Twitter - do you pay for incoming calls?

usignuolo

I thought I would sign up for Twitter last night. On the registration screen it gives you the option to send Twitter messages via your mobile phone but you have to sign up to receive them as well. I am a bit nervous that this might leave me open to receiving unwanted expensive incoming calls, whether spam or from overseas. Does anyone have any experience of Twittering via a mobile and the costs involved? I am on T-mobile PAYG at present.

M4RKM

twitter only sends you updates to your mobile if you're on vodafone..

and if you were on vodafone, it's all free, and they are texts, not calls

usignuolo

Thanks for that. Sorry to sound daft, but what I am worried about is getting incoming messages I have to pay for, not from Twitter but from other Twitter users. I have quite a lot of friends and relatives scattered around the world, for example my son lives in New York. If he adds me to his Twitter followers, or I add him to mine, would I have to pay to receive his messages in the UK? He has also suggested I link Twitter to my Facebook account? Would that cost me? Am I worrying unecessarily?

Lakeuk

If you use your mobile to send SMS to twitter then you'll pay standard txt rates, if you also select to option to recieve messages from twitter to your mobile number then you'll be charged standard rates to recieve these.

If you use twitter via your PC then there is no cost, I recommend using TweekDeck to make it easier to track messages

M4RKM

i'll just repeat myself.

currently, the only network that will send messages to your mobile phone is if you're on vodafone.

however, even if you were on vodafone, and you follow him, he follows you, on your followers page, you can have device updates (aka your mobile phone) on or off, so you select who you will receive FREE messages from, if you were on vodafone.

twitter currently does not send updates to any other UK mobile apart from Vodafone - here is the information from the twitter help pages

-
86444: Free incoming Twitter messages for VodafoneUK users!
If you're a Vodaphone subscriber and you use the new short code, 86444, all messages coming from Twitter are free! Wait, there's more: for the first few weeks, messages sent TO Twitter will also be free-- thanks, Vodafone! After the introductory period, all text messages sent to Twitter via 86444 count as local text messages, deducted from your regular text message plan. For those who have no text messaging plans on their mobile, each message sent to 86444 incurs Vodafone's standard text message charge.

Note: If you receive more than 500 incoming text messages from Twitter per month, Vodafone may ask you reduce your incoming text message volume, but there is no official limit on how many messages you can receive.
-

see.. free. Lakeuk i have no idea where you're getting the information that it cists to receive when voda is the only network currently in the UK sending twitter updates to your phone, but where it is chargable... stop trying to confuse the situation please...


M

usignuolo

I am getting a bit more clued in now. However I did find the following comment on a technical board about Twitter on 3 and T-mobile? is it correct?

<Comment from a board about Twitter costs for 3 and T mobile users [EMAIL="follows&#64;iwitter"]follows: [/EMAIL]

Hi all, I thought I'd post this, because I have been stung for text message charges that I thought were included. I recently took out a contract with Three; snazzy new phone, 75 xnetwork mins, and 600 texts for £15 a month, on an 18 month contract. I've started using Twitter a lot, and thought that it would be cool to be able to update it from my mobile - which is partly why I chose the tariff and mobile provider.

I've been texting away merrily to a mobile number that starts 07624 - then this morning I got my first bill. I have been charged 25p for each text. The "Destination" on the bill says "Manx Mobile", and a bit of searching on the internet reveals that this is the Isle of Man's telecoms company. It seems that Three (along with T-Mobile, from what I understand) class this as an international number, and don't include it in your text allowance.

07624 xxxxxx looks like a perfectly ordinary mobile number. I had no idea when I set it up with Twitter that this was going to be classed as "international". I knew that certain numbers aren't included in the allowance, such as those five digit short sms numbers, but this one has thrown me.

I thought it worth mentioning here - not because I want advice or anything (looking on the comments on that post, one guy complained and had the charges refunded, which is what I intend to do) but because this seems to be the logical place to warn people. Hope it helps.

usignuolo

Further update: I found this on mobile-phones dot co. uk dated 30 March 2009

"Taking advantage of the huge boom in mobile social networking, Twitter has resurrected its mobile offering in the UK, having closed it down last summer, complaining of high charges for SMS notifications.Now it has come to some deal in that respect with Vodafone, and is returning to the market in partnership with the carrier. Before this, receiving tweets by SMS was only available in the US, Canada and India, though the phone can be used to update Twitter by SMS in any country.

In the older UK version, the Twitter SMS number was serving the whole of Europe and racked up huge bills. The new agreement makes Vodafone the only UK network that will allow SMS updates to and from Twitter.

However, these updates to the site will be charged for, at least after a free trial period of a few weeks. They will then become part of customers' bundles, or for those without contracts, will be charged as regular texts. Messages sent from Twitter will remain free. If users get an SMS from Twitter with a URL, they can clink the link and access the web site from their handset."

Sadly I think this all pretty much rules me out as I have a fairly basic PAYG phone with T mobile - no plan and no access to website from handset. I shall have to stick to Twittering on the internet at present.

M4RKM

this is if you're SENDING txt updates to twitter... sending!!!

in the past 4 months i've tweeted around 3500 updates, and not used text for a single one, i don't receive any texts, as i've got DEVICE UPDATES OFF...

i'm not going to waste my breath any more, if you want to read what other people have said, and ignore what i say, do, but i can 100% say, if you sign up for twitter, turn off device updates, and update via web your mobile won't see a single tweet!

*shakes head*

However, these updates to the site will be charged for, at least after a free trial period of a few weeks. They will then become part of customers' bundles, or for those without contracts, will be charged as regular texts. Messages sent from Twitter will remain free. If users get an SMS from Twitter with a URL, they can clink the link and access the web site from their handset."

I've been texting away merrily to a mobile number that starts 07624 - then this morning I got my first bill. I have been charged 25p for each text. The "Destination" on the bill says "Manx Mobile", and a bit of searching on the internet reveals that this is the Isle of Man's telecoms company. It seems that Three (along with T-Mobile, from what I understand) class this as an international number, and don't include it in your text allowance.

if you're not sending via txt you're going to get no charges, if you're NOT on vodafone, you can't receive updates..

how much clearer to i have to make it... and i think i've already said this numerous times. however, if you're still worried. don't sign up, leave twitter to the people who can read instructions, help files, and differentiate between the words TO and FROM.

usignuolo

I think you are being a little hard on me here - I know nothing about the charging structure for Twitter and am not on Vodaphone. I am on T Mobile PAYG so I was trying to find out how that would work for me. When I signed up for Twitter it suggested I use my mobile phone to send out SMS messages but to do so, I also had to sign up to receive SMS as well. (There was nothing about incoming messages only applying to Vodafone users and only for software updates.)

I am not desk based, not in front of a PC all the time, but out and about a lot. I do not have a Blackberry, only a mobile phone. My work involves me attending conferences and similar events. I wanted to to use Twitter to send out real-time messages from my mobile phone "updating" other followers on what was happening where I was, in real time. I thought I could do this via SMS. This is what I meant by updates, I was not asking about receiving software updates from Twitter.

I was concerned that if I signed up to send SMS "updates" like this to followers, (about the latest event I was attending), I might be laying myself open to paying high charges, to T Mobile, as described above. I also have a lot of friends and family world wide to sign up as followers. I was concerned that if I signed the Twitter agreement to receive incoming SMS messages (it does not say this only applies to Vodafone users on its agreement page) that I might start paying to receive their SMS updates and maybe for others too I did not want.

I am still not clear if, as a T Mobile user, I have to pay a premium for sending outgoing SMS texts to Twitter. It seems I might, from some of the website forums about it.

Is there a T Mobile Twitter user out there who sends some of their messages via SMS?

usignuolo

Actually I think I have just found the answer to my question. T-Mobile charges 17p per minute to Twitter from a mobile, regardless of how many free text minutes you have. Just found this posted on a Twitter forum on 18 April 2009:

"I've got free UK texts in my allowance yet I've been charged so I won't be using that again. It's a shame because I like Twitter. Can you let people know that T-mobile charge 17p per SMS (excl VAT) please so no-one else gets caught out?
Cheers
James

Apr-18 2009 04:04".

robt_2

You have been trying to find this out for almost eight hours now - why don't you just try it for yourself instead of reading what other people think has happened to them?

Check your balance. Send an update by text. Check your balance again.

There is no such thing as 'per minute' charges, there are no phonecalls involved. It is sending a text, nothing more, nothing less. You could also tweet from mobile Internet on your handset.