Portability is a Myth: Why I’m Still Paying for a Portuguese Phone Number

In my last post, I mentioned this briefly, but it’s worth diving deeper.

When people talk about moving to different countries, there’s always lots of conversation about house-hunting, and residency bureaucracy, and the costs of moving household belongings, and so on. But something that gets little attention is that your entire digital identity is chained to a phone number from a country you’re trying to leave.

This happened to a certain extent when we left the US. Our old phone numbers were tied into all sorts of banking and government websites that need multi-factor authentication (MFA) with codes received via text messages. Luckily, we were able to port our numbers over to Google Voice. This gave us the ability to receive text messages and voice mail, although it wasn’t possible to call out on those numbers.

In Portugal, your phone number is even more tightly connected to your identity. Want to get into any government agency’s website? You’ll need a Portuguese phone number and MFA. Want to authorize a banking transaction? Same. Want to schedule a medical appointment, or see your record of test results, or get copies of your prescriptions? You’ll be getting a text with your access code.

Another consideration: MB Way is Portugal’s sleek and surprisingly advanced mobile payment system that lets you handle just about any financial task straight from your phone. Linked to your bank card and running through a national platform called MultiBanco, it allows you to transfer money instantly (to anyone with a Portuguese phone number), pay at stores or restaurants via QR code, split bills, buy metro tickets, and even generate virtual cards for safer online shopping.

It’s fast, secure, and brilliantly integrated into everyday Portuguese life. Whether you’re buying coffee, settling up with a friend, or paying rent, MB Way does it all, usually in under ten seconds and without needing to open your banking app.

Frankly, it makes some other countries’ payment systems look like they’re still riding donkeys into town with a sack of coins.

Even when we’re in Spain, we’ll still have some banking in Portugal, plus we’ll need to periodically access various government agencies.  So, we’re moving to Spain … but our phone numbers remain Portuguese citizens.

In Spain, access to many government and financial services depends on having a Certificado Digital (digital certificate) or registering with Cl@ve, Spain’s online identity system. You use these tools to file taxes, access healthcare records, verify your identity for official documents, and even check your electric bill. And yes – they’re typically linked to your Spanish mobile number, which is used for SMS codes and MFA.

So, we need Spanish phone numbers. But we also need to keep our Portuguese numbers active and available. How is that going to work?

In the good old days (say, maybe 10 years ago), about the only solution was to have multiple phones! However, the gods of technology haven’t slept, and it’s become possible to make this all happen through the beauty of eSIMs.

Quick technical explanation: The SIM card in your phone is the thing that ties it to a given phone number. This is why some people buy prepaid local SIMs when they travel. It gives them a local phone number, plus access to data networks while they’re on vacation, and when they return to their home base, they just pop the regular SIM back in and they’re good to go.

Nowadays, many phones have the ability to store virtual SIM cards, or eSIMs,  that effectively give you multiple phone numbers on the same device. I’ve been using these for a couple of years now when we visit different countries, and I have to say they’ve been great at giving us inexpensive and reliable phone service.

In our current situation, the resolution is to cancel most of our Portuguese telecom package and get a whole new one in Spain. The only thing we’re keeping in Portugal are the existing phone numbers, which will continue to be tied to the installed SIM cards. Our new Spanish numbers are set up as virtual cards, and are already installed as eSIMs on our phones. Problem solved, voilà!

There is really only one drawback to this whole thing. We got our Spanish telecom package set up when we were in Valencia last month, since we needed the phone numbers active before we could proceed with the Padrón (the local municipal registration that proves you live there). At that time, we set the appointment for the internet service and cable installation for a date after we arrive permanently – obviously, we can’t let people in to install things when we’re not physically present, right?

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but we’ve gotten an average of two texts or calls per day from Vodafone Spain installers wanting to know if they can stop by NOW! Yes, I’ve confirmed with the nice representative who set us up with everything that our appointment is still on the books, but apparently Vodafone Spain must feel that we’re lonely and need regular check-ins. And I can’t block the number, because I will actually have to talk to these guys soon, so for now we are just getting a lot of practice with our phrase, “No, ¡no podemos hacer la instalación ahora porque aún no hemos llegado al país!*”

[* “No, we can’t do the installation right now, we haven’t arrived in the country yet!”]