Keep Your German Phone Number After Leaving Germany

You are leaving Germany, cancelling contracts, tidying up, and somewhere in the rush you let your German mobile number lapse. A few weeks later you try to log into your German online banking. The bank sends a TAN by SMS, to a number that no longer exists. Now you cannot reach your own money.

This is not a rare slip. It is one of the most common avoidable mistakes people make when they leave Germany. Your German number is not just a phone line, it is the key to your banking, your logins and your reachability inside Germany. This guide covers what happens to your number when you go, why you should keep it, and how to do it cheaply and permanently with a prepaid annual plan plus an eSIM.

At a glance

• Keep your German number. Banking TANs, 2FA (PayPal, Amazon, government logins) and WhatsApp are all tied to it.
• The prepaid trap: if the card sits unused and untopped for too long, the provider deactivates it and the number is gone for good.
• The best fix: a small prepaid annual plan (pay once, valid 365 days) as an eSIM, ideally with automatic renewal from stored credit so the number never dies by accident.
• Dual SIM: German eSIM for calls and SMS TANs, a local card at your destination for data. No phone swap, no second device.
• Receiving SMS TANs abroad is usually free. Roaming just has to stay switched on.

What happens to your SIM when you leave

It depends on the contract you hold:

• Monthly contract: moving abroad often gives you a special termination right (Sonderkündigungsrecht), but only with proof, namely your deregistration certificate. If you cancel, the number is gone unless you port it out (Rufnummermitnahme). More on this in the cancel-contracts guide.
• Prepaid card: here is the real trap. If you stop topping up and leave the card idle, the provider deactivates it after a few months, depending on the tariff. With deactivation the number expires, and a released number cannot be recovered.

So "the old prepaid card is still in a drawer" is not a strategy. Without activity it dies eventually, usually right when you need the TAN.

Why keep your German number

• Banking and TANs: many German banks send transaction TANs or login codes by SMS. Without an active number you lock yourself out.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA): PayPal, Amazon, eBay, government portals and countless accounts verify through your phone number. Changing the number from abroad is itself often only possible by SMS code, a chicken-and-egg problem.
• WhatsApp and messengers: your account is tied to the number.
• Identity and contract checks: new accounts, contracts or verifications in Germany frequently require a German number.
• Reachability: authorities, banks, landlords and family still reach you on the number they know.

Across 40,000+ deregistrations since 2014, the suddenly-dead number is one of the failures we see most often.

"One client did everything right when he emigrated, except he let his prepaid number lapse. Three months later he tried to approve a transfer, the TAN went to the dead number, and the bank locked the account for security. Unblocking it from abroad with ID and a letter took weeks. A 50-euro annual card would have spared him all of it." — Oliver Frankfurth

The fix: a prepaid annual plan plus eSIM

For our purpose, keeping the number alive, staying reachable, with almost no data needed inside Germany, a prepaid annual plan is ideal. You pay once and the card stays active for 365 days. No monthly top-ups, no risk of losing the number through inactivity. Better still are tariffs that renew automatically from stored credit, so the number lives on year after year without you thinking about it.

Order the plan as an eSIM. Your German number then sits digitally on your phone and you combine it by dual SIM with a local card at your destination:

• German eSIM: for calls and above all SMS TANs. Set it to "no mobile data" so no roaming data charges build up abroad.
• Local SIM or eSIM at your destination: for all your data, usually far cheaper than German roaming.

In your phone settings you put the data connection on the local card, and calls plus SMS on the German one. That way you pay local prices for browsing abroad and still stay reachable on your German number.

SMS TANs abroad, what to know

Incoming SMS are almost always free while roaming. For your bank TAN to arrive, you only need roaming left switched on for the German SIM. Inside the EU this works automatically and at no extra cost. Outside the EU you register once on a local network, and even there receiving SMS is nearly always free. Tip: before you go, check whether your bank lets you switch to an app-based TAN as a backup, in case an SMS does not come through.

Provider comparison: the best annual plans

To keep a number you do not need a big data bundle, you need reliability, an eSIM and a fair one-off price. For banking, network quality matters too: the Telekom network is considered the most reliable, including for receiving SMS abroad.

Ad: the provider links below are partner links. If you book through them we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Our assessment stays independent.

Our recommendation by need:

• Maximum reliability for banking: Telekom MagentaMobil Prepaid. Best network, automatic renewal from credit, the number stays alive long term.
• Best value on the Telekom network: congstar Prepaid annual plan. Telekom quality, plenty of data, eSIM, fair yearly price.
• Cheapest entry (pay once, one year): Vodafone CallYa annual plan. The lowest one-off price. It ends after 365 days, so you renew deliberately each year.

For the sole purpose of keeping the number, the smallest plan is plenty, because you use the data abroad through your local card anyway.

Set it up step by step

1. Secure the number before you cancel. If you still hold an old contract or prepaid card with the number you want, request number porting (Rufnummermitnahme) into the new annual plan. That keeps your exact number.
2. Order the annual plan as an eSIM. Pick the eSIM option at checkout, or have the physical SIM converted to an eSIM later free of charge.
3. Load the eSIM onto your phone (scan the QR code) and set it up as a second line beside your local card.
4. Configure dual SIM: data on the local card, calls and SMS on the German eSIM, roaming on for the German eSIM, mobile data off for the German eSIM.
5. Ensure auto-renewal (Telekom or congstar): keep enough credit stored so the yearly price is debited automatically and the number does not expire.

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

Keeping your German number is a small task with an outsized payoff. Port the number into a cheap annual plan, run it as an eSIM, and pair it by dual SIM with a local card abroad. Pick the Telekom network for the steadiest banking reachability, or Vodafone CallYa for the lowest one-off price. Set up auto-renewal once and the number outlives every move.

Related guides

• How to Cancel Your Contracts When Leaving Germany, including the special termination right for mobile contracts
• Best Bank Account for Expats, banking without a German residence
• German Deregistration Confirmation, the proof you need for the special termination right
• Leaving Germany Checklist, every step in the right order

This article was written by Oliver Frankfurth. Provider details as of June 2026, without guarantee, please check current tariffs with the provider. Links marked "Ad" are partner links. This guide is general information and not a substitute for individual advice.