Which banks still require the physical SIM when a travel eSIM is the data line?

Any bank that still texts a code to the mobile number on your account. The travel eSIM can be the only data line. It does not receive those texts unless that eSIM is the number the bank has on file, which it should not be. Leave the physical SIM installed, set mobile data to the travel plan, and leave SMS on the physical line. Banks that approve a login inside an app you are already signed into do not need the physical SIM for that tap. The moment the app logs you out and falls back to a text, they do.

There is no reliable public list of “these six banks require a plastic SIM in 2026,” because the requirement is the recovery method on your login, not the logo. I have watched the same bank approve a transfer from the app over hotel Wi-Fi, then demand a text the next morning because the session died. The data line never changed. The session did.

What is the bank actually checking?

It is checking a phone number, or an app installation, or both. The number is a string in their profile: the one you typed when you opened the account. SMS to that string is delivered by the carrier that owns it. If that carrier is the physical SIM you left in a drawer at home, the text has nowhere to land. A travel eSIM from Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, or a local kiosk has a different number, or no SMS number at all. Data on that plan does not forward your home texts.

The app check is separate. If you are logged in, the approval prompt is a notification that rides whatever data path the phone has: travel eSIM, hotel Wi-Fi, or the home SIM’s roaming. Pulling the physical SIM does not block that prompt. Logging out does. So does an update that decides the device is new. So does adding a payee, raising a limit, or opening the app on a phone that has been restored. Those flows go back to the number on file. That is when the plastic SIM, or the eSIM profile that replaced it, has to be in the phone and able to receive SMS.

Which setups still need the physical SIM in the phone?

Keep it in if any of these are true:

• The account’s recovery and one-time codes are SMS to your home mobile, and that mobile is this SIM.
• You are not currently logged into the bank app, or you have not approved a transfer from this phone in the country you are about to enter.
• The bank’s app has logged you out once before when it saw a new country, a new device, or a long gap.
• You use the SIM’s number for the card issuer, the brokerage, and the email provider’s recovery. One locked bank is annoying. Three locked recoveries on the same number is the trip.

You can still set the travel eSIM as the only mobile data line. On an iPhone that is Settings, Cellular, Mobile Data, the travel plan. Default Voice Line stays the physical SIM. Do not flip “default for SMS” to the travel line because the data toggle and the SMS toggle look like the same choice. They are not. Data on the travel plan and SMS on the home SIM is the whole arrangement.

Android is the same split under SIMs or Mobile network: data on the eSIM, calls and texts preferred on the physical SIM, and the physical SIM not disabled. Disabling the line to “save battery” is how the text never arrives. The bank does not retry on the other plan.

When does Wi-Fi calling replace roaming, and when does it not?

If the home carrier supports Wi-Fi calling, and you leave it on for the physical line, SMS often arrives over the travel eSIM’s data or over hotel Wi-Fi without paying the home carrier for roaming. The physical SIM profile still has to be installed and enabled. Wi-Fi calling is not a reason to remove the card. It is a reason the card can sit there without a roaming packet plan.

It fails when the carrier blocks Wi-Fi calling outside the home country, when the hotel firewall kills it, or when you turned it off because a popup said it might use the other line. Test it before you fly. Send yourself a text from another phone while the home SIM is in, data is on the travel eSIM or on Wi-Fi, and airplane mode is off only for the lines you mean to use. If the text does not land, either buy a little SMS roaming on the home line or do not leave. A travel data plan will not grow that message later.

iMessage and RCS make this look fine when it is not. A blue bubble or a chat message from a friend is not the bank’s SMS. The bank uses the carrier text path. Watch a message from a number that is not in your contacts, the way a short code looks. That is the test.

Which banks are you done needing the SIM for?

You are done with the physical SIM for a given bank only after a real approval has worked with that SIM disabled. Not after the website’s marketing says they have an app. Turn the physical line off for an hour at home, data on Wi-Fi, and do the thing you will need abroad: log in from a signed-out state if that might happen, approve a payee, or view a code the app claims it will show. If it asks for a text, you are not done. Turn the line back on.

App-only approvals, hardware keys, and authenticator codes you already moved off SMS are the methods that survive a removed SIM. A lot of large banks offer those and still keep SMS as the fallback they use when the app is unhappy. The fallback is the requirement. Neobanks and brokers that truly have no SMS path will not ask. You find out by forcing the logged-out path once, at home, not by reading the feature list on the plane.

Do not add the travel eSIM’s number as the new mobile on the account so the texts “just work.” That number dies when the plan dies, it is shared with whatever kiosk sold it, and it is a bad recovery number for a bank. The travel number should not be the number tied to your bank. Keep the home number. Carry the SIM that receives it.

What about eSIM-only phones that have no tray?

Then “physical SIM” means the home line’s profile, not a piece of plastic. An iPhone or Pixel with no tray still has a primary line. Convert the home number to an eSIM before the trip, confirm SMS still arrives on that profile, and add the travel plan as the second eSIM with data pointed at it. Removing the home profile because the phone “only needs one eSIM for data” is the same mistake as leaving the plastic SIM on the kitchen table.

If the home carrier cannot do eSIM, and the phone has no tray, you do not have a way to receive that bank’s texts on this phone. That is a second device problem, a Wi-Fi calling problem if they support it on another handset, or a reason to change the bank’s recovery method before you go. It is not a reason to hope the travel data plan is close enough.

What to set the night before

1. Confirm the number on each bank, card, and brokerage profile is the home mobile, not an old landline and not a work line you do not carry.
2. Install the travel eSIM on Wi-Fi at home. Set it as mobile data. Leave the home SIM as the voice and SMS line. Turn Wi-Fi calling on for the home line if the carrier allows it abroad.
3. With data on the travel plan, receive one real SMS from a short code or from another phone. Not an iMessage.
4. Open the bank app, then force the logged-out or step-up path you are afraid of. If it texts, you need that SIM for the trip. If it approves in-app or with a key, note that, and still do not delete the SIM if any other account falls back to SMS.
5. Do not disable the home line to save a roaming toggle. Disable data roaming on the home line if you want to avoid a bill. Leave the line itself on.

Roaming charges are the reason people yank the home SIM, and they are a red herring. Turn data roaming off on that line. Leave international calling off if you do not want a voice bill. SMS roaming, or Wi-Fi calling for texts, is the cheap piece. A day of accidental data on the home carrier is the expensive piece. Those are different switches. The bank only needs the cheap one.

The banks that still require the physical SIM are the ones that will text the home number when it counts. The travel eSIM is a data pipe. It becomes a bank requirement only if you mistakenly make it the number on the account. Leave the number where it is, leave the SIM that serves it in the phone, and point data at the cheap plan.