Why separate
- Protect your privacy: your personal number stays with the people close to you.
- Truly switch off: you decide when the work number rings.
- Look professional: a business greeting and clearly identified texts.
- Handle your clients' information better: their messages don't mix with your personal conversations, which helps with Québec's Law 25.
The options, plainly
Two phones: perfect separation, but you pay for, charge and carry two devices.
One phone with two SIM cards or an eSIM: one device, but two mobile plans, and not every phone supports it.
A virtual number in an app: one device and one data plan. The second number works over the internet, and often on your computer too. On the other hand, you need a connection to use it, and 9-1-1 has limits specific to internet services.
Habits that make the separation work
- Set hours. Use Do Not Disturb on the work number in the evening and on weekends, and say so in your greeting.
- Record a professional greeting: your name or the business's, your hours and your usual response time.
- Give the right number in the right place: business cards, website and ads with the work number; family and friends with the personal one.
- Don't mix contacts. Keep clients in the address book tied to the work number.
- Check which number is shown before you call someone back: it is the most common mistake.
- Keep important exchanges (quotes, confirmations) somewhere meant for them, and delete what you no longer need.
Online sales, classified ads and dating
When you post an ad or talk with strangers, a second number keeps your personal one private. You can block a caller or stop using that number without touching your main line. Stay careful: never share a verification code you received by text, even if asked politely. Our guide to text message scams has more tips.
Freelancers and small teams
As your business grows, ask yourself who owns the number. A number in the business's name can move from one person to another if someone leaves the team; a personal number can't. For several people, a business phone system with extensions, a greeting and business hours is often simpler than a set of individual numbers.
Protecting your privacy with a second number
Your personal mobile number has become an identifier: it is used to recover your accounts, receive verification codes and often to find you online. Giving it to anyone means handing out a key. A second number works as a buffer: you give it to strangers, shops and listings, and keep your main number for family, your bank and your important accounts.
If the second number gets too many unwanted calls, you can block them, filter calls or, if needed, change it, without touching your main number. The people who have your main number are not affected by the change.
What a second number does not hide
- Your name: if you put it in a profile, a listing or an email signature, it stays visible.
- Your voice and what you say: the other person can always note what you tell them.
- Your IP address and your data at the provider: the service knows your account, like any telecom provider, and must protect it under the law.
- Your verification codes: some banks and platforms don't send codes to internet phone numbers. Keep your main number for sensitive accounts.
Your information at the provider
In Québec, Law 25 requires businesses to name a person in charge of the protection of personal information, to publish a clear privacy policy and to get separate consent for uses that the service does not need. Before choosing a second-number service, read its policy: where your texts and voicemails are stored, for how long, who can access them, and whether personalized ads or artificial intelligence features are on by default. Québec's Commission d'accès à l'information (CAI) takes complaints if a business does not follow these rules.
Which number to give, and to whom
- Family, close friends, doctor, bank, employer: the main number.
- Classified ads, online shopping, loyalty programs, dating, contest entries: the second number.
- Clients and suppliers, if you are self-employed: the second number, with a professional voicemail greeting.
- When in doubt, the second number: it is easier to give out the main number later than to take it back.
With MIMT
A MIMT second number lives in the app on your mobile and in the browser at app.mimt.ca: calls, texts and voicemail kept apart from your personal line. Your calls and texts show that number, never your mobile's. Plans with a number start at $12.99 a month before taxes; for a team, see MIMT Business. More on the second number page.