Can someone please confirm if you dont have an international roaming pack can you receive SMS when overseas when you are with Kogan Mobile or Boost Mobile? Thanks
Receiving SMS When Overseas
LSwa8821 on 20/03/2023 - 12:33
Comments
Are you sure about Boost that it will work as they said you have to activate roaming pack even for receiving SMS. can you please confirm which countries did it work and when you visited overseas (like recently or long back)
Earlier, many operators used to have free sms receiving when overseas but these days few have started charging for it.I can confirm receiving SMS on Boost works for India. This was tested in Feb this year. Also, VoWIFI allows you to make/receive calls to Australia numbers without a roaming plan ONLY when you are connected to a Wifi network (router/mobile hotspot both worked).
(you do get a Boost SMS saying you do not have an international roaming plan enabled, can ignore that)
Confirmed for Boost and Telstra prepaid for me too, receiving SMS worked fine in Greece and Singapore in January with no roaming pack.
Do you need to have mobile data on for Telstra?
@Some Guy: No, mobile data does not need to be on for SMS. I think MMS (photos etc) will not work without data though.
Adding my 2c, just arrived in Fiji and surprised to receive SMS with Boost Prepaid. Didn’t pay for international roaming.
If you use Boost and have Wifi Calling enable then yes you can have phone call and SMS without the need to roaming pack.
We travel back to Vietnam last year and can confirm that.
The wifi calling and sms seems dependent on your phone and settings, works for some people and not others (didn't work for me in January).
Recieving SMS is fine though.
It works with Aldi Mobile as well. I tried this when I was in UK.
Aldi and Amaysim I know works but if I can avoid porting to Aldi and then porting to Boost/Kogan when I am back to Australia I was thinking.
I tried this from Chile in January this year with an Aldi sim. I could not receive sms. In fact the Aldi sim would not connect with any mobile carrier there. Chile is not supported according to their website. VoWIFI also does not work for SMS, only voice calls FYI on Aldi.
Merged from Receive SMS - Overseas with Boost Mobile
Can someone please confirm if you dont have an international roaming pack can you receive SMS when overseas when you are with Boost Mobile? Thanks
Yes you can.
I second that.
For boost you mean or Kogan?
I am guessing for Boost you meant?
kogan- No i think.
Boost i think they do on VoWifi that's what i heard from others.
why would you want to use your phone overseas for sms. just remove it and buy one of their countries sim cards. i do that everytime i go overseas. the plans are so cheap its craze what aussies have to pay when yu can buy a sim in USA for 30 days with unlimited sms and data or even NZ is cheap but limited data.
to receive SMS 2FA
ohhh ok, i just recently was on a cruise and was trying to do something and had a sms auth, so i just thought (profanity) it ill wait till i get home. but yeah if i cant get it ill just have to wait. i aint paying au overseas rates just to get an sms. screw that!
sometimes you need to use mygov or pay your rent online and need the authorisation sms.
Kogan Mobile — yes, you can receive SMS while overseas. No configuration required.
My daughter got woken up at 6AM last December from her NSW ATAR SMS, while travelling in Far East Asia…
some are saying here that kogan mobile doesnt work when overseas and not with the roaming pack. are you 100% sure your daughter didnt have any roaming pack ?
Nope. No one in this post has actually confirmed that Kogan Mobile doesn't work, but I have confirmed that it works for her, who is on 365-day prepaid with Kogan without any roaming package. Someone else on OzBargain has also confirmed.
@USER DC has confirmed it @scotty
I can also confirm that all 3 of my kids were able to receive SMS on Kogan Mobile whilst on a Christmas cruise to New Caledonia and Noumea last Dec. Again no roaming packs, just the 365-day prepaid accounts.
if you have WiFi access (eg: local Tourist Info centre) you can make WiFi calls with apps like WhatsAppFolks, I think we have to be careful here. Some telcos offer roaming but that does not mean it will work in every country! When there are conflicting experiences here it is possible that people’s success depends on which countries they had/hadn’t success with.
For example, according to the Aldi website they offer international roaming. That doesn’t mean it is offered in EVERY country. I found out that Aldi roaming will not work in Chile. Upon checking the website I saw that roaming in Chile is NOT available!!
anyone tried overseas SMS with woolworth?
Answering myself, not tested though.
"All Woolworths Mobile customers can receive SMS when overseas without adding a Roaming add-on, when your phone successfully connects to an eligible roaming operator in one of the Eligible Countries. This means you can still do your banking and get other security verifications while overseas without needing to purchase an add-on." —- from their site.
I wish I knew that on my recent trip. I was stressing out trying to pay a deposit for a car hire and my cards weren't working.
Still true in March 2024, different wording on their page though:
With Everyday Mobile from Woolworths, your data roaming is already turned on, so you can receive SMS at no extra charge when you are overseas. This means you can still do your banking and get security verifications while overseas without needing to purchase an Add-on. If you need to also send SMS, use data or voice calls overseas, you can purchase one of the International Roaming Add-ons below.
Works with Amaysim As You Go plan 2 years ago.
Still works
Just came back from a two weeks overseas trip, Singapore, Dubai, Mauritius. I'm with Kogan and was receiving SMSs in each of those countries. The only issue is sometimes (only sometimes) they get delayed, so if you are expecting an expiring 2FA token - you might run out of time. If that happens - just try again.
If you wanted to use a travel Sim or a Sim from a local operator in a foreign country, and still wanted to receive Australian SMSes, how could you do that?
If you swapped the Sims around each time you wanted to receive an SMS, would any SMSes sent to your phone while you had the travel SIM in then be received? Or only SMSes sent while the Australian Sim was in?
No it is not. The carier doesn’t store messages for you.
The solution for this is use eSIM as a travel SIM, and simply remove the SIM after the holiday.
If you swapped the Sims around each time you wanted to receive an SMS, would any SMSes sent to your phone while you had the travel SIM in then be received?
yes, it's just like when your phone is off or without reception, but i don't know if there's a time limit when they become expired and no longer delivered
Was receiving boost SMS messages whilst overseas in the last couple of weeks so can confirm you receive them without the international pack.
Belong does not receive sms overseas, at least it hasn’t for me.
So it appears that if you are a recent customer (post November 25 2022) then there is some roaming but not yet for existing customers like myself.
Ended up here wanting to know if CatchConnect (Optus) can receive SMS overseas, and then found this comment so adding in case anyone else on Catch does the same.
"Sagasu on 25/11/2022 - 19:00
I can now confirm that when I was overseas sms messages came through to my phone promptly, so I was able to do two-step verifications without any issues. I didn't purchase a roaming add on."Just sharing that Australia Post has $5 International roaming sim card which you use for International Roaming and has few other inclusions 50min standard talk and 50 sms.
Aldi just worked fine in Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan but china it didnt
*Receiving SMS. I just buy a local Sim for everything else
Did you need to set your Aldi plan to 'roaming' when you wanted to receive SMS overseas?
Belong wifi calling is working in Singapore
Has anyone had any experience with More Telecom and receiving texts whilst overseas, but no roaming pack purchased?
@kwchaz did you get an answer to this?
@yellowrhino93 if I recall correctly receiving is free… and should work. But we never tested it. Have already moved to Boost.
Regarding receiving sms overseas, since this is prepaid and it only lasts for 28 days, if you spend longer than 28 days without recharging, will you still receive free sms?
Sort of on the subject, since Optus geoblocks VoWIFI if I was to VPN back to my home IP anyone know if it would work? It's a Coles SIM.
btw, couldn't get this to work. Not sure if it was geoblocking or just VoWiFi not working but it wouldn't connect a call.
Also we had 2 Coles SIM's in NZ, both received SMS no problem but for some reason one was able to send as well.
Has any longterm Belong user (have had service connected prior to November 2022) who has not bought one of Belong’s roaming packages received an sms recently whilst overseas?
Answering my own question here. You receive all sms overseas on Belong without signing up for a roaming package. When you arrive in a country Belong sends you an sms;
HI, welcome to (insert country here)! While here, you're able to receive SMS at no charge. …… followed by an upselling message.
I have been in Indonesia, Japan, Finland and Estonia in the past week and have received sms in all of them.
Hi there, International Roaming (i.e. when you are overseas) offerings have recently changed across operators. Most operators have set the requirement to activate an International Roaming pack to do any chargeable activity (like making a call / receiving a call / sending a SMS / data usage).
However, incoming SMS remains free. When you switch on your phone overseas, and if you get network connected on your phone, then you will continue to get incoming SMS, without any charges. I remember for Boost, this will work. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm the same for Kogan.