How to keep a South African phone number when you move overseas
Leaving South Africa does not mean losing your number.
When people emigrate or take a long contract abroad, the phone number is usually an afterthought. Then the problems start. The bank sends a one-time PIN to a number that is switched off. A client phones the old number and gets nothing. Parents back home pay international rates to reach you.
You have three options, and it helps to see them side by side.
Keep the SIM on roaming. It works, but roaming is priced for a week's holiday, not for living somewhere. A prepaid SIM that is not used and not recharged can also be switched off and the number given to someone else.
Leave the SIM with family. Someone at home reads you the messages. It is free and it is awkward, and it does not help anyone phone you.
Add a South African cloud number. The number lives in an app, not on a SIM, so it works wherever you have internet: Perth, London, Dubai. People in South Africa call it as a local number. When you call them, they see a South African number and you pay a South African-style rate, per second.
A cloud number will not replace your SIM for everything. Bank one-time PINs are tied to the number the bank has on file, so speak to your bank before you leave about which number they use. What a cloud number does well is voice: your family, your clients, the municipality, the medical aid, all reachable at a local price.
A practical order of work before you fly:
- Get the cloud number and use it for a few weeks while you are still here.
- Give it to family and to the people who phone you most.
- Load airtime in rands. Top-up airtime does not expire.
With Ukutel, one number can ring on two to six devices, so your phone and your laptop both answer.