Using Chinese Phone (Number) in America

[jwdoetsch]

Hey all,

 

We're moving to the US in about 18 days and we're trying to solve a problem: we need a Chinese phone number so that we can receive confirmation text messages for online banking and stuff back in China. I'm sure it's not as easy as just getting an international package with China Mobile or Unicom; aren't we going to have to select a phone that's going to support the roaming channels/frequencies of providers back in the States?

Have any of you solved this problem before?

 

If there was some Chinese alternative to Google Phone where we could set up a dummy Chinese phone number and receive text messages online then that would be stellar, but to my knowledge there isn't.

 

Thanks!

[Randy W]

Hey all,

 

We're moving to the US in about 18 days and we're trying to solve a problem: we need a Chinese phone number so that we can receive confirmation text messages for online banking and stuff back in China. I'm sure it's not as easy as just getting an international package with China Mobile or Unicom; aren't we going to have to select a phone that's going to support the roaming channels/frequencies of providers back in the States?

 

Have any of you solved this problem before?

 

If there was some Chinese alternative to Google Phone where we could set up a dummy Chinese phone number and receive text messages online then that would be stellar, but to my knowledge there isn't.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Get a four band phone, and purchase a SIM from an American carrier - you will need some kind of forwarding service for your text messages, which will only find you in China.

 

You might look into whether Skype would allow this through a Chinese number.

[yuehan123]

In a different topic, some days, or weeks ago, I discussed that my wife was able to receive, in the US, the "China" based Credit Card and ticket Reservation confirmations on her Chinese Based Cellphone using a Chinese based WeChat. This takes place in a WeChat subfolder called Wallet.

 

She does that sorta as Randy says. Her Samsung Notepad 4 (from China) has 2 SIM cards available. One from China one from At&t. Which card doesn't seem to matter now with the WeChat Service.

[Beachey]

 

 

You might look into whether Skype would allow this through a Chinese number.

 

 

Looks like Skype might work if a Hong Kong number will work?

[jwdoetsch]

Yeah Skype Phone Number doesn't support China, only Hong Kong. That isn't going to work for us. But we have sorted out that we're gonna get a China Mobile SIM card and a cheap cheap GSM phone that should roam just fine in the US. If the phone doesn't work then I'll just put the China Mobile SIM card into my American GSM phone.

[msittig]

Go to a China Mobile (or whatever service you use) office and get them to set up international roaming for you. We arrived in the US without knowing we'd need this for SMS confirmations, etc, and it turns out you have to be in China in person to set this up.

 

For now we're using http://www.wo-call.com/which I was able to set up using our Alipay account, but it's not my original Chinese number and it only works when I'm logged into the app.

 

The double SIM method described above seems like it would work well -- most US carriers have a GSM network now; we've used T-Mobile and now AT&T, and I've been on my China-purchased Samsung Note 3 for both.