Charged for MMS

BarbieJ

I received a WhatsApp message with a short video and replied with a short message. I received my first bill from Asda Mobile as I only took out the contract with them recently and it showed a charge of 25p for a MMS. I need to say at this juncture that I am 81 years old and not a fan of the necessary evil called a mobile phone. My question is, why was I charged for replying to this WhatsApp message using words only and no video or photo. I have spoken to Asda Mobile and was told that my message was a MMS as it contained a picture or video. I am confused as to how this can happen. Can anyone explain this to me please, and what can I do to avoid this as I am often being sent photos and videos. I was previously on pay as you go before this new contract so I don't know if I was paying for MMS then. I will finally say that I never send photos by phone, I prefer to use emails.

TadleyBaggie

MMS is sending a picture/document via SMS, which is primarily just for text. WhatsApp uses data for all communication which would just come out of your data allowance if away from WiFi.

I suspect the MMS has nothing to do the WhatsApp message.

flaneurs_lobster

I suspect that rather than replying using WhatsApp you have replied using a text and have included the video in the SMS. Sending an MMS (which is what this does) does indeed incur an extra cost above your usual monthly fee.

Easiest way to stop this happening is to set a zero spend cap on your Asda Mobile account.

Are you able to access your account (app or online) and set the cap to zero?

Otherwise ring 2732 from your Asda mobile phone and speak to their Customer Service who should be able to help.

vacheron

MMS is a very outdated technology now, but is still supported by most providers (along with a less than economical charge).

Many phones allow you do disable the ability to send MMS to prevent these charges occuring in the future.

BarbieJ

Not sure how to reply to your kind comments, so thank you both and I will try this is way.

The reply was made on WhatsApp, but I wonder, because it was a direct reply on the same 'page' could it be that the message and video went back with my reply, and technically I sent a MMS ? I am trying hard to understand how this tech works. ( Carrier pigeons were much simpler).

vacheron

I can't envisage any way that Whatsapp could instigate an MMS.

Whatsapp sends messages directly to the recipient using your 3/4/5G cellular data plan (or Wi-Fi). This cuts out the involvement of your cellular provider and so is known as "Over-The-Top" messaging.

MMS messages content is sent to your mobile carrier (Vodafone or whoever) over cellular only, and stored in their "Multimedia Messaging Service Centre". The multimedia content is is then retrieved from the "Multimedia Messaging Service Centre" by the recipient. This is done through your text message feature of your phone, not Whatsapp.

Have you looked at your sent text message history and sent Whatsapp message history to see which history it is in?

PHK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81871594#Comment_81871594

WhatsApp is simply incapable of sending an MMS. You are mistaken.

If you go into your messages app, do you see a message there?

ScratchyCat

It does sound like your message reply was sent by the message app. It maybe that in the message settings somewhere, send mms is switched on. I know one my phone I had to switch this setting off.

Have you a relative or friend who is mobile savy that could look at your phone settings for you.

_Dolly_Rocker_

Anything you send via WhatsApp will not show up a charge for an MMS.

Have you sent anything via the standard messaging app around the same time, even a large message containing only text can charge as an MMS, this would depend on the amount of characters.

You can ask Asda to block things like this for the future.