Hey there,
I've been down here in Vietnam for 2 years now, and had 3 phone numbers already. Like everyone, from time to time I need to receive a SMS confirmation code for some operations (bank, emails, whatever), and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, at some point my phone stops receiving any SMS, from any website, basically.
I noticed this pattern with my bank at first, and I thought that the fault was on their side. The pattern was the same all the time: I registered my phone number, received a few SMS confirmation codes, then after a few weeks it just stopped working.
It's been 3 SIM cards now, all Mobifone, and with this last card the SMS stopped working for my three banks (yep, 3, but don't think I'm rich though, actually I'm broke) in two different countries (oversea, not in VN). But it still works with SMS code from Google. And my sis send me a SMS this morning, it worked just fine.
Today I tried a 4th sim card, from Viettel this time. I entered the new number in my personal details, and miracle, I can again receive SMS from my banks (all of them). But for how long ?
Am I the only unlucky one who is failed by SMS like that ? Am I alone in this s*** ?
I don't know exactly what happens, but it looks to me like my phone number gets blacklisted at some point. I don't know if every bank use the same backend service to send their SMS, and if it's the bottleneck where my mobile gets blacklisted. Or maybe it's something else...
This thing is driving me nut ! If someone is suffering the same pain, please share it !
Anyone having issues with SMS confirmation codes ?
From what you've said it suggests to me that you're not registering your number with your passport and what have you? That would be why the phone essentially stops working.
Hey, thanks for your feedback.
Yes I registered my passport when I bought the si card. And no, the phone does not stop working, it just stops receiving SMS confirmation codes from some services. Apart from that the phone works just fine.
Hi Arnaud
I don't have such a problem.
I can only tell you how I handle this matter.
If you not can solve the problem, maybe this is also a solution way for your problem.
I have a Dual-SIM smartphone.
When I moved to Vietnmam, I kept my Swiss prepaid SIM card.
For all European financial institutions I use (bank, credit card, etc.), I did not change my phone number. They still send me the TANs to the Swiss SIM card.
I must only send sometimes a SMS by this SIM card, to avoid that they lock the SIM card after a while.
For my Swiss SIM card I also can add not too expensive international data packages (only data packets for Vietnam are extremly expensive). So I can use also 3G/4G when I short go to Thailand, Singapore or other countries.
By the way: I also didn't have to change the phone number for all Messanger apps (Zalo, WhatsApp, etc.).
The second SIM card is a Vinaphone SIM card.
The SMS Sacombank notivictions and TAN receiving works without any problem.
And I use this SIM also for 3G/4G data in case the wifi is not available.
Hi Andy, thanks for sharing the tip !
My phone is getting old, so when I'll have to change it I might do as you suggest. Not sure how much it would cost for a French SIM card though.
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