Sounds like you want a Google Voice Number or similar service, but now you're spending money for someone else's awful software, and in some cases, some places will flag your number if its google voice and outright refuse to let you in.

▲

rs186 2 days ago | parent [-]

...Like Claude. They don't allow you to use Google voice numbers for verification.

▲

giancarlostoro 2 days ago | parent [-]

I want a "burner" number, but I'm not sure what the best option is, do I buy a crappy phone at Walmart and use that number? What's the bare bottom of the barrel cost for a phone with no mobile data, only SMS?

▲

kayodelycaon 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I have an Ultra Mobile eSIM as a second line on my iPhone. Costs $3/mo and you can buy cards to top it up or add a credit card. My primary eSIM is a regular phone plan.

It works surprisingly well. I can easily turn off the second line in Settings without removing it.

I could’ve bought an unlocked phone with cash somewhere and used the SIM in that. They wouldn’t know who I was.

I didn’t do that because it was inconvenient and it wouldn’t be anonymous once I started using it for SMS authentication.

▲

giancarlostoro 2 days ago | parent [-]

Wait, how did you get it so cheap?

	▲	kayodelycaon 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		https://www.ultramobile.com/paygo/

▲

typpilol 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

TracFone with minutes at Walmart

If you load it with 10 dollars in minutes, it'll be good forever. But I'm not sure what TracFone has for an inactive policy

▲

giancarlostoro 2 days ago | parent [-]

Supposedly as long as you keep paying for the plan, the minutes you load into it do not expire...

	▲	typpilol a day ago \| parent [-]
		But tracfones don't have a plan. It's prepaid minute cards only.

▲

Yeroc 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Any VOIP provider with SMS support should do the job. I personally use voip.ms but there are many.