Overall Approach and Process: Twilio → US Mobile
I signed up for a free Twilio account, which came with a few US dollars in credit. After purchasing a number, I found out it can’t receive SMS verification codes—these get blocked unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
Since I wanted to avoid spending money, I looked up US carrier trial policies and discovered that US Mobile offers a 30-day free trial, no KYC required.
With US Mobile, you need to bring your own number or use your own US number. Conveniently, they support number port-in from Twilio, so I applied to port my number from Twilio to US Mobile.
I emailed Twilio to request a port-out, and got the PIN within 48 hours (nowadays, you don’t even need to email; you can get it directly).
After submitting the port-in info, I got a success notice within a few hours.
You can pick from different US carriers. I chose T-Mobile and went for the $44 plan, with the first month free as a trial.
International roaming works for receiving SMS codes in China.
If you want one month totally free, with zero fees, US Mobile will verify your credit card—I used a U Card for successful verification.
Change in Number Status & Uses
After porting the number to US Mobile, the number shifted from being a virtual number to a real physical mobile number. It’s now eligible for use on US banks, US PayPal, and other sites that require a non-virtual number.
If you intend to use the number long-term, I recommend signing up for all needed sites first before finally porting the number to Google Voice.
Porting Process: US Mobile → Google Voice
Since the free trial had about a week left, I decided to port the number from US Mobile to Google Voice.
First, you need to get your account info and PIN from US Mobile, which is done by chatting with their online bot. The system sends a verification SMS to your number, and a few minutes later, the account info and PIN are emailed to you.
Next, head over to Google Voice to start the port-in. Here’s a critical point:
When requesting a port-in on Google Voice, you need to fill in not only the PIN, but also the billing address and user name.
According to info online, these details must match what’s on file with your current carrier.
Key Pitfall: Name and Address Issues (Very Important)
The main issue is that, when I created my US Mobile account, I entered my name in Chinese—but Google doesn’t support Chinese names.
Additionally, my Google account region was Ireland, not the US.
Still, while applying for port-in to Google Voice, I used a US address matching my US Mobile info.
Since Google Voice doesn’t allow Chinese characters for names, I changed the name to Pinyin, and the payment went through.
It’s still unclear if the final review will succeed, but unless you make the “Chinese name” mistake, there should be no problem.
Consider this a heads-up—do NOT use a Chinese name when registering with US Mobile.
Summary (Concise, No Missing Info)
Summary:
If you need a free US phone number, start with Twilio—they give you around $10–$20 credit on signup, a number costs $1–2, and each account can have one number only.
After porting out a number, you can buy another one.
Twilio will block verification codes for SMS, but regular texts get through. To receive verification codes, an upgraded plan is required.
To receive verification codes for free, port the number to US Mobile. Now Twilio’s virtual number becomes a real number, and you get a one-month free trial, usable for registering US banks, PayPal, etc.
No KYC, but credit card verification is required.
Because I already ported this number out of Twilio, I can buy a new one on Twilio and repeat the process.
Currently, I picked a nice number: +1 8888875258. Numbers starting with 888 are toll-free numbers in the US, but I’m not sure if it’ll be successfully ported.
My previous number has been successfully ported to US Mobile.
In the past, Twilio numbers could be ported directly into Google Voice, so you could get Google Voice verification codes without issue.
But now, Google Voice requires a verification SMS sent to the original number during the port-in, so direct port-in doesn’t work anymore—this roundabout method is necessary.
The bonus is, you get one month of free data and service and can use the time to register at banks and other sites.
