If you have voicemail with your mobile carrier and have traveled abroad, you will know how costly and difficult it can be to retrieve your messages while you’re away.
If your phone is turned ON whilst abroad and you receive a call that you are unable to answer, you are charged for the voicemail call as if it was a roaming call (with the exception of within the EU). You will then typically receive an SMS notification and upon receiving that, you are likely to call in and listen to the voicemail, which again is a roaming call.
You can minimise these charges by enabling ‘permanent call forwarding’ before you leave. This means whilst in your home country, your phone will not ring but will transfer straight to voicemail. This means if you turn your phone on whilst abroad, the call is still handled in your home country, thus not subject to roaming fees.
If, whilst away, you have access to a WiFi hotspot, you will still receive push notifications and have the ability to download and access your Hullomail voicemails and missed calls whilst using the WiFi hotspot. Alternatively, if you have Copy to Email enabled which is part of the Hullomail subscription, you can simply check your email at the hotel or internet cafe abroad to see your missed calls and voicemails.
If you enable ‘permanent call forwarding’ you are able to make phone calls whilst abroad and these will still be subject to roaming fees.
Please Note: It is also typically very expensive to have Mobile Data Roaming enabled on your handset whilst away, thus we advise this is also disabled prior to leaving.
On iPhone:
- Ensure Wi-Fi Calling is disabled (via iPhone Settings -> Phone -> Wi-Fi Calling)
- Open your iPhone Contacts app
- Locate the 'Hullomail Do Not Disturb Mode Activate' contact
- Call the activation code inside - This will try setup the Forward All condition
On Android:
- Ensure Wi-Fi Calling is disabled (via your Phone app -> Setting -> Wi-Fi Calling)
- Open the Hullomail app
- Go to Menu/Settings -> Voicemail activation
- Tap 'Activate do not disturb mode' - This will try setup the Forward All condition