RE: What To Do When Your Phone Gets Lost Or Stolen (While Living) Abroad
My phone was stolen recently in Mexico. I used Google Auth for signing into my google accounts and Coinbase. I bought a new phone with a mexican number so that definitely complicated things like my uber account and signing in with google authenticator. Had to change my Whatsapp number too.
Getting into my google accounts wasn't too big of a deal. They have a pretty easy recovery process for that.
Coinbase is a different story. I put in a request telling them I'd lost my phone and phone number and I kept getting the wrong info back from them. So frustrating. Finally I called their customer support number and immediately got a real person on the phone who helped me. I was surprised. They told me that since I didnt have the "secret seed code" for Google Authenticator I would have to make a new Coinbase account and have my funds transferred over from my old one. So now I'm in the process of getting my new account authorized.
Call their support number on their website. They have a toll-free number which means you can call it for free from overseas using Skype as long as you have a good internet connection.
omg thanks for this!!!!! This is so helpful and makes me feel a little more calm because yes, coinbase and all that is what freaks me out. Oh and bittrex and all that jazz. Did you have to get into those types of accounts too?
I'm so glad to FINALLY hear a good story about Coinbase customer support. If you go on Reddit and read about it...you'll just straight up have a panic attack lol.
YAY for companies who actually have a toll-free #!!! Charles Schwab has one, and let me tell you, they are hands down the best bank I've used for traveling.
One time, when I lived in Guatemala, I bought some stuff from a Chinese website (for my ecomm business...nothing out of the usual, just the same type of purchase I always do) but for some reason my bank at the time shut down my card. They didn't even e-mail me first to ask if it was me, they just straight shut it down.
Then they couldn't mail me a new one because my address was like "the yellow house on yellow brick road down the street from the volano" or whatever hahaha some vague sketchy address like that.
I've had banks do a lot of rando things.
Schwab though was super helpful because of the fact that they actually had a toll free number, and because they mailed me my card overseas! They mailed it out to me 3x and it FINALLY got here yesterday.
But the fact that hey did that and they are easy to deal with is so helpful. PLUS no atm fees!!! I save a lot of $ with them. Lol, your toll free comment started my Schwab speel, hah sorry.
Thanks for this info!!!!
P.S. Also, maybe try the app "authy" apparently it's easier than google auth for getting back but idk, sounds like it was smooth for you!
I use Charles Schwab too and yes they are so easy to work with because their customer service is really good.