Banking When Overseas When You Dont Have Roaming?

hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 16:00

Hi all,

Question i have for upcoming trip to Japan. I wont have roaming enabled for my local sim and will rely on a esim whilst in Japan. My question is, if i need to do any banking that requires 2fa via SMS how do you do that? I have money loaded on a YouTrip card and a credit card. But in case i get stuck with those two how do i transfer money about when overseas? Do i transfer money into the other cards before i leave just in case? Thanks in advance, just a question thats been on my mind since i booked my trip and we (hopefully) fly next month so need to work out the logistics.

Travel

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  • ryefig on 09/04/2026 - 16:13
    +3

    You can still receive text messages to your Australian mobile number when you have roaming on and/or have an eSim activated.

    To prevent that situation entirely - check with your bank if they can turn text message authentication off and get the code through the app instead. Some banks offer it, not all.

    • hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 18:33

      Will contact my bank and see if there they have other 2fa authentication methods. Will also ask when a 2fa authentication scenario would be triggered. Maybe sending smaller amount won't require 2fa. Or maybe if I have the account pre saved it will trust and payee and not ask me again.

      • Stewardo on 09/04/2026 - 19:05

        Also depends on the card your using too, I know with wise you can add currency from your Australian bank account through their app. No need for internet banking

        • hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 19:24

          Referring more to the backup accounts i have for getting cash out such as my ME and Ubank Visa cards in case my Youtrip card plays up. Ive never used a card overseas so this is all new to me and ive read some cards can be problematic in Japan.

          • scrimshaw on 10/04/2026 - 09:50

            @hazzad: I've used YouTrip extensively in Japan and not had an issue with card terminals declining the card. All the way from Kansai prefecture to the Tohoku region.

            But always carry a credit card backup with you and maybe consider setting up Revolut as a secondary way to exchange money.

            • hazzad on 11/04/2026 - 12:44

              @scrimshaw: That's great to hear. I've done some reading but could not find any evidence to confirm that you're up was well supported in Japan. I hedged my bets and placed a decent amount on it when the conversion was high not thinking it would go higher. Technically could have left it as rate is slightly better now. Anyway no harm. At least if rate is still good on a month then conversion on credit card will be good. Do you recommend actually taking yen over or is it easy to cash out at Narita? Or can I use my youtrip to get suica cards and load up?

              • scrimshaw on 11/04/2026 - 13:20

                @hazzad: I didn't get my Suica at Narita but based on Reddit comments you can purchase the Welcome SUICA from vending machines that will take foreign Visa and Mastercards.

                What I would do:

                1. Fly to Japan without any cold cash, but do pre convert enough currency on multiple cards (YouTrip / Revolut). Take note of what your monthly ATM withdrawal limits are.

                2. After landing make a beeline for SUICA vending. You can make the initial top up with YouTrip card. Once you've got the card, either take the train (pay with Suica) or bus to your hotel.

                3. If you see 7 Bank Atm anywhere you should be able to withdraw with YouTrip or any Mastercard fee free. Most 7 Eleven stores will have an Atm.

                4. For Visa card fee free withdrawal you need to find the pink color Aeon Bank atm. These can be a little harder to find, and they may not exist at all in certain towns.

                Atm fees are typically 220 yen.

                If you end up with a lot of loose change you can spend it all at konbini, when you pay with cash you can just pour all your coins in and it counts it for you.

          • SlickMick on 11/04/2026 - 16:56

            @hazzad: A tip for Japan, bring some yen with you. Japan is weird: super high tech, but primarily cash based. You get your train tickets, food, everything from a machine, but usually with cash. Credit cards aren't accepted for purchasing rail tickets, or a heap of other places.

            I remember my first day in Japan, in the stinking heat, with a bunch of luggage at a train station, trying to find an atm. IIRC even the train station didn't have an atm, I had to find a 7-11 or whatever.

            Fantastic holiday once I had some cash though :)

      • ryefig on 10/04/2026 - 08:24

        It's probably not the amount, but moreso that your bank will recognise that you are overseas (which would seem unusual from their perspective), which would result in the 2FA.

  • McMaferMur on 09/04/2026 - 16:20
    +3

    depends which carrier you are in australia (but i heard all support). then you can receive txt for free (cant send).
    but my experiences in china is not that, sometimes the text comes after 3-4 hours later sometimes not coming at all
    im with coles mobile in australia.

    • hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 18:33
      +1

      Currently lebara but will be swapping most likely before we leave as my 1 year pre paid will be done and not staying with them and reception sucks a lot of the time.

      • McMaferMur on 09/04/2026 - 21:53

        sorry im actually with onepass not coles

      • ChickenA on 10/04/2026 - 09:29

        You can just enable roaming in your Lebara, but go into your mobile, and disable roaming data for your Lebara, so your Lebara would still be connected to mobile network in Japan and receive SMS, while your phone won't try to use the internet over it.

      • salmon123 on 10/04/2026 - 10:57

        Currently lebara

        Was overseas in Dec/Jan - could receive SMSs on Lebara prepaid no issues.

        I had to activate roaming on my lebara sim in the phone settings (nothing to do on the lebara website).

        Since it's pre-paid and I didn't add any credit, I couldn't use any features like sending SMS, calls or data.

        • hazzad on 10/04/2026 - 13:28

          Ok well thats one thing. My only issue im not sure i will be with lebara when im there. My current cycle ends in 8 days so have to move to another provider and dont really want to stay with lebara as their reception is pretty cruddy in some areas we go. The only thing i really liked about them was data banking. Sadly its getting harder and harder to find those 120 odd gb plans for around the $100-120 price point.

          • salmon123 on 10/04/2026 - 14:40
            +2

            @hazzad:

            My current cycle ends in 8 days so have to move to another provider and dont really want to stay with lebara

            Your making it more complicated than it needs to be.

            Google tells me Amaysim, Lyca, Aldi and Boost allow you to receive sms for free overseas. When you pick a provider you can google whether they charge to receive sms overseas.

            If my sim card was expiring and I was travelling, I would just find a provider with a decent roaming option for a month or two. Not sure what sort of deal you got on your japan eSim, but I found the eSim websites to be a little bait-and-switchy. The headline rate is great but why the time you increase the data and expiry, it can be kind of expensive.

            Local sim cards can be a good deal too.

  • scrimshaw on 09/04/2026 - 16:21
    +3

    I'm with OnePass mobile which actually has no roaming in Japan at all and is unable to receive any messages.

    I left the OnePass sim inserted into an 4G Samsung Android tablet running PushBullet, and left it on the charger at home.

    Can access the sms function remotely.

    https://www.pushbullet.com/

    • McMaferMur on 09/04/2026 - 21:55

      ah yes me too with onepass and i think it doesnt support sms overseas perfectly, sometime received most are not.

  • Dio on 09/04/2026 - 17:10
    +3

    ANZ has ANZshield app and Mquarie has Authenticator app. Use that other than 2FA. Open up a Mquarie account that is the best for overseas transactions.

  • Stewardo on 09/04/2026 - 16:12
    +2

    Set your eSIM for data
    Set your Aussie sim to roaming to receive texts and calls.
    Once you’ve received the text from bank turn aussie sim back off

    • boomramada on 09/04/2026 - 16:23
      +2

      Set your Aussie sim to roaming to receive texts

      No need to on/off roaming, keep your aussie sim and use esim, you get sms via aussie sim.

      • hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 18:30
        +1

        So I will only incur any roaming charges if I do anything call wise outbound from my phone ? I can still receive sms's without it costing me anything?

        • boomramada on 10/04/2026 - 13:05

          If you have WiFi or another sim with data, and sims are active, you should receive texts without any other charges.

          • hazzad on 10/04/2026 - 13:26

            @boomramada: Yeah but i dont want to risk additional charges on the Oz sim when roaming. Wouldnt leaving the Oz sim active potentially open me to charges?

            • SlickMick on 11/04/2026 - 16:46

              @hazzad: I stuffed up recently for a couple of reasons. Firstly, my home sim is an esim, and my iPhone 11 can't handle 2 esims simultaneously. To have SMS roaming from home and data from a travel sim without switching which one is active when I want to recieve an SMS, one needs to be a physical sim.
              When I turned on travel sim, it automatuically turned off my home sim.

              But it wasn't going to work for me anyway, because I also didn't know I had to turn on international roaming with my home provider.
              With amaysim, there is an International Roaming setting. Turning it on is free, I just turned mine on so I won't make that mistake again. It's free, and I don't expect it will make any difference locally.
              (There is no need to use thier $20 International Roaming pack - that's to allow a bit of calls & texts in 120+ specific countries.)

              If you get the above right, you should be able to have both sims on. The iPhone has a setting for which is the default voice line. If your travel sim is just for data, leave this as your home sim.
              Then for the home sim, turn off data roaming.
              For the travel sim, it might require data roaming turned on (e.g. if it covers multiple countries, or a China sim that operates from Singapore or Hong Kong).

              If you want to use the travel sim for calls and sms, then I think you'd have to be switching which sim is the default voice line.
              Otherwise, you should recieve SMS on your home number, and just don't make or answer calls, or send SMS. Calls can go to voice mail, but you can't retrieve them. (A prepaid plan like amaysim just won't let you anyway if you didn't buy a roaming pack.)

              Well that should help me for my next trip, hope it helps you too.

        • Stewardo on 09/04/2026 - 19:00
          -1

          Would depend on you phone plans terms and conditions. I’d leave it off if it were me, depends who you flying with too, some airlines have roaming too, best to leave it off if your not sure.

      • Stewardo on 09/04/2026 - 18:15

        You’d only turn it off if you were concerned about a roaming text charge, which would depend on the telco plan

      • 9-seas on 10/04/2026 - 23:09

        I second that. I got SMS with esim and Aussie sim's roaming switched off. I only had to switch on the roaming rather than using public wifi to activate esim's extended plan. Unlike CBA and MacQ which send 2fa to their apps, WBC uses SMS.

    • Dr Phil on 10/04/2026 - 13:47
      -4

      Why do any ot that?

      The other 99.999% of the travelling world just use hotel or cafe Wifi.

      • SlickMick on 11/04/2026 - 16:49

        If you don't get this right, you don't get to respond to MFAs, so you don't access any money and have a fasting holiday.

  • wetsandwich on 09/04/2026 - 17:05
    +1

    Get a bank which doesn't use outdated and insecure SMS for 2FA would be a good start. CBA, despite the trend to hate them, has app based auth, and overall very high security.

    • hazzad on 09/04/2026 - 18:28
      +3

      Yeah I'm unlikely to switch all my banking for the sake of 10 days os. Plus CBA do suck regardless of how they deal with their 2fa.

      • wetsandwich on 10/04/2026 - 09:48
        +2

        Still best practise though. If a bank still uses SMS then it is not a bank that cares about security.

        • hazzad on 10/04/2026 - 13:31

          I dont understand where you think the security breach might be? The chances of your phone being high jacked are pretty slim. I know it can happen but its a rarity.

          • Mugsy on 11/04/2026 - 06:30

            @hazzad: It's not hijacking of your phone, it's the porting of your mobile number that is a concern. Plenty of news clips on Youtube on the problem and where it can fail you.

            When you disassociate the 2FA process from your mobile number, you remove that risk.

            And besides, receiving SMSes is not guaranteed. A dedicated authenticator is more reliable when overseas. It is the best option when travelling abroad with or without roaming… and that's coming from experience with sorting out my parents' mobile and banking solutions from 15-20 trips abroad over the past 3yrs.

            • hazzad on 11/04/2026 - 12:40

              @Mugsy: Yeah porting was what I was referring to. I know what you mean.

      • soan papdi on 10/04/2026 - 14:06
        +2

        Open a macquarie transaction account, it's free. Will work out cheaper than youtrip for of FX, fee free ATM access, No SMS needed for 2FA (it's their own app) and earn interest in the transaction account itself (though it's miniscule 2-3%). Keep spare cash in a macquarie savings account, instant transfer to the txn account within the app.

  • Andrew Mills on 09/04/2026 - 18:59

    Check if your bank has app-based 2FA. Some banks let you use their app for authentication instead of SMS (like push notifications or a code generator). Turn that on before you leave. If your bank offers it, you're golden.

  • archiexyz on 09/04/2026 - 19:44

    some sim plans can receive sms without roaming. eg. Belong.

  • jizmo on 09/04/2026 - 20:57

    Not Japan but I have to recharge local sim card $1 a week for 8 Gig of data on their app. Zero trust I use my hoop jumping accounts that are empty, ING and UBank to pay, with less than $5 in the account sometimes I get and SMS to authenticate just enter the 6 digit number the SMS sends you at check out. That's where the 2 sim phone is a must if you live in 2 countries.
    Only give out card numbers with money in it you can afford to lose or you have full trust that they wont skim like AAMI do after the insurance premium ends and they decide you need to auto renew or some ISP's do.
    Same deal in Japan.

    To use your ALDI Mobile service whilst overseas you must have sufficient PAYG credit. PAYG charges for using your ALDI Mobile overseas are much higher than at home and you will be charged for making AND receiving calls, sending messages, and using data.

    1 min call to Aus = $1.0;
    1 min call within Hong Kong = $1.0;
    Receive 1 minute call = $1.0;
    Send SMS to Aus = $0.5;
    Send SMS within Hong Kong = $0.5;
    Receive SMS = $0.0;
    Use 1MB data = $0.5;
    Send MMS to Aus or any country = $1.0 plus $0.5 per MB;
    Receive any MMS = $0.5 per MB;
    You can turn International Roaming off at any time in your My ALDI Mobile account - just be sure to do this when using Wi-Fi overseas, otherwise, data charges will apply.

  • mingofmongo on 10/04/2026 - 08:45

    Another option for traveling is to set up a Revolut account. When I go overseas I load it up with enough to spend for the time I'm away, in the local currency. You can get a physical card and also pay using Google wallet or apple pay.
    Then at the end, any money left over gets transferred back to AUD. You lose a little on the conversion, perhaps, but overall it's nice to have the security of knowing you're not using your daily driver bank account when you're overseas.
    Pretty much everyone I know (myself included) has a horror story of using their usual EFTPOS car overseas and getting scammed and having to deal with card cancellation etc.
    Haven't worried about that at all now that I use my Revolut card overseas. Even if it does get scammed, the max amount they can take is the money that I've loaded up on the card.
    Plus you can recharge at any time from your normal bank account, so if Revolut runs low, it's easy to top up.
    Plenty of other similar products out there, I just chose Revolut based on a recommendation from some random person on ozbargain. Like most good decisions.

  • Psdsoft on 10/04/2026 - 09:03

    I just roam my sim these days, most phones support two sims if you want local data but the whole thing is a pain in the arse. For a few bucks everything just works. I now use Vodafone which roams limit free for calls and data for $5 a day. Compared to the other costs of travelling it’s cheap peace of mind. When doing insecure stuff there is wifi everywhere.

  • User0001 on 10/04/2026 - 10:12

    I was in Japan not that long ago.

    I use up bank for overseas transactions as I have found they almost match the current exchange rate. Plus no ATM withdrawal fees (just withdraw money from the 7/11 ATMs, they're everywhere).

    Up also uses app based 2FA. Whenever I went low, I just transferred money directly to my up bank account via PayID, and it would instantly become available. I often did this while I was at the ATM.

    I'm with Woolworths mobile, which didn't have any roaming, so I just switched my esim to my Woolworths one whenever I wanted to receive a text. Over the span of 3 weeks, I only had to do this twice. If your phone supports two active esims, or you have a physical Sim and an esim or a dual Sim phone, as others have said, you can turn on data for your international Sim and leave calls + texts for your Oz Sim.

  • greyeye on 10/04/2026 - 11:16

    im using woolworths everyday mobile. I can receive SMS without roaming, but cant respond.
    Also annoying as when I'm traveling I'm using esim, so I have to flip to Woolworths e-SIM in order to receive sms.

  • hazzad on 10/04/2026 - 13:40

    Ok so from some of the above responses it appears that i should be able to recieve sms if required by simply switching my Oz sim back on quickly and it shouldnt cost me anything. I will contact my bank also and see what other options i may have should i need to 2fa a money transfer when OS.

    • Mugsy on 11/04/2026 - 06:46

      You should be able to receive SMS when overseas with your usual sim on… but receiving SMS is not guaranteed.

  • hazzad on 10/04/2026 - 14:12

    Ok so turns out i could just switch my OTP for 2fa to email in the end anyway so its all sorted.

    • Mugsy on 11/04/2026 - 06:48

      A better option than sms when travelling for sure.

  • User0001 on 11/04/2026 - 09:34

    Make sure you notify your banks you are travelling as well! Otherwise they may freeze your account while you're overseas.

    If you have an iPhone, you can use the digital suica card to pay for things anyway in some places.

    • hazzad on 11/04/2026 - 12:39

      Yeah have organised that also. Thanks for the tip though.

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