credit cards can get you money overseas but doing any real banking or brokerage action could soon be out of the question for many longer term expats.
Banks and investment houses are tightening their access security. Access may soon be nearly impossible for expats.
Since covid forced me home I have been noticing these changes with alarm. Most, if not all US banks have stopped allowing you to authenticate your access with with your email address. If you are like me and travel for months at a time, you would get a local phone rather than go to the expense and trouble of using a US based phone while traveling. The service is almost alway better and substandcally less expensive. But the banks will not allow you to use a local phone ,say in Colombia to access your account and make transactions.
I guess they expect you to carry an extra US Based phone with you solely to access your bank accounts. They must think that because you would find it hard, if not impossible to use it for anything else during the trip. I use to use my email address to receive authentication codes but that option has all but vanished.
You certainly wouldn't want to make international calls using a us based phone overseas. , the roaming charges would eat you alive. Besides A local SIM card for your phone cost only about $ 30 or so a month and the quality is so much better.
The whole thing is ridiculous most of the cellular base equipment used in the US today is manufacture overseas by foreigner.
Has anyone figured out a work around, short of cutting yourself off from accounts and hoping for the best. I recently was told same bank will let you register a local phone but I haven't heard which bank does that. I'd gladly move my accounts!