VoixCall
Guide

How to Get a Local Phone Number in Another Country (Without Moving There)

Need a UK, US, or European phone number while living somewhere else? Here's how virtual local numbers work, what they cost, and how to own a number in 60+ countries from an app.

By VoixCall Team Last reviewed

There are three common reasons to want a phone number in a country you donโ€™t live in:

  1. People actually answer local numbers. Call a client in London from a +91 or +234 number and it rings as โ€œInternational โ€” Unknownโ€. Call from a +44 20 number and they pick up.
  2. Family can reach you affordably. Give parents back home a local number that rings your phone wherever you are โ€” they pay a local call, not international rates.
  3. Business presence. A local number on your website makes a one-person company look reachable in that market.

The old way was a foreign SIM kept alive in a drawer (and a plan you pay forever, plus a trip to get it). The current way is a virtual number: a real phone number that lives in an app.

What a virtual local number is

A virtual number is a genuine number in the local numbering plan โ€” a London 020, a US area code, and so on โ€” hosted by a licensed provider instead of a physical SIM. Calls to it route over the internet to wherever you are. Used as your caller ID, itโ€™s the number people see when you call them.

Things to know before buying one anywhere:

  • Coverage differs by country โ€” some countries require local address verification for certain number types
  • Monthly fee โ€” real numbers carry a small recurring cost (VoixCall bills it from the same prepaid credits as calls)
  • Texts โ€” on VoixCall, SMS-capable numbers also receive texts in a Messages inbox (50 a month included, then $0.02 each); replying by text isnโ€™t supported yet. Some banks refuse to send verification codes to any virtual number, so test yours before relying on it

Getting one in VoixCall

VoixCall offers real numbers in 60+ countries, managed next to your calling credits:

  1. Get the app and create a free account
  2. Open Settings โ†’ Numbers and choose a country and number
  3. Set it as your caller ID โ€” from then on, everyone you call sees your local number
  4. The monthly fee simply deducts from your credit balance; drop the number anytime

You can also verify a number you already own and use it as your caller ID โ€” useful when you want calls from the app to show your real personal number so contacts recognize you.