Smartphone voice mail unusable when out of minutes. How to get around?

November 16, 2015 12:51 PM

I have a cheap pre-paid 100-minute unlimited data + text plan from T-mobile. I use wifi calling at home, but the minutes fly by even though I don't talk much when I'm out. When I am out of minutes, people get a "you cannot call at this time" message with no opportunity to leave a voice mail. Is there a way for me to set up voice messages through data or otherwise? Do I have any other options besides changing my plan?

Note: I am more interested in receiving/listening to messages than making calls. I am fine with checking voicemails at home if need be. I particularly need the voicemails so my doctors can leave messages for me.

posted by BuddyBoo to Technology (11 answers total)

Have you tried Google Voice? The draw back would be that you might have to change your phone number. You could use your current number, too, but the Voice # would work as you describe.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 12:57 PM on November 16, 2015

Check out ting.com as a possibility. You get charged by how much you use, but if budget is super-important you can set limits on your account.

Note: You have to be OK with online bills only / auto-billing.
posted by typecloud at 1:05 PM on November 16, 2015

Yeah, I would definitely use GV for this. Use the GV number as your main number and vm, let it forward to your cell number.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:11 PM on November 16, 2015

If your main concern is doctors then absolutely, get a google voice number and give that to your doctors. I used to use GV with my phone but gave up after missing several important MMSs (GV will forward SMSs but not MMSs, but my family loooooooooves its picture texts, and most people do not understand the difference, so you can't exactly be like "please don't send me any MMSs"). You can't forward calls to GV from TMobile prepaid plans, unfortunately.

A nice thing about using the Google Voice for your voicemail is that it will send you transcripts of the voicemail so you don't even have to listen, or you can listen in your email, or using data through the Google Voice app on your smartphone.

Also, though, I think you can reload your T-mobile minutes, like if you have money in your account additional minutes will get billed at $0.10 per minute. And I'm also pretty sure you can restart your month as soon as you run out of minutes. If you're doing either of those regularly, though, you would probably want to upgrade to the $40 plan which has unlimited calling.
posted by mskyle at 1:23 PM on November 16, 2015

Do you have the $30 "Walmart" plan? I have the same plan and I keep money in my account so that minutes can be charged at 10 cents per minute after I use my 100. Putting $10 every month or two is still cheaper than any other 5G data plan.

Also, my understanding of all t-mobile pre-paid plans is that WiFi calling is deducted from your minutes bucket. That may be why you seem to be running out of minutes very fast.

One final tip - Do you have the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app? That connects to your voicemail box using Data.
posted by muddgirl at 1:35 PM on November 16, 2015

I also have the 100 minute T-Mobile plan, and when I go over it just starts deducting from the balance in my account (I usually buy 3 months of minutes in advance, so I have a cushion in my account). If you load your account with a few extra bucks, you'll be able to go over if need be.

BTW, Wifi calling on T-Mobile's prepaid uses your normal minutes: For Pay In Advance prepaid lines, calls made over Wi-Fi deduct from the plan bucket just like regular calls.

(On preview, what muddgirl said)
posted by zsazsa at 1:35 PM on November 16, 2015

I have the $45 5gb BYOD straight talk plan for exactly this reason. It's basically the same as the $30 walmart 5gb plan, but with unlimited minutes.

The extra $15 was worth it for me to essentially never have to worry about running out of anything, since i've used 5gb of data exactly once.

I really BARELY make calls and still end up burning through over 100 minutes. I think tmobile knows this, and for the same reason that apple still sells 16gb iphones they don't make it say, 2 or 300 minutes because it would make the deal too sweet.
posted by emptythought at 1:39 PM on November 16, 2015

I also have T-mobile and I can access my voicemail through the T-Mobile website. I don't have a prepaid account any more but this also worked when I did. Try logging in to My T-Mobile, and use the drop down menu at top right to select Tools. If you scroll down Voicemail should be there and you can listen to each message. You can do this on your phone's browser or on a computer and it doesn't use any minutes.
posted by sizeable beetle at 1:48 PM on November 16, 2015

All of this is free. I see everyone suggesting various pay-for options, but I think you should hear this.

I have gone through rough years recently.

I use google voice, and only give out my google voice number. Regardless of what phone plan I have, I link it to my google voice number. If I did not, I would be that friend without a stable number.

It is super handy now that hangouts dialer has released, because you can call for free on google voice.
posted by squirbel at 3:52 PM on November 16, 2015

Fourthing Google Voice. It does receive MMSs now (you get them in your email instead). Use the app to make your number always appear as your GV number when you're calling out-- people will always see the GV number and no other. I have used it with the same T-Mobile plan and others for years, and it works well.

If you like, I believe you can import your current number to GV for something like $10, and then just start a new T-Mobile plan-- that would save you the trouble of giving out a new number.
posted by alexei at 4:26 PM on November 16, 2015

Use Google Voice for your TMobile voicemail. I do this with my Verizon phone, and it reduces my hatred of voicemail.
posted by theora55 at 3:15 AM on November 17, 2015