Maintaining a UK phone number in Aus

[GeeBee]

Hi,

I've been in Sydney for a couple of years now and have used a new Australian phone and number since arrival.

I brought my UK phone and kept it in a drawer for use mainly for online authentication texts for UK banks and services. 

I switched to PAYG over a year ago and I've found it's now expired and is no longer active.

Any tips on how to get and maintain another UK number? It's literally just for online authentication and perhaps for use on trips back to the UK. The obvious is to get another sim posted over but I suspect there may be better ways. 

Thanks

[Lavers]

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

Hi,

I've been in Sydney for a couple of years now and have used a new Australian phone and number since arrival.

I brought my UK phone and kept it in a drawer for use mainly for online authentication texts for UK banks and services. 

I switched to PAYG over a year ago and I've found it's now expired and is no longer active.

Any tips on how to get and maintain another UK number? It's literally just for online authentication and perhaps for use on trips back to the UK. The obvious is to get another sim posted over but I suspect there may be better ways. 

Thanks

You could maybe try vodafone as they service both countries.

[rammygirl]

Most banks allow an overseas number now.  Nationwide don’t but there are other ways via a device if necessary. We still have our TESCO PAYG that don’t expire.

[Marisawright]

2 hours ago, GeeBee said:

I switched to PAYG over a year ago and I've found it's now expired and is no longer active.

Have they actually taken away the number?  

[Ken]

There are a lot of companies that will sell you a virtual UK number. Most only do landline numbers but a few do have UK mobile numbers such as Devyce. Devyce Expats – Devyce 

Just google whatever you want these days. Someone will be out there selling the service.

[Wanderer Returns]

If it's just for online authentication then switch over to your Australian mobile number. As mentioned earlier, most UK banks will accept an overseas number for 2FA. The problem you may encounter is that you might need to receive an SMS to the defunct UK number to allow you to switch over.

[GeeBee]

Thanks every one for their responses.

I spent some time on an online chat with the provider (Three.co.uk) to try and get the existing number to work again (it did still go to my recorded answerphone).

We tried turning on roaming (it certainly used to be on) but after waiting 4 hours, still didn't work.

Then manually set the network to Vodafone and it picked up the signal again (instead of reading SOS Only)

Steps on an iPhone for anyone interested:

 - Home > Settings > Mobile Data > Network Selection > Disable Automatic network selection > Select Vodafone

They said I need to use the phone every 6 months or it gets disabled (likely the issue). To do this I needed to top up with PAYG credit (just 5 pounds) once every six months to keep it active, so I've put reminders in my diary.

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Regarding the virtual numbers - thanks Ken - these did look useful if you're using the phone regulalry and I didn't know about them. However the monthly cost was a bit steep (8 pounds a month) for what I was using it for.

Thanks again all