Voicemail abroad: why a missed call can cost you, and what to change

Voicemail feels like a feature of the phone, but it is really a call divert set up on the network. EE describes two kinds: conditional diverts, which send a call elsewhere when your phone is busy or not answered, and unconditional diverts, which send every call on without your phone ringing at all. Voicemail is the first kind, and you may never have switched it on yourself. EE says its voicemail diverts are set up as standard, and O2 says Voicemail 901 is ready to go on all new O2 phones.

That matters because a divert is a call being routed, and a routed call is something a roaming tariff can price. EE's business help pages put it plainly: if you are abroad and using a call divert, normal roaming charges apply. Its consumer help is more specific about voicemail abroad: messages are free within the EU, but outside the EU there may be a charge, and switching your voicemail diverts off is how it suggests avoiding one.

Other providers handle this differently, which is exactly why the question to ask yours is narrow. Not whether voicemail works abroad, but what it costs when someone leaves you a message while you are in the country you are visiting, and what it costs you to listen to it.

Hearing a message means calling your mailbox, and that call is billed on its own terms. O2 includes calls to 901 in your call allowance and says that, outside the allowance, listening to a voicemail costs the same as a standard call to the UK. If you are abroad, check your roaming rate for calls before you dial in rather than assuming the home rate applies.

Getting into the mailbox from abroad also takes a little preparation. O2 asks you to know your voicemail PIN before you travel; dialling 901 works in most countries, and O2 gives a separate number for the places where it does not. EE lists a +44 number for calling your voicemail from another phone while abroad, asks you to have a PIN set up first, and warns that some roaming partners require a PIN before they will let you reach your messages at all.

If you would rather not pay for messages you may never need, the direct fix is to remove the divert. EE's instruction is to text VM OFF to 150, and O2's is to dial 1760. Either way, callers can no longer leave a message, which is the trade you are making. EE also reminds you to turn the diverts back on when you are home, which is the step people forget.

O2 offers a middle option. Its missed call alert sends you a text with the time, date and number of any call you missed because you had no coverage, were on another call or had your phone switched off. It replaces voicemail rather than sitting alongside it: switching it on overwrites existing diverts such as Voicemail 901. O2 says its call alerts are free, even abroad.

A missed-call text tells you who rang, not what they wanted. It works best as part of a plan in which the people who matter already know a better way to reach you.

Switching voicemail off solves the cost and opens a small gap: someone who needs you gets no answer and nowhere to leave details. Close it before you go. Send a short message to the handful of people who might need you urgently, name the app or the number that will reach you, and ask everyone else to write rather than ring. If you use a separate travel number, put it in your email signature and your out-of-office reply for the trip, so people find it without having to ask.

Be careful about forwarding your home number to that travel number without checking the cost first. EE's business help says a divert to another UK number is charged at your plan's call rate, or taken from your allowance, and that normal roaming charges apply to diverts used abroad. Ask your own provider how an always-on divert is billed while your SIM is outside the country, and whether it matters if that SIM is switched off.

If you decide to keep voicemail on, make the greeting do some of the work. EE lets you record one from the voicemail menu, and a line saying when you are back and asking callers to send a message instead can save them a wasted call, and you a message you would have paid to hear.