How to Keep Your Foreign Number When Moving to the Netherlands

The question arrives in every expat forum in a slightly different form: can I take my number with me to the Netherlands? Vodafone states that number retention only works for Dutch numbers, so do not count on moving a foreign mobile number to a Dutch provider. The useful question is the one underneath: how do you avoid losing a number that banks, friends, family, employers and two-factor systems know about? This guide covers the options, and how portability works once you are inside the Dutch system.

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Quick answer: Do not count on porting a foreign number to a Dutch provider. Keep the old number alive elsewhere, for example on a minimal home-country plan used as a second line, or ported to a VoIP service where that is possible, and get a Dutch number for daily life. Use WhatsApp’s change-number function and move important accounts deliberately while both lines work. Between Dutch providers, number retention is free and your new provider arranges it.

Keep the home number on a second line

If your phone supports dual SIM or eSIM, you can carry a Dutch number for daily life and your original number on one device. Before you move:

1. Ask your home provider about the cheapest option that keeps the number active, and ask what rules apply if the number is not used.
2. Check whether your provider allows eSIM conversion and whether that needs to be done in the home country.
3. Think about payment. Home-country direct debits may stop working if you close a home-country bank account, and paying a foreign bill by card can add currency costs. A multi-currency account such as Wise is one way to hold a home-currency balance; compare the fees first.

The EU caveat. If your home number is from another EU country, “roam like at home” lets it work in the Netherlands at domestic rates, but it is intended for periodic travelling. If you stay and use roaming in another EU country longer than in your home country over a period of 4 months, the operator may contact you and may apply a surcharge (European Commission, checked 6 October 2026). Living in the Netherlands on a plan from another EU country is the situation those rules describe, so ask your home provider what it does.

Move the number to the internet

If you mainly need to receive calls and texts on the old number, a VoIP or virtual-number service is an option. For US numbers, Google Voice charges a $20 fee to port in a mobile number, and not all numbers can be ported. Users based in the US are restricted to port requests with an active US mobile number and need to make their port request in the US, so this is a before-you-fly task. Do not cancel your phone plan until Google Voice tells you that the port is complete; after that, your service provider cancels your phone service, and the port can take up to 48 hours (Google, checked 8 October 2026).

For other countries, check whether a VoIP provider in your home country supports porting a mobile number. Test whether verification codes from your bank still arrive on a VoIP number before you rely on it.

Let it go, deliberately

If the old number is not attached to a home-country bank, tax authority, pension provider or property, and your contacts reach you on WhatsApp anyway, retiring it is a legitimate choice, as long as you do it on purpose. Do the migration checklist below first.

Getting a Dutch number

You need a Dutch number in practice: DigiD, banks, gemeente correspondence, delivery services, landlords and employers assume one. If you do not have a BSN yet, a prepaid SIM is the simplest start. Lebara, for example, sells prepaid bundles on the KPN network, such as 6 GB with unlimited calls and texts for EUR 10 for 30 days on 6 October 2026 (lebara.nl). Lyca is another prepaid brand; check its current conditions. With a BSN, a Dutch address and a Dutch IBAN, you can take a sim-only subscription. Our BSN application guide covers the registration step and the first-year pillar puts it in sequence with banking and insurance.

For the subscription itself, comparing across providers lets you see which plan fits. At the budget end, Budget Thuis Mobiel advertises the 5G network of KPN (budgetthuis.nl, checked 6 October 2026). Our full provider comparison explains which brand sits on which network.

One thing to check before you sign: a contract with a financed handset. Buying something on instalments for more than EUR 250 is registered at BKR (bkr.nl, checked 6 October 2026). See Dutch phone contracts and BKR.

Portability inside the Netherlands

Once you have a Dutch number, moving it between Dutch providers is called nummerbehoud, and ACM ConsuWijzer explains the rules (checked 8 October 2026):

• You can always take your mobile number with you, whether you have prepaid or a subscription. Your contract does not have to be finished, but then you may still have to pay your old provider for the subscription.
• Your new provider does the work. You request nummerbehoud with your new provider, which makes the request to your old provider. Your old provider may not refuse it.
• It is free. Your provider may not charge for taking your number to another provider.
• You have a grace period. You have a right to nummerbehoud until 1 month after the date the agreement ended, so request it in time.

What this looks like at an operator. Vodafone describes the same process: you order a subscription and say you want to take your number; Vodafone arranges the switch with your current provider and tells you the switch date by text message. The SIM and subscription are activated on the day of the switch, usually the day your contract or notice period ends. Vodafone checks with your current provider when you can switch free of charge, and you can request number retention from 120 days before your subscription ends. It can only transfer numbers on working days, not at weekends or on public holidays. Coming from prepaid, you can switch straight away, but you cannot take your prepaid credit with you. Vodafone cancels your old Vodafone subscription when your number moves to another provider, so you do not need to tell it yourself (vodafone.nl, checked 8 October 2026).

If it fails. Ask your new and your old provider for an explanation, send your new provider a complaint (ACM ConsuWijzer provides a model letter), and report the problem to ACM ConsuWijzer if you cannot resolve it together.

The migration checklist

The number change itself is the risky moment. Work through this while both lines are still active.

Before you move

• Ask your provider about eSIM and about the cheapest way to keep the number.
• If you plan to port to VoIP, submit the port request while you are still in the home country and the number is active.
• Export your contacts to an account, not only to a SIM card.
• List every account that uses the old number for login or verification: banks, brokerages, tax portal, pension, insurers, employer HR, cloud accounts, airlines.

In the first weeks here

• Get a Dutch number early, so that you can complete your gemeente registration and bank onboarding.
• Use WhatsApp’s change-number function: it transfers your profile, contacts and chats to the new number and removes the account tied to the old one. WhatsApp recommends telling your contacts first (WhatsApp, checked 8 October 2026).
• Where a service offers an authenticator app, consider using it instead of SMS, so that no single number is critical.
• Give your Dutch number to DigiD, your bank, your health insurer and your employer as accounts are created.

Once your BSN and Dutch IBAN are in place

• Consider switching from prepaid to a sim-only plan, taking your Dutch prepaid number with you if you have already given it out.
• Review whether the home-country line still earns its cost, and close it deliberately if nothing depends on it.

What we would do

For a stay of a year or more: a Dutch number as the primary line, the home number kept as a second line on the cheapest tariff with data switched off, and important accounts moved to an authenticator app where possible. If the home number is American and you mainly need to receive calls, check whether Google Voice can take it before you leave.

Related reading

• Dutch mobile plans compared: Odido vs Vodafone vs budget brands
• Best sim-only plans for expats in the Netherlands
• Best prepaid SIM cards in the Netherlands
• Dutch phone contracts and BKR
• BSN application guide for expats

External sources: ACM ConsuWijzer — telefoonnummer meenemen and the European Commission on roaming rules.