Two-factor authentication for on-line accounts

[strap]

We live in the US and I have most of our on-line banking, credit card, PayPal accounts, etc. set up for "two-factor authentication". This means when I log into one of the on-line accounts, I have to give a username and password as normal. But then there's another step. The website will send a text to my mobile phone with a 6-digit code that I then have to enter into the website to proceed any further. This works great here in the US and (I think) greatly reduces the chances of getting the accounts hacked. 

We're going to be visiting the Philippines for a couple weeks real soon, and I was wondering how well the two-factor authentication will work there. My T-Mobile phone plan allows free international texting, so hopefully if I do need to get into one of the accounts, the text would arrive and arrive fairly quickly. One option would be for me to temporarily disable the two-factor thing for the time we're there. The I'd just need my username/password. I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. And actually I hope I don't need to access any of my accounts at all during the time we're there, but you never know...

Does anyone have any experience with any of this kind of thing?

[Sander Martin]

You will be fine as long as you have international roaming turned on your phone. If your not sure if the roaming is turned on or not, call your provider. Without roaming your sim card wont work overseas and you wont get the text.

[Benington]

My accounts with a British bank use a text message to send a code which one inputs for setting up first time payments, though not for logging in.Seems to work alright. However, I know that they have out-sourced some functions to India, so one can't be sure the text is sent from the UK. It seems to arrive quickly, so it may not..

Our local bank here has also introduced the text message to validate online credit card payments.

I suppose the main issue would be your location here - signal strength and even availability are obviously greater issues here than in the US or Europe.

[DavidK]

I have accounts with a bank in Singapore who use the text code system to validate some on-line payments. It mostly works OK, just occasionally does the text take too long to get through, which can lead to a raised BP and some presidential language.

[robert k]

As above, I have texted people in the Philippines and went to pick them up and they weren't ready and 2 hours after I sent the text, they got it. Doesn't happen that often but be aware.

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

On 6/6/2016 at 9:47 PM, strap said:

We live in the US and I have most of our on-line banking, credit card, PayPal accounts, etc. set up for "two-factor authentication". This means when I log into one of the on-line accounts, I have to give a username and password as normal. But then there's another step. The website will send a text to my mobile phone with a 6-digit code that I then have to enter into the website to proceed any further. This works great here in the US and (I think) greatly reduces the chances of getting the accounts hacked. 

We're going to be visiting the Philippines for a couple weeks real soon, and I was wondering how well the two-factor authentication will work there. My T-Mobile phone plan allows free international texting, so hopefully if I do need to get into one of the accounts, the text would arrive and arrive fairly quickly. One option would be for me to temporarily disable the two-factor thing for the time we're there. The I'd just need my username/password. I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. And actually I hope I don't need to access any of my accounts at all during the time we're there, but you never know...

Does anyone have any experience with any of this kind of thing?

I replied to a different thread a couple of days ago regarding this issue, so if you take a look, you might find something that can help.

Because my replies are rather long, I'll give some additional info that I've found since I posted my original replies first:

PayPal two-factor authentication **WILL WORK** with Google Voice;

I still **HAVE NOT** been able to get Bank of America two-factor authentication to work with Google Voice.

My original posts are at:

Hope this helps

 

[bows00]

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 6:21 PM, Sander Martin said:

You will be fine as long as you have international roaming turned on your phone. If your not sure if the roaming is turned on or not, call your provider. Without roaming your sim card wont work overseas and you wont get the text.

Be very careful with this.  If you have a data plan, make sure it is off or you may incur a very expensive bill a the end of the month. 

Whenever I visit the Philippines, I make sure my Iphone is set to airplane mode and once there, I replace the chip and buy load. 

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

16 minutes ago, bows00 said:

Be very careful with this.  If you have a data plan, make sure it is off or you may incur a very expensive bill a the end of the month. 

Whenever I visit the Philippines, I make sure my Iphone is set to airplane mode and once there, I replace the chip and buy load. 

Agree with turning off data in most cases - although the OP is a T-Mobile customer (as am I) and T-Mobile allows free data in a lot of countries, including the PI, albeit at reduced speeds.

Texts will still go through while roaming, which is what the OP needs for bank SMS verification codes so long as the OP **DOES NOT** replace home-country SIM with a PI SIM.

Best of both worlds is to get an unlocked **DUAL SIM** GSM phone and keep home-country SIM and PI SIM in the same phone - Asus makes nice and inexpensive dual SIM GSM phones. I use a Zenfone 2 and it's great (and inexpensive).

On second thought, maybe the best idea is to put the home-country phone in the room safe and either bring an inexpensive **UNLOCKED** GSM phone from home or pick up one in the PI for the PI SIM.

If the home-country phone, or more correctly the SIM, is lost, stolen or fails, no way to get the home-country verification SMS. As well, it's also a problem if the OP uses any phone-based authenticators, such as Google Authenticator or Symantec VIP Access, or possibly phone-based PGP.

 

[ITGeek]

I ran into this problem also starting around May, when went to remit money from my US bank online.  I had to constantly call up the bank (they are very nice and helpful when I'm routed to Philippine call center).  Now I use my Vonage internet phone (US number) to have authentication code called to it instead of txt'd to my closed US cell phone number.