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[psychopomp1]

Hi

On my wife's sim only plan there is a bar placed for international and premium calls and this has been in place for nearly a year...i placed this bar myself online in 2010. However recently my wife was able to send 2 intl sms and was charged 20p each. I was under the impression that if intl calls were barred then that automatically meant that SMS messages were also barred to such numbers. I did call up customer services, the first agent (overseas based) i spoke to, said that my wife should NOT have been able to send SMS overseas so she was refunding 40p to my account; however she sounded unsure so i spoke to a UK based agent and she said that international SMS can be sent even if intl call barring is switched on. Obviously this has got me confused....could someone please clarify?

Thanks  

[bertyb]

I always presumed that the international bar would prevent any international dialing, has it been verified that the bar is still on ?

Have you tried dialing an an internation number (perhaps a little crazy I know) to test

[AnnS]

An international and premium rate call bar is useful if you do not wish to have expensive international and premium rate calls on your account.  SMS are sent differently and go to a message centre and are then forwarded to the phone.

There is a bar available for short code unsolicited premium rate reverse charge SMS which Customer Services can add to your Wife's account.

[psychopomp1]

Bertyb, its not possible to call any international number on my wife's phone so i know the international/premium rate call bar is fully working....the question is does this also bar international SMS messages? And i don't want to pay vodafone 20p+ in intl SMS charges just for the privilege founding out! I'd rather my money went to charity

Ann, when i log onto my online account there's only 2 types of call barring available on outgoing calls: internationl/premium calls and roaming calls. Which bar are you referring to?

Thanks

[AnnS]

There is a short code premium rate bar available.  This will prevent unsolicited short code SMS being sent to your phone and is useful to prevent unwanted messages which are reverse charge and can be expensive.

Vodafone do not publicise the bar, but it is available.

[psychopomp1]

Thanks for that tip Ann and i will certainly remember it, but at the moment i want to know if its possible to bar standard outgoing intl SMS messages. Look like i will have to send a test SMS overseas to see if it works

[bertyb]

Ann is def right about the bar for premium messages, but that won't stop the international ones.

I didn't think it through fully Ann that the messages go the Message Centre, its like one of those things that I have just learned despite hours of reading posts, 

So the Internation / Premium Call Bars are just that, for calls 

Just think it will have to be self imposed not to SMS internationally, though as it is yourself and wife I guess this will be ok 

[Woody]

Hi psychopomp1,

Thanks for getting in touch with the team. I can understand your frustration with the conflicting information that you have been given.

The international bar does not include an SMS bar, so she would still be able to text international numbers. At present we have no way of being able to bar these messages.

Woody

eForum Team