Last year our family visited several Asian countries, and we managed to get by with eSIM data-only plans. The only setbacks occurred when our Citi Costco Visa card flagged some transactions as suspicious (which I wrote about here and here), and because Citi attempted to notify me via voice and SMS text—which we did not receive—it prevented our purchases from being made. This year, I made sure to add my Google Voice number to my Citi Costco Visa card in hopes that I would be given an option to verify transactions using a data-only eSIM plan. It worked. When making a transaction, I was presented with the following options for identity verification:
You may have noticed that there were options to call or text me at the …2505 number, the the only option for the …2516 (Google Voice) number was to call me. I am not certain, but my phone contact information on the Citi website are:
- Home Number: …2505 → I think Citi uses this for calls
- Primary Mobile: …2505 → I think Citi uses this for text messages
- Alerts Mobile: …2516 → I think Citi uses this for calls
If my assumptions above are correct, then I think Citi should also present an option to send text messages to the alerts mobile number. While calling me at my Google Voice number worked for identity verification, I would have preferred getting a text message at my Google Voice number so I could copy and paste the code.
In any case, if you have a Google Voice or another VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service, consider adding that contact number to your Citi card so that you can easily verify your identity using data-only eSIM plans when traveling abroad. I assume that this approach may work for other credit cards, but you’ll need to review your options and/or ask customer support.
