Rogers has announced they are introducing management for ‘premium SMS’ messages. These are SMS messages you subscribe to by texting a 5-digit number, such as entering contests or getting sports scores, etc. These expensive messages can add up and now Rogers has included options to cap them at $40 so your bill won’t explode, and you won’t receive anymore messages.
Here are the new changes:
All you have to do is call customer care to get this setup. Anyone out there subscribe to premium SMS messages? Rogers claims to be the first wireless carrier to offer this SMS management to customers.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I’ve never used any of these “premium” services but to me the $100/$500 limit seems pretty high. Can’t I just block anything that costs money or at least have triggers set at a more reasonable $10 cap or something.
I know there are things like the red cross donations at are probably covered by this same system but I have to wonder how many legit pay-SMS services there are. All the joke ones and similar ilk should probably be illegal so people don’t have to deal with them at all.
What about reminder or ability to customer setup a cap from data over usage. e.g. once it reach 400MB in a 500MB limit. Give user a warning and prevent usage after once reached the account allowance.
If Roger/Fido don’t want this cause they want you to over use, then are there any program or app that can tell you this based on cellular data usage on a monthly basis?
Fido sends me a text when I’ve used 75% of my data and when I’ve reached my limit. (although it’s usually delayed by a few hours during which I may use more data)
Have 6gb now though so don’t have to worry as much
Good to know. I used to have 6G but I hardly ever gone beyond 500MB per month for the last 3 years. So I saving money by going to a cheaper plan with 500MB allowance but I would like to be notified if I reach 75% or 80% and another when I’ve gone beyond.
It sounds like an auto text reminder that i don’t need to set up with.
Thanks everybody for the info.
They have been giving warnings at 80% since forever. And you can just download the Rogers my account app to track your usage.
Do you know anything?
Generally I’ve found that they send me the 80% warning at around 95-100% and the 100% warning at 110%+
I’ve actually received the 80% warning two days after hitting 100% before.
That’s because there’s a four delay from when you use data to when it’s registered … Best bet is to use my account to keep your own eye on it (even though there’s still a delay) or pick up the 6gig plan when it’s offered again.
Fido sends me a text when ever I reach 75% of my data allowance then another when I reach 100% to let me know that charges will now apply
GREAT idea!! It’s about time someone does that. I had a bill of almost $100.00 and I had no idea where these were from. I had the 3rd party number to call but good luck with that. You get a call center who does not care, they just take down your complaint and send it off to the company in question. Make them stop!! Great initiative.
Thank you Rogers/Fido
One should never be charged for unsolicited communications. The easiest way for this is to make incoming everything free. If you chose to send contact SMS chat or otherwise then and only then should charges begin.
Capping it to $100? Why not $1.00? Sounds like a big money maker to me. I have my SMS blocked but transit info or twitter traffic updates are also blocked. There was a case recently where one unknown company with the number 13131313 was spamming everyone. Rogers et al were denying people to credit their account for the unauthorized texting. I believe this may have been the first of it’s kind where people actually never signed up and were spammed by an spambot. Eventually, Rogers did cave in and reverse the charges for everyone who called the second time after they denied them the first time they contacted them.
When it comes to premiums SMS the carriers are making tonnes of money from this. I hope CBC Marketplace does a story on this.