Need American Phone Number for U.S. Bank

I've seen an old post on this forum about needing a US address for a US bank account. I've had to deal with this as well, and luckily I have been able to use my father's address. But no one on that post mentioned needing a US phone number.

I've been trying to remove my American phone number from my bank account for awhile now and PNC has told me that they have successfully removed my phone number from my record. However, that was clearly false when I discovered that in order to purchase a plane ticket, I had a text message sent to my American phone number for verification. Luckily I still had my US cellphone, but what was I to do if I didn't?

On the PNC app, it states that to add a foreign number to call a certain number and they can update it. However, I've called this number and they've told me that they do not send text messages to foreign numbers. So although I've updated it, it still doesn't work.

I am very fortunate to have a brother who pays for my phone plan, but this situation is soon to end. The phone bill is a fortune for some reason and my brother (understandably) does not want to keep paying for the phone.

What I think that I should do is perhaps once I am back in the US, get a cheap phone and sign up with Mint Mobile to have a simple plan where I can still have a US number. Besides, this is beneficial for other reasons as well. Sometimes you NEED a US number in order for the IRS to even call you back. Does anyone have any other ideas that could solve this problem?

I've looked into websites that "park" your number. It is very cheap and seems like a good service, but the problem with that is the number essentially becomes a landline number and cannot receive text messages, which is the whole reason why I need a US number. But I am open to any suggestions and wondering if anyone else has encountered this issue? If so, what have you done about it?

I have been with Callcentric.com for over 10 years now. It is a VOIP phone service that can direct calls to anywhere you want them sent. I am on the basic plan and incoming calls cost me nothing - I only pay literally pennies for outgoing calls (and since I rarely use the phone, that's fine). I pay about $5 a month (which includes 911 EMS). They also have unlimited use plans, and regional and global plans.

When we were in the UK I had a US phone handset connected to the internet through a VOIP adapter. My daughter's friends (or anyone) could call and we'd get a USA ring pattern (one ring, not the two quick of the UK) and knew it was an American call coming in, not a UK call. We could also dial anywhere in the USA as if we were IN the USA. (Or anywhere in the world, basically, but as if inside the USA).  It was running me, I think, about $3 a month to keep the phone number and basic service while we were there (no 911 EMS).

The voip adapter worked anywhere, so no matter where we moved in the world as long as there was internet I could use that service with the same setup. When we got back to the USA and I finally had a cellphone delivered to us in the quarantine hotel,  I forwarded my Callcentric number to it until we had an apartment and were settled.  Alternately, you can use the system entirely from a laptop, I believe - including making and receiving calls and texts, but I prefer a handset.

For a while when we were in the UK I had it forwarded to  my UK Sky cell phone. (No distinctive ring,  but we got the incoming calls that way.)  When I was traveling back to the USA I used an old USA cell phone in-country with a temp sim card, and had the CC phone number forwarded to it to avoid Sky's roaming charges. You can set forwarding to one number, multiple numbers simultaneously, or via hunting.

This system accepts and can send texts. The downside is that right now they don't send or receive overseas texts - only within the USA and, I think now Canada.  I could still use it to get text codes, etc., while in the UK by setting the system to forward them to me as emails. It cost me an additional $1 per month to be able to send/receive USA text messages. Since I don't use a "smart" phone still, I get my banking and other codes on my laptop via email. Works fine.

Also, a nice feature - you can get a free "conference call" number to give to friends - the Daughter used this several times to get all her old friends together at the same time for a virtual party. Was especially nice during the first part of the pandemic when we were overseas, to be able to have a group of people "in one place" again to talk with.

Their dashboard gives you quite a bit of control over call treatments (forwarding, redirecting, spam-filtering, etc.). The one downside, really, is that all tech-support is done via trouble-ticket and can take 24 hours to get a reply sometimes. Plus you have to be comfortable enough with tech to follow their walk-you-through-it initial setup instructions. But if I could do it, pretty much anyone should be able to.  Billing is set up to either allow you to deposit funds periodically or via direct debit to a credit card.

I do recommend this service highly. As I say, we've used it for at least ten years and I can count on one hand (with fingers left to spare) the number of times I've had problems with the service itself.

Hi Jerseygirl, I was able to keep my US phone number which I had for 20 years by using Google Voice and haven't had any issues with it in the 3 years I've used it. It has text messaging, phone calls with voice mail and can be used on your computer or with an app on your phone. There are no monthly fees and there was only a one-time fee of $20.00. Worth looking into. Hope this helps

Hiya - Not sure if you've already sorted this issue or not, but would you be able to advise a bit more around the need for the US account still? Do you have a UK account as well or just US account?

To give context to why I'm asking - one example is that you mentioned you were buying plane tickets using the US account vs a UK account. I have a US account still where my mom will pay in gifts, for me to withdraw money from if needed when on holiday, or for me to use as direct debit for the student loans I'll be paying off until I die, but I don't actively use it as an everyday account. I use transferwise to send money between the two when needed, but it means that my phone number linked to my bank account is my parents' landline (and the address is their address), but there's also an option for online banking to make that easy enough as well and I don't have the pitfalls of needing to verify big purchases via a phone number.. That's the main reason I'm asking around required/intended use of the account so that I can understand a bit better around how you could make this work more easily for you (potentially). If you're getting paid by a US company into a US bank account - for example - that could obviously make it a bit more challenging.

Hiya - Not sure if you've already sorted this issue or not, but would you be able to advise a bit more around the need for the US account still? Do you have a UK account as well or just US account?

To give context to why I'm asking - one example is that you mentioned you were buying plane tickets using the US account vs a UK account. I have a US account still where my mom will pay in gifts, for me to withdraw money from if needed when on holiday, or for me to use as direct debit for the student loans I'll be paying off until I die, but I don't actively use it as an everyday account. I use transferwise to send money between the two when needed, but it means that my phone number linked to my bank account is my parents' landline (and the address is their address), but there's also an option for online banking to make that easy enough as well and I don't have the pitfalls of needing to verify big purchases via a phone number.. That's the main reason I'm asking around required/intended use of the account so that I can understand a bit better around how you could make this work more easily for you (potentially). If you're getting paid by a US company into a US bank account - for example - that could obviously make it a bit more challenging.

Just in case we had trouble keeping our US bank I opened a Wise online account denominated in USD with US routing and account number. It works great for receiving retirement money from my US brokerage and I’m confident that if needed I could have my US pension paid into it. Moving the USD to GBP in my UK bank literally takes seconds.

Hiya - Not sure if you've already sorted this issue or not, but would you be able to advise a bit more around the need for the US account still? Do you have a UK account as well or just US account?

To give context to why I'm asking - one example is that you mentioned you were buying plane tickets using the US account vs a UK account. I have a US account still where my mom will pay in gifts, for me to withdraw money from if needed when on holiday, or for me to use as direct debit for the student loans I'll be paying off until I die, but I don't actively use it as an everyday account. I use transferwise to send money between the two when needed, but it means that my phone number linked to my bank account is my parents' landline (and the address is their address), but there's also an option for online banking to make that easy enough as well and I don't have the pitfalls of needing to verify big purchases via a phone number.. That's the main reason I'm asking around required/intended use of the account so that I can understand a bit better around how you could make this work more easily for you (potentially). If you're getting paid by a US company into a US bank account - for example - that could obviously make it a bit more challenging.

Hi! I happen to still have my old US bank account as well as a UK bank account for my current UK job. I also have a transferwise account just in case I need to change my dollars into pounds. The trouble that I have is that sometimes I need a US cellphone to confirm purchases that I make with my US account and I am still not sure as to how I should do that. Thinking of using Google phone, but itd be nice to have an American phone once in the US as well.

For many years I used Skype to make international phone calls to the UK which is no longer needed except I still have a few dollars on the account and I find it extremely useful to use this account to make calls in the US particularly toll free numbers which are also free on my Skype account.

Hi! I happen to still have my old US bank account as well as a UK bank account for my current UK job. I also have a transferwise account just in case I need to change my dollars into pounds. The trouble that I have is that sometimes I need a US cellphone to confirm purchases that I make with my US account and I am still not sure as to how I should do that. Thinking of using Google phone, but itd be nice to have an American phone once in the US as well.

Sorry I'm absolutely shattered after today so - to caveat - apologies if I'm sounding like an idiot at all -

To eliminate the issue with needing the text confirmation of purchases (guessing it'll have to do with the value?), could you transfer the money to the UK bank account and just make purchases from there only? Or is it that some stuff you're trying to buy has to be done via a US bank account?

Unsure what type of phone you have and if it has something like a dual sim card slots that could be an option? (where you get a US sim card to use while you're in the US to eliminate the need for a second whole phone) Just thinking out loud here really..

Not sure what phone contract you have here and if it's not just more cost effective to get a plan that you can turn international roaming in the US for a fee. It won't help you with your text message problem I'm afraid, but it solves your "it'd be nice to have it while in the US as well" problem. Either that or you get a cheap PAYG phone in the US to use while you're there (my parents do the reverse when they come to visit me) but - again - unlikely to help you with this text message issue unless it has an international plan on it. If there is an option to eliminate using your US bank account to make purchases, that'd be what I'd suggest.

For many years I used Skype to make international phone calls to the UK which is no longer needed except I still have a few dollars on the account and I find it extremely useful to use this account to make calls in the US particularly toll free numbers which are also free on my Skype account.

Probably depends on who you're trying to call I think as well. Like when I'm in the US, I'm usually in places with wifi and calling or texting people with Whatsapp so I can pretty much get away with using my UK phone. But then I don't really tend to be doing any calls in the US to toll free numbers, etc., or - if I were to do that - it'd be on my parents/family members' landline so I think it's easier for me in that regard. My PAYG is with Vodafone (Voxi) and has the option to enable calling in the US for a fee and that worked out cheaper (and works well) for while we're over there - I can't remember how much it costs of the top of my head and I'm not sure but I think it's for a 14 day period - which covers most of our trips there. But I can also see how if you are going over and not staying with family or have a different circumstance with the phone/provider, it might be a bit more challenging.