Travel guide

How to Still Get Your Bank's SMS Verification Code Abroad With a Data-Only eSIM

Noa Regev6 min read

You know the moment: you're standing at the airport, or already at your destination, and you open your banking app to check a charge. It asks for an SMS verification code, and the code never arrives. This panic is especially common among people who've switched to a data-only eSIM and mistakenly think they need to "disconnect" their home SIM for everything else to work. They don't.

Short answer: Leave your physical home-country SIM card inside the phone. Don't remove it, don't turn it off. Just switch off "Data Roaming" on that SIM, and turn data roaming on for your eSIM line instead. That way, your internet traffic runs through the eSIM, while calls and SMS messages, including your bank's verification code, keep arriving on your home line as usual.

Key Takeaways

• One line for the internet, a second line for calls and SMS: the eSIM handles browsing, while your physical home SIM handles calls and text messages, including bank verification codes.
• Receiving an SMS abroad usually doesn't cost anything - you're receiving, not sending. This general rule holds for most roaming agreements, but the exact terms depend on your carrier.
• Replying to or sending an SMS from abroad is usually charged, unless you have a dedicated roaming package from your home carrier. If your bank asks you to "reply YES" by SMS, check what that costs first, or call your bank's customer service instead.

The basic setup: two lines, two jobs

A phone with eSIM support usually allows two cellular lines to be active at the same time: one physical line, your home SIM, and one digital line, the eSIM. (If you're not sure exactly what the difference is between the two, there's a detailed explanation in eSIM vs. Physical SIM: Which Is Better for Travel.) This is exactly what makes the problem solvable - you don't have to choose between having internet and staying reachable by your bank.

The simple breakdown:

• The data line (eSIM): this is the line that carries all your internet traffic - browsing, apps, maps. Data roaming stays on for this line, because that's exactly its job. (If you haven't activated your eSIM yet, there's a timing guide in When to Activate Your eSIM.)
• The home line (your physical home SIM): stays in the phone and stays on. It isn't deleted or removed from the device. The only thing you specifically turn off on it is data roaming, so it doesn't try to browse on a foreign network and rack up a roaming charge from your home carrier. It keeps picking up a local network abroad purely for calls and SMS, including the SMS with your bank's verification code, your banking app, or any other SMS-OTP service from a provider back home.

"Roaming" in general simply means your SIM connecting to a foreign network while you're abroad - that's what needs to stay active for you to receive calls and messages. "Data roaming" is a more specific setting within that, controlling whether the same line is also allowed to use cellular internet over that foreign network - that's the one you want to turn off, so you don't rack up charges. Both Apple and Google document this exact separation between the two lines in their official Dual SIM settings guides (Apple, Android).

How to set this up on iPhone

If you haven't installed your eSIM yet, start with the full iPhone installation guide. After installation:

1. Settings > Cellular.
2. Under the list of lines, you'll see both lines - the physical one (home) and the eSIM.
3. Tap into your home line and make sure its main toggle is on (the line itself isn't switched off).
4. On the same screen, find Data Roaming and switch it off - only for the home line.
5. Go back, tap into the eSIM line, and make sure Data Roaming is on for it.
6. Scroll down to Cellular Data, and select the eSIM line as the default for browsing.
7. Under Default Voice Line (if it appears on your device), make sure your home line is set for calls.

According to Apple's official Dual SIM guide, iMessage and FaceTime will keep working over whichever internet connection is active, meaning through the eSIM, while regular phone calls and SMS will keep arriving on your home line.

How to set this up on Android

If you haven't installed your eSIM yet, start with the full Android installation guide. Menus vary slightly between manufacturers (Samsung, Pixel, Xiaomi, and others), but the logic is the same across all of them:

1. Settings > Network & internet > SIMs.
2. You'll see both lines listed. Make sure your home line is marked as active (Enabled/On), not switched off.
3. Tap into your home line and find the Roaming or Data roaming toggle. Switch it off.
4. Tap into the eSIM line and make sure its Roaming toggle is on.
5. Near the top of the SIMs screen, you'll find a setting called Mobile data - select the eSIM line there.
6. Under Calls and SMS messages on the same screen, make sure both are set to your home line.

On some devices, the general toggle is simply called "Roaming," without an explicit split between data and calls. Google's official combined SIM guide (Android Help) walks through the same general logic but recommends checking the specific menu for your model. If you're not sure the setup is correct, there are two simple checks: first, confirm that app data (like WhatsApp and Maps) is working normally, a sign it's routing through the eSIM. Second, confirm the phone still shows signal on your home line.

What to do if the code doesn't arrive

If a few minutes have passed and the code still hasn't shown up, here are the checks, in order:

1. Confirm your home SIM is still in the phone and switched on. Using an eSIM doesn't require removing the physical SIM from the device - both lines are meant to be active together. If your home line's toggle got switched off by accident, that's the most common cause of this issue.
2. Check that you have signal on your home line, not just on the eSIM. Both signal icons should appear in the status bar when both lines are active.
3. Make sure you haven't accidentally turned on Airplane Mode, or that it hasn't stayed on from your flight.
4. Request a new code from your bank. Sometimes the delay is on the partner network abroad rather than in your phone settings, and a new code simply arrives faster.
5. Check with your bank whether there's an alternative verification method - a phone call instead of SMS, an authenticator app (like Google Authenticator), or a pre-generated code. Availability of these options varies by bank, so it's worth checking with your specific bank before you leave.
6. Turn your phone off and back on. Sometimes re-registering with the network fixes a stuck signal issue.

If nothing helps and it's urgent, the safest option is to call your bank's call center and verify your identity by phone.

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