Take your Aussie phone o/s if using a Westpac card

[William Gillespie]

Hi, when using my Westpac Altitude Platinum Mastercard in Europe this year, I sometimes triggered the need for a SMS verification when shopping on-line.
I did not have my Aussie mobile phone with me, so could not receive the needed code. Ditto using my Qantas Visa card. Both Visa and Mastercard use
a SMS verification two-step process which Westpac told me only allows an Aussie mobile telephone to be used, even if you have registered an o/s trip
with the bank and provided them with a foreign mobile phone number in use at that time. So even if you use a third party or non-Aussie mobile phone number whilst traveling internationally, I recommend that you take the Aussie phone with you, if only to receive SMS messages associated with your credit cards. Luckily I had a cash debit card with me and was able to use it instead, which did not require a SMS verification. This was to purchase a required reward ticket on SQ, which was quite urgent.

 

[JohnK]

This annoyed the hell out of me in Thailand recently. Had to switch the Aussie sim and Thai sim around often.

I'm not sure I want to start carrying 2 phones again. Need to explore the virtual sim feature when I have some spare time.

 

[William Gillespie]

Hi, I understand. I have a phone that I use o/s exclusively with a 12 month renewable German mobile # but the SIM card size is different than the SIM I use in my Aussie phone. I could fiddle with the various SIM adaptors to get it to fit in the German phone as a 2nd SIM, which I will probably have to do in 2023. Annoying. Westpac said to me that "thousands" of Aussies they issued cards to have had this SMS problem internationally. They said that the Mastercard form they use to register your Aussie mobile number when setting up your new card has 5 mobile phone number slots available, only one can be used, and that it is forbidden by Mastercard (and Visa) that an Aussie registered credit card have any mobile number attached to it that is not an Aussie issued mobile number.

 

[get me outta here]

BankWest will suspend the need for a verification upon your request prior to the trip, for the dates of the trip.
It then reactivates automatically.

 

[William Gillespie]

Hi, that is great to know! Wish Westpac and NAB would follow suit. Imagine having a family trip o/s with only one or two credit cards and no Aussie phone...and not being able to buy anything expensive enough, or on-line, that triggers a second step verification SMS....

 

[get me outta here]

BWest - also has low o/s fees and the card is free. I have not looked in quite some time, but there is a points earning not free BW card cc.

Hi, that is great to know! Wish Westpac and NAB would follow suit. Imagine having a family trip o/s with only one or two credit cards and no Aussie phone...and not being able to buy anything expensive enough, or on-line, that triggers a second step verification SMS....