on and on UNLIMITED calls texts 1gb data charges, NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

[Anonymous]

just signed up to the above tariff last month paying £20.00 a month, only to be told it will go up with inflation to £20.62 in February,still a good deal but never the less still winds me up a bit, but i have just checked my bill and noticed a charge of 70pence on my text messages, so i rang the billing line asking why this charge was applied to my account, i was told i had sent two photos using the MMS text system something that i strongly denied, i asked for the number to which these photos had been sent and i rang my friend to make sure i had my facts right to which he confirmed that he had not received ant such media, i duly rang customer services back to be then told that i had sent a large text message that used more than 3 pages and that the O2 system had counted it as a MMS message and these types of messages were chargable on my account, i explained that i realised picture messages were not included in the tariff that was why i had not sent any, but i was surprised to be told that text messages containing more a certain amount of characters,(to which the amount my advisor was not sure about) would be classed as a MMS, this includes spaces commas etc my advisor told me, SO BEWARE PEOPLE DONT SEND LONG TEXT MESSAGES ON YOUR UNLIMITED ON AND ON TARIFF COS IT AINT UNLIMITED !     

[jonsie]

One text message consists of 160 characters including spaces and punctuation. Over that and you go into another text. There is sometimes a feature built into the phone to warn you when a text is going to be sent as an mms.

[Anonymous]

It is a sometthing that comes up a lot on phone forums and they are right that 3 sms messages become the equivalent of a MMS message due to its size. 

Try using WhatsApp as a alternative especially when when connected to Wifi as it is free ( will use data but minimal when not on Wifi) 

[Anonymous]

hi thanks for the info , but a bit miffed that O2 didnt disclose this when i went in the tariff, when i asked the advisor if i coild expect any more surprises such as making a extra long phone call he could not answer, if anyone could let me know i would appreciate it, i am out of work and have a very very tight budget,once again thanks for reply     

[perksie]

You are only charged extra if you exceed your limits, I'm puzzled why you were charged extra for a long text.

[adamtemp64]

@perksie

This is comming up in a lot of threads at present.

Some say after 160 it is a mms o2 has no info on its website apart from a 480 max size charged at 3 sms perhaps after 481 it auto becomes a mms unless it is handset defined.

Also affecting group sms in another thread

[MI5]

Disable MMS on your phone if you're not going to use it then there is no chance that your long texts will get charged.