Frequently Asked Questions

ExpatTel is a number-retention service. We accept the port of your mobile number under your country's standard mobile-number-portability rules, and keep it live from anywhere in the world. Voicemails and SMS to your number are delivered to our app, web portal and email. You can't make outbound calls or send outbound SMS — the service is specifically about keeping your existing number active so it doesn't get disconnected when you move overseas.

People who are moving overseas (short-term travel, extended stays, or permanent moves) and don't want to lose the mobile number they've had for years. It's designed for the case where your number is on file with your bank, government, family, and every service you've set up over the last decade — cancelling that line is a lot of work you don't need to do.

Click Sign Up, enter your email and personal details, pick a country plan and monthly or yearly billing, add your payment details, and confirm your identity. The whole flow takes about 5–10 minutes. Nothing is billed until your number ports in successfully.

Sign-up is minutes. The port itself varies by country — US and UK ports are typically same-day or next-working-day; Australian ports take a few hours to three business days; other countries vary. You keep using your existing SIM until the port completes.

We currently support ports from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Netherlands, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each has its own port process — see the country landing pages for details on how it works locally.

The information required is set by the losing carrier and varies by country. Generally: your full name, date of birth, current-carrier account number, and — in the US — your account transfer PIN. In the UK, you'll get a PAC by texting PAC to 65075 and give us that. We only ask for what the port genuinely requires.

Yes — you own the number. Initiate a port-out from your new carrier the same way you'd move between any two mobile providers. There's no port-out fee from us.

Ports occasionally fail for reasons outside our control — usually a mismatch between the details we submit and what your existing carrier has on file (wrong account number, name misspelled, etc.), or a contract-lock period. When that happens, we tell you exactly what went wrong and how to fix it. If we can't recover the port, we refund any charges (billing hasn't started at that point anyway).

No — in fact, you must not. Once a number is disconnected by the losing carrier, it goes back to the local number pool and cannot be recovered by any port process. Sign up with us and initiate the port before cancelling your existing line. The port itself effectively closes your old line.

Yes — you can port additional numbers to your ExpatTel account later. Each additional number is a separate subscription. Contact us before adding a second country number and we'll walk you through it.

No. ExpatTel is receive-only by design. The service exists to keep your number active and reachable, not to replace a full mobile plan. For outbound calls / messages abroad, most customers use WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, or a local SIM.

You get an instant push notification through the ExpatTel app, plus an email with the voicemail transcript or SMS body. Voicemails are also transcribed to text automatically, so you can read them without listening.

No. ExpatTel is 100% over-the-internet — no physical SIM anywhere. All you need is a working internet connection to receive notifications and messages.

Yes — dedicated apps for both platforms are coming soon. In the meantime, our web portal works on any device and can send SMS/voicemail notifications to your email so you're not tied to the app.

Standard SMS to your number is delivered to the app, portal and email within seconds — including most banking OTP codes. That said, some banks send 2FA over a special short-code path that requires a local carrier SIM. Check with your bank before porting. We recommend an authenticator app (Authy, Google Authenticator, 1Password) as backup regardless.

Not until your number successfully ports in. Sign-up collects your payment details but nothing is charged during the port process. Once the port completes, your first monthly (or yearly) charge is taken and your subscription starts.

Yes. You can cancel from the portal any time. You keep access until the end of the period you've paid for, and you can port your number out to another carrier before it ends.

We offer a 14-day cooling-off period from the day billing starts. If you cancel within that window we'll refund the fees paid to date. After 14 days, subscription fees are non-refundable, except where required by consumer law in your country.

We'll retry the payment over 7 days and warn you multiple times by email. If we still can't collect, the number will be released. If you know you'll be temporarily unable to pay, contact us first — we can pause the account.

Because we pass on the saving from not processing 12 separate charges. Yearly plans work out to roughly 17% less than paying monthly, and give you one billing event a year to worry about.

Yes. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Passwords are hashed. Two-factor authentication is available on your account. Voicemails and SMS are stored only until you delete them (or account closure + 24 months, whichever is sooner). Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

No. Ever. We're a subscription business — you paying for the service is our entire revenue model.

Yes. We operate under GDPR, UK GDPR, and the Australian Privacy Act depending on your jurisdiction. Our Privacy Policy lists the legal bases we process on, our sub-processors, and how to exercise your rights (access, correction, deletion, portability).

The identity checks required for a port are specifically designed to prevent this. We ask for the same information any port-in requires — full name matching the account, account number, PIN in some jurisdictions — because those checks stop attackers who don't already have full access to your carrier account.

Log in to the portal and check the Port-In section for the status of your request. Every state (Submitted → Under Review → Processing → Carrier Confirmation → Completed) has a plain-English explanation of what's happening. If it's stuck, contact us and we'll investigate directly with the carrier.

When your number leaves its original US or Canadian carrier, Apple's iMessage and Google's RCS need a few minutes to reassociate. Sign out of iMessage on your existing device before the port completes, or Apple's deregistration tool (apple.com/support/imessage-deregister) can fix it after. RCS follows the same pattern.

First check the app or portal — if you can see them there but not in email, check your email filters for messages from expat.tel. If the voicemails aren't appearing at all, contact us with the number that's calling and the approximate time; we can trace the call through the carrier.

Use the "Forgot password" link on the login screen. If you've also lost the email address on the account, contact us from an email address that matches the details on your subscription — we'll verify your identity manually and restore access.