How to change the mobile number used for OTP login

If you sign in to your agent ID with OTP rather than a digital signature dongle, the mobile number on that record is not a contact detail — it is the login. Lose access to it and you have lost access to the agent ID, regardless of whether you remember the password.

That makes this worth doing before you change numbers, not after.

The distinction that causes the trouble

An agent ID and a personal IRCTC account are two separate records, even when they belong to the same person and even when the same number is on both.

• Changing the number on your personal IRCTC account does nothing to your agent ID
• Changing the number on your agent ID does nothing to your personal account
• A number can sit on one personal IRCTC account and, separately, on your agent record

Agents who assume the two are linked usually discover otherwise during a booking, which is the worst possible moment to learn it.

Changing it

The change runs through your Principal Service Provider rather than as a self-service toggle, because the number is the authentication factor for the agent ID.

1. Have your agent ID ready. Not your personal user ID — the agent ID issued when your registration completed.
2. Contact us with the agent ID and the new number. Call or WhatsApp; this is faster by voice than by form.
3. Confirm identity. We verify against the details on your registration. This is the step that protects your ID from someone else doing exactly this.
4. The record is updated and the new number becomes the destination for OTPs.
5. Test a login immediately. Sign in once, on the machine you actually use, before you need it with a customer waiting.

Do it before you switch numbers

The order matters far more than people expect.

If you still have the old number, this is routine. Verification is straightforward and the change is quick.

If the old number is already gone, it becomes an identity question rather than an administrative one — resolvable, but slower, and it will happen on a day when you would rather be selling tickets.

So if you know a number change is coming — a new SIM, a business line, moving off a personal number — raise it while the old one still works.

OTP login versus the dongle

Worth a moment’s thought while you are here, because agents often stay on whichever they started with without ever comparing.

OTP login needs no hardware, which means nothing to lose, nothing to install on a second machine, and nothing to re-issue. It does depend on mobile coverage and on that number staying current.

A Class 3 digital signature dongle does not care about mobile signal at all. It does care about drivers, USB ports and browser settings — the install guide covers those.

Neither is better in the abstract. A counter with poor mobile reception should be on a dongle. An agent who works from more than one location often prefers OTP.

If neither number reaches you

If you can no longer receive an OTP on the old number or set a new one, the record needs correcting rather than updating.

Call us with your agent ID. Do not open a second registration to work around it — one PAN holds one agent ID, and a duplicate application creates a longer problem than the one you started with.