico. I will not publish a Tracfone cheapest plan price because I could not read one, and for a utility you intend to depend on from another continent, a vendor whose prices do not render is not a candidate.

The Column Nobody Else Publishes

Go back to the activation column, because it reorders everything depending on where you are sitting right now.

If you are in the United States today, or have a trip home booked, your field is the full eight. Set the line up while you are there, make a call on it, send a text on it, and then leave. Tello, Mint and US Mobile all require the line to have been activated and used inside the country. Google Fi wants at least one day of US use before you go.

If you are already abroad with no US line at all, the field collapses to three: NumberBarn parking, Google Voice, and whatever your existing US carrier will let you keep. Tello is not available to you. Mint is not available to you. That is not a defect in this ranking, it is the actual state of the market, and pretending otherwise is how these posts get written by people who have never had to do it. Our guide to the real sequence for keeping a US number while living abroad goes through that already-overseas case properly, including what to do about it.

One more absence worth naming. Tello publishes no requirement to reconnect to the US network periodically. Number loss is tied to a plan or credit lapse, not to geography. Google Fi does tie a consequence to time spent abroad, and US Mobile ties a consequence to consecutive days. That difference is real and it is checkable.

What I Would Actually Pick

Four situations, four different answers, because a single winner would be a lie.

You are in the US now, you run a store, and codes must arrive. Tello on a tier with data, so $8 per month for 2 GB with 300 minutes at the absolute floor, or $10 for Starter which adds unlimited talk for two dollars more. Activate it, use it, and only then leave. Never the $5 no data tier as your only route to account access.

You want the fewest written restrictions and you do not mind paying more. Mint Mobile’s 12 month 6 GB plan at $15 introductory and $15 on renewal, because Mint publishes no day limit and free inbound SMS abroad. Confirm Wi-Fi calling in writing first, because its own FAQ does not answer that question.

You only need the number to stay yours and the occasional plain text code. Ultra Mobile PayGo at $3 per month is the cheapest real line, or NumberBarn parking at $2.99 if you genuinely need no codes at all. Both pay this site nothing and both are correct answers to that question. Our breakdown of Tello alternatives sorted by job goes deeper on that split.

You are already abroad with nothing. Park or forward what you still control, use Google Voice as a stopgap while accepting Google’s own warning about banks, and plan the real setup for your next trip into the United States. Meanwhile, do not move your bank or processor two factor settings onto anything until you have a wireless line, and read our guide to which US number actually receives bank and processor codes before you change a single security setting.

If you also want to see whether the cheapest Tello tier is genuinely the bargain it looks like, the arithmetic is unpacked in our breakdown of Tello’s price ladder and the tier that is dominated.

Where The Phone Number Fits In The Business

A phone plan is a rounding error next to the margin on one high ticket order, which is why I would rather you spent the afternoon on our list of high ticket niches worth building in than on comparing data allowances.

If the model itself is new to you, the unit economics are what make a working phone line worth documenting at all. Our explainer on what high ticket dropshipping actually is covers why a single approved supplier relationship outweighs volume.

Supplier acquisition is the exact point where a US number stops being optional, because the verification step is a human being dialling the number on your application. Our step by step guide to finding high ticket suppliers shows how many of those steps end in a phone call.

The entity comes before the phone line, because dealer applications ask for one and real suppliers verify it exists. Our walkthrough of business formation for high ticket dropshipping explains what to file and why the state matters. For the phone number specifically, our guide to getting a business phone number suppliers will accept is the authority on what a reviewer checks.

My own stack is deliberately boring. The storefront has run on Shopify since the beginning. The company filing went through Bizee because it was quick and cheap.

Liability cover is the piece nobody thinks about until a supplier asks for a certificate of insurance, and mine sits with Hiscox for that reason alone.

If building all of this yourself sounds like the wrong use of a year, we assemble and launch the whole operation through our done for you high ticket store build service.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest way to keep a US phone number while living abroad?

NumberBarn parking at $2.99 per month per number is the cheapest figure, but parking is not phone service and NumberBarn publishes a named list of senders whose codes will not reach its wireline numbers. The cheapest real wireless line is Ultra Mobile PayGo at $3 per month. Tello’s cheapest build is $5 per month with no data.

Which of these can I sign up for if I am already overseas?

NumberBarn parking and Google Voice, plus whatever your existing US carrier already lets you keep. Tello, Mint Mobile and US Mobile all require the line to be activated and first used inside the United States, and Google Fi asks for at least one day of US use before you travel.

Does Google Fi cut off your service after 90 days abroad?

No, and that claim is wrong in two ways. Google publishes a warning after an extended period outside the US, typically around 50 days, then suspends international data 30 days after that email, and says that after international data is suspended you can still call and text. The 90 day rule belongs to US Mobile, which publishes it about more than 90 consecutive days of international use with no domestic usage.

Is Mint Mobile really more permissive than the paid option you recommend?

On paper, yes. Mint publishes no day limit for use outside the United States and no requirement to return, and it pays this site nothing. Tello’s counter is a published statement about bank one time passwords arriving abroad over Wi-Fi calling, which Mint does not publish in the same terms, plus a much lower entry price.

Why will you not quote Tracfone’s cheapest plan?

Because Tracfone does not publish one I could read. All four of its plan pages serve unresolved template placeholders where the prices should be. I can report that Tracfone Freedom unlimited shows at $45 per month with auto refill, but I cannot tell you what the cheapest plan costs and I am not going to estimate it.

Will the cheap no data plan receive my bank’s verification text?

A plain text code, yes. A text containing a link, no, because Tello’s own configurator says any message with a file or a website link becomes an MMS and MMS requires data, and Tello separately publishes that picture messages do not work over Wi-Fi. Buy a tier with data if account access depends on it.

Which network does Tello run on?

Tello will not say. It describes the network as America’s largest, fastest and most reliable, and says its agreement does not permit it to publicly use the partner’s name in marketing. I am not going to name it from memory, because Tello has not published it and a guess is worth nothing to you.

Do I need to come back to the United States periodically to keep a Tello number?

Tello publishes no such requirement. Number loss is tied to a plan or credit lapse rather than to geography: a plan lapse gives a 12 day grace period with a reminder email a week before, and Pay As You Go credit without a plan expires after three months, at which point service is disconnected and the number is deleted permanently.

Related Articles

Tello reviewed as a cheap US line for holding a number abroad

Tello against Google Fi for somebody who actually lives abroad

How to set up a Google Fi line step by step

Keeping a US bank account open while living outside the country

Our wider roundup of carrier options for people crossing borders