Fix your SMS service

Several banks and financial institutions use sms to send verification codes. While some work, other codes never arrive, such as Mastercard online purchase verification codes. It works for some institutions, and it has obviously been fixed to work with others but every once in a while I need to call my bank for a manual override that involves emailing me an authorization code that I provide back to the bank employee who then enters it into my transaction. This work-around is absolute nonsense, so please fix your sms system to work with the troglodytes… Its easier than talking sense to the gigantic bureaucracy of Mastercard. Please.

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What’s even worse is when the bank actually does send the code, you receive it instantly, you read it back to them… and then they tell you they can’t accept it because their system claims your phone “isn’t capable of receiving SMS messages.” At that point it doesn’t matter that you have the code in front of you — their system says no, and that’s the end of the conversation. It’s incredibly frustrating, and it shows how broken the whole SMS‑verification chain still is.

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Yes I agree… as a leading VoIP provider I’m surprised VoIP.ms isn’t building a coalition of Canadian and US VoIP providers to lobby for the necessary changes to the SMS standards to allow VoIP numbers to fully participate in SMS services (and many on-line Apps which refuse to accept VoIP numbers) on an equal footing .

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Agreed! voip.ms should also fix the SMS delay issues as a priority item :slight_smile:

Same issue! Old contact seems to work but new one don’t…

I’m not sure if Voip.ms is to blame. It’s going to depend on how the bank determines SMS capability. If they look up your number they will find it is not with a wireless carrier and assume it’s not SMS capable.

Most financial institutions have the option of sending codes to a landline via voice synthesis.

It is a little unclear about where the fault lies, but I suspect that there is something in the protocols that Voip.ms uses to transfer the incoming sms message to the outgoing stream. I see the incoming sms message in the sms portal, and it is registered for email forwarding which works fine, but nothing comes to the sms app.

I had an exchange with the techhies behind the customer support people, and they changed something at their end. Now, sms works fine if a little slowly.

are you talking about bank sending short code SMS or SMS itself?

I was encountering problems receiving sms from some banks,but not others, and mostly it was confirmation codes. Some retailers did not work as well, and some media companies too. I was also missing some personal sms messages… It was inconsistent, then the tecchies found the problem and it stopped.

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voip numbers are known to be not able to receive short code SMS. Short code numbers (typically with mobile numbers) have between three and seven digits instead of the typical ten digit numbers.

It depends on whether the number is listed in some data broker list of voip numbers. If you use it like voip, or if it’s on such a list, then there’s problems. You can also get a cell number, call people you know, then port it over. There are supposedly trust scores and different metrics for numbers, etc. This is not something voip.ms is capable of changing, they don’t control data brokers.

Even abroad I use my cell phone for verifications (why not? SMS can swim) and sometimes email, so I wouldn’t know of these issues some have, but I would definitely blame these issues with SMS on the internet for probably many reasons and suggest that you just use your mobile for SMS like most do and use your app for voice calls.