Originally Posted by
plunet
I suggest that using your US mobile as your SMS contact number with Chinese online systems when you have a Chinese mobile number available is counterproductive as it can't be used as an assertion of ID that is useful as proof within China. Whereas Chinese mobile numbers all have government ID registered against them and I guess there's a mechanism for a Chinese business with an errant customer to be able to use the mobile number trace who it is.
No issue for Chinese SIM cards to receive SMS globally.
Complicated issue. My US number received SMS fine globally. I have my DiDi account attached to my US number. I never had a single issue receiving SMS 2FA token from DiDi. My worry of using a Chinese nubmer was that I will get charged for incoming SMS while roaming outside of China. I was afraid that will deplete my mobile phone account balance faster. I usually prepaid a chunk of money into it because they don't accept my foreign card for automatic monthly payment.
My worry is valid..especially over the pandemic. My coworkers using Chinese number for the accounts were locked out because they didn't get their SMS while in the US, so they couldn't access their WeChat or AliPay, which then created a chicken/egg situation that they can't then use WeChat or AliPay to pay their local mobile phone,which caused their phone service to be suspended. I am the only one managed to keep my WeChat account alive on the over 3 years while my coworkers were locked out one by one. When they finally went to China, their carrier told them their SMS was using up their balance bit by bit and they depleted their balance (went into negative). Not every plan offers free incoming SMS while roaming.
China has a caller/sender-pay system, but SMS while roaming is not guaranteed to be free - it's plan specific.
Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you guys that it's generally better to use a Chinese number for registration on Chinese apps/systems but it has its issues as well. Needless to say, China has its policies and ways of doing things. It's not my place to judge. I can say that it's creates a lot of headaches for foreigners. I am tech-savvy, money-savvy, travel-savvy, and i still find it so unpredictable.