How to Create a Stripe Account: Which Phone Number to Use

Stripe asks for a phone number in more than one place, and they don’t all mean the same thing. Some must be your real, active business line. One of them, the number that receives Stripe’s text-message codes, doesn’t have to be your personal mobile.

This guide explains where Stripe asks for phone numbers, which ones a temporary number can and can’t be, and the more secure alternatives to text messages that Stripe itself recommends.

Where Stripe asks for a phone number

Signing up is simple: “To sign up for an account, you’ll need an email address and password.” The phone numbers come when you activate the account. Stripe’s help center says: “Phone numbers are required as part of Stripe’s onboarding process.”

For a US account, Stripe asks for these:

Your business details must be accurate

Stripe has to know who it’s dealing with: “Stripe is required to collect and verify information about account holders.” Its terms say you must “promptly provide complete and accurate User Information to Stripe”.

So your business, support and representative numbers should be numbers that are genuinely yours and that you’ll keep. The customer support number in particular is “surfaced on cardmember statements and transaction details including payment statements, invoices, and receipts”. Your customers will call it, and PVADeals numbers receive SMS only, so never use a temporary number there.

This guide isn’t a way around Stripe’s verification. It’s about keeping your personal mobile out of the one place it doesn’t need to be: your login.

Where a temporary number fits: Stripe’s text-message codes

If you choose text messages for two-step authentication, Stripe sends a code to that mobile number, and it says it “will request a code for new devices and periodically for security.” The number doesn’t have to be your personal phone. A dedicated number works too, as long as you keep it.

That rules out a 20-minute number: once it expires you’d have no way to receive the next code. Use a long-term number (3 to 30 days, renewable for as long as you like) and turn on auto-renew, so the number stays yours for as long as you use Stripe.

Better than texts: passkeys and authenticator apps

Stripe lists its two-step authentication methods “from most to least secure”: passkeys, security keys, Touch ID or Windows Hello, authenticator apps, and finally text messages. Its documentation is blunt: “SMS-based 2FA is vulnerable to SIM-swapping and interception, so use it only as a last resort.”

The safest setup is a passkey or an authenticator app as your main method. If you want text messages too, put them on a dedicated long-term number instead of your personal phone.

How to receive Stripe’s text codes on a PVADeals number

1. Create a free PVADeals account and add credits: crypto from $3, or a card through Stripe from $5.
2. Choose Stripe and the country you want.
3. Pick a long-term rental (3, 7, 14 or 30 days) and turn on auto-renew, so you keep the same number.
4. In the Stripe Dashboard, open your user settings and set up two-step authentication by text message with the number.
5. Copy the code from your PVADeals dashboard, where it appears as soon as it arrives, and enter it in Stripe.
6. Write down your backup code. Stripe says it’s “only displayed once”, so store it somewhere safe.

If you lose access to the number

• Use your backup code. Stripe calls it “the easiest way to remove two-step authentication”. Keep it private: “anyone with your password and backup code has full access to your account.”
• No backup code? Account owners can submit a recovery request. Stripe says the decision “may take up to a couple of business days”.
• Renew before the number expires. That’s what auto-renew is for, and it’s the easiest way to avoid this section altogether.

If Stripe’s code doesn’t arrive

• Wait a few minutes. Stripe says to “wait up to 10 minutes for the verification code to arrive”.
• Code rejected? Stripe’s advice is to “request a new code and enter it as soon as it’s received”, because codes expire quickly.
• No SMS at all? If an eligible number receives no SMS during the rental, its cost comes back to your balance automatically as store credit.

Keep your personal number out of your Stripe login

A dedicated long-term number from PVADeals receives Stripe’s text-message codes without your personal mobile.

See the prices below, or read our guides for other payment apps: PayPal, Cash App and Venmo.