Forum Discussion
Overseas Travel: How can I avoid incoming call costs but still use free text/data roaming while abroad?
We're planning to travel to Europe later this year and would like to take advantage of T-Mobile's free international text/data roaming. However, I saw that incoming calls are charged at one minute even if you don't answer; per T-Mobile's website: "If your phone is on when you get an incoming call, even if you do not answer it, the call is charged one minute for delivery to the phone. (There are no charges if your phone is turned off.)" I get multiple robocalls/telemarketer calls per week, and I don't want to rack up charges for unwanted calls. Is there any way to temporarily turn off incoming calls or route them directly to voicemail to avoid charges? If so, what are the steps to do that?
Great question. The easiest way to do this is to enable unconditional call forwarding. This will tell the network to immediately forward the call to a selected number without trying to pin you first which is where the charge comes from.
To enable unconditional call forwarding, you will need to follow these steps https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4041#secondheading
Dial **21*18056377249# from your phone to enable CFU and ##21# to turn it off when you are back in the states and want to resume being able to get calls.
The 18056377249 number is the same number that your calls are forwarded to when you do not answer the phone so that the people calling you can leave a VM. Since we are enabling unconditional call forwarding, the call will be automatically routed there instead of ringing your phone first.
Thank you for posting your experiences. I am traveling overseas tomorrow and planning to forward unconditionally to a Talkatone number (free wifi calling app) while I am overseas. My phone will ring but it would be the talkatone app ringing. I hope that the minutes used while being on talkatone calls are not charged as international roaming minutes. I will find out soon enough when I test the call and check my usage! I will be sure to report back!
Going to Taiwan for a month so I will be trying this in a couple of months. Called CS twice and got different answers each time. So here is my plan:
1. Fwd all calls to VM
2. Add VM 2 TxT on my plan. $4 per month
3. Remove VM2TXT when I return.
"Yes I am here and actually, calls that went through the voicemail will be charg for the international calling rate. The only way to avoid callling charges that will went through the voicemail is by temporarily suspending the voicemail services and activating it back once you returned to US."
This is the message I received today...
Like you - Have had NO trouble simply fwding calls to VM over the years. The advice given by TM/Chris further up n this thread is correct.
Can't you just set the phone to auto forward all calls using the setting feature (ios) and forward them to the voice mail #, 805-637-7243?
I don't know iOS but GSM has unconditional and conditional forwarding. With unconditional forwarding activ, no attempt is made to deliver the call to your phone, rather it is diverted at the switch to the target number. With most conditional forwarding (e.g. Busy, no answer). the call is sent to the roamed carrier for completion, this is where billing for roaming kicks in. The third condition (out-of-service) is not reliable as it depends on the roamed carrier updating T-Mobile if you are in or out of their service. Many roamed carriers are intentionally delinquent in doing this as it reduces their opportunities to generate revenue from your roaming.
I'm heading to Spain next week, and was told by a TMobile rep that I could avoid unwanted inbound calls causing charges by simply setting my Do Not Disturb to fully on, and that would send all call directly to Correo de voz, bypassing my phone entirely . Does anyone know if this has been tried and works? Seems like a much más simple way to handle this - IF it works!
I have never used the "do not disturb" option on the phone. When we go overseas we simply set "forward all calls" to VM number. (805-637-7243). He has worked for years when traveling to over a dozen countries.
For outgoing calls, you can make free calls back to the US women on Wi-Fi. Incoming calls, of course, are free women on Wi-Fi. I think many users make use of apps the route calls over data-but I have never done that. Text and data are free if you're on a regular TM plan.
