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.
fm_new wrote:
Place the phone in airplane mode when using WiFi calling. If your WiFi stops working, your phone will automatically switch to cellular without you noticing this fact.
Test first to make sure your phone works in Airplane mode on WiFi. I’ve tried with my G7 but can’t make it work.
On an iPhone that works without any settings change. On a G7 you should search on Reddit. Some users have posted what you need to do to make this work
Hello, so I understand that to avoid the one minute charge for incoming calls abroad that go unanswered, we can enable unconditional call forwarding. I'm travelling to Brazil in a few months and have the Magenta plan. So 3 followup questions for @tmo_chris :
1) Does T-Mobile charge for using the service of unconditional call forwarding? I looked online but found no info regarding prices or fees.
2) Per T-Mobile, "Calls from Simple Global countries, including over Wi-Fi, are $.25/min". Let's say I'm using WhatsApp or Google Voice for those Wi-Fi calls abroad. Will I still be charged the $.25/min?
3) Now let's say I try making calls over the 2G international data that is included in my Magenta plan. I know the call quality will be horrible, but would there be any charges incurred in that Call situation?
Thank you!!Any recent news on this?
Going from U.S. to Europe. I want to use data and text, but also want to be able to reject calls at times. Is there anything that allows a quick toggle of call reception on and off while maintaining roaming data and SMS/MMS on at all times?
Probably not, but I wanted to check in.
¡Saludos!
I wouldn't reject any calls. Most billing systems treat rejected calls as "handled". I wish they would make DCF optional.
Looking for any recent experience with this.
In addition, is it possible to enable/disable unconditional call forwarding while abroad or does this only work in the U.S.?https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-checklist still says as of 8/2022:
Hacer llamadas mientras estás en el extranjero
Incoming calls are routed automatically to your phone...
Contraseña y cargos del correo de voz
¡Excelentes noticias! No hay cargo adicional cuando las personas dejan mensajes de voz en tu buzón mientras estás en roaming internacional. Sin embargo, se te cobrará lo siguiente:
Si tu teléfono está encendido cuando recibes una llamada entrante, incluso si no la contestas, se cobra un minuto a la llamada por haber entrado al teléfono. (No hay ningún cargo si tu teléfono está apagado).
Si llamas a tu buzón de voz desde tu celular para escuchar los mensajes, esa llamada se cobrará a la tarifa de roaming internacional del país en el que estés.
Si no deseas que se te cobre por escuchar tus mensajes, puedes acceder a tu buzón de voz desde una línea fija u otro teléfono. Necesitarás tu contraseña del correo de voz (la que seleccionaste durante la configuración del buzón de voz). Si olvidaste tu contraseña, puedes restablecerla a través del Servicio al Cliente de T-Mobile.
Desde una línea fija u otro teléfono, llama a tu número de móvil y espera a que vaya al buzón de voz.
Interrupt your voicemail greeting by pressing * (the star key).
Cuando se te indique, ingresa la contraseña del correo de voz.
Sigue las opciones del menú para escuchar tus mensajes del buzón de voz.
Note: Keep in mind, the landline or other phone you're using may charge you long distance fees when calling your phone to get your messages. Verifica eso previamente para saber qué esperar.Conditional Call Forwarding to my Google Voice voicemail ended up in .25/per minute charges for each outgoing call forward, which were mostly SPAM calls. This was for the 11 weeks I was traveling in Finland, Ireland, and the UK in April, May, Oct, Nov 2022. When back in the states I tried setting Unconditional Call forward to test if it would hit my phone first or just go right to voicemail and as far as I can tell, the result was the same...my phone rang and then was eventually forwarded. It doesn't look like I can avoid being charged for calls that are forwarded to voicemail unless I turn the phone OFF.
WIFI calling: What surprised me the most was I was charged for my WIFI calls, which showed up on my bill as RW (Roaming WIFI) - even though I was using WIFI in my apartment and my phone app showed the WIFI symbol on the phone symbol on the keypad. I talked to a T-Mobile rep and he said that can happen if the WIFI stops working and you switch to cellular. He suggested using an internet only calling app like WhatsApp to ensure you're using data instead of cellular. So next trip I will have to ensure I'm either in Airplane mode when I make a WIFI call, or using an app.
So I have magenta max military and just went from Iceland to Bahrain for the next 2 months in Iceland I didn’t need to have my data roaming on in Bahrain I do for my service to work will I get charged for having that on or will it do my normal 5gb of high speed and 256kbs after that?
Jeremiahwood11 wrote:
So I have magenta max military and just went from Iceland to Bahrain for the next 2 months in Iceland I didn’t need to have my data roaming on in Bahrain I do for my service to work will I get charged for having that on or will it do my normal 5gb of high speed and 256kbs after that?
Wow! Some punctuation would really help here, guy. I think I can parse it.
You're saying that you leave data roaming turned off in Iceland and you still have data service? That's curious. Start out in Bahrain with it off and see what happens. You won't be charged for data, in any event, but will they really let you run overseas forever without running into the excess roaming limit. I know they are lenient with the military plans but there has to be a limit? Are you sure there's not something you're leaving out like you have an Icelandic data SIM? Hmmm?
Is there still an Indian Vegetarian restaurant called "Swagat" in the Suq? They had the best thali and it was so cheap. It's been 20 years. I bet everything has changed.
