> The question here is what without an ID you can't get the same phone number. I’ve never shown my ID to get a phone for T-mobile or walked into the store. I

> The question here is what without an ID you can't get the same phone number. I’ve never shown my ID to get a phone for T-mobile or walked into the store. I even switched my service with the same number from AT&T to Verizon back in 2011 without going into the store. I entered some verification information and Verizon sent me an iPhone 4S. I logged into my iPhone 4S with my Apple ID and everything downloaded from iCloud - data, apps, and the screen layout. My Verizon phone became active and my AT&T phone deactivated with the same number. > you can't request password recovery for bazillions of services which treats SMS as 2FA for the password recovery. Banking apps are one of those. I can log into any Apple device with my Apple ID and receive SMS messages - not just iMessages. Currently, if I get an SMS message, it goes to my phone, my cellular Apple Watch, my iPad and my Mac. If I forget my iCloud password , my wife can help me recovery it (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212515 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212515). My wife and I would have to lose six cellular equipped devices between us and both of our wallets not to have any access to anything. > I would repeat again, but try to 'lose' your wallet and the phone, preferably in some place 500+km from your home. Your opinion on some account/password policies would change. Well, seeing that my “home” right now is whatever city I happen to be in with my wife this week (doing the whole digital nomad thing across the US), I’ve thought a lot about that. If I lost my wallet and needed cash, I call American Express and take advantage of my Global Assist privileges (https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/us/credit-cards/features-benefits/policies/pdf/PGA_Benefit_Guide_Rev_09-17.pdf https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/us/credit-c...) that come with the Amex Platinum. If I lost my phone. Hopefully I wasn’t mugged and I still have my Watch where I can make calls (at least in the US) from the same number and receive texts. My iPad also has a cellular connection that receives SMS messages from the same number. While it doesn’t have a dialer for regular calls, you can call a number from your contacts.