Hello Alice48,
Welcome to the community!
Firstly, you should note that merely receiving the Welcome Abroad message does not necessarily mean you have incurred roaming charges. I was able to confirm that to be true here. The Fido Roam charge incurs when devices use Fido Services abroad.
In general, most one-time verification text messages should be SMS. Receiving SMS would not incur the roaming charge. It's possible receiving that text message did not result in roaming charges.
In order to prevent unintended roaming charges, it is generally recommended to disable data and roaming data. However, you should note that disabling those settings does not prevent roaming for voice and messaging. In addition, some manufacturers might allow some data usage to occur despite those settings (see here). That's why it is also generally recommended to enable Airplane and/or Flight modes in order to prevent unintended roaming usage. You could then manually enable Wifi when required.
I understand you had Airplane mode enabled and only disabled it to receive the verification message. If your device uses data when data and roaming data are disabled, it's possible data was also trasmitted. That data usage would incur roaming charges. If you wish to use your device to obtain verification text messages, there is unfortunately no 100% guarantee your device won't use other services and trigger roaming charges.
As mentioned below, If you did not wish to use Fido Roam, you would need to opt-out of that service. If you chose to do so, any usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. You can view those rates here.
You should note the forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. If you wished to discuss your matter and/or opt-out of Fido Roam, you would need to contact customer service.
n addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello Findkendwa,
Welcome to the community!
To clarify, the Fido Roam charge will incur when you use your device to make or receive a call, send a text message or use data while abroad (see here). While receiving SMS would not incur the roaming charge, it's worth mentioning that the data contained within MMS (incoming or outgoing) would be considered roaming data and charged accordingly. You should note that MMS are not solely restricted to pictures or video messages. Messages with subject headers or group messages etc are also considered MMS.
You might consider disabling any MMS auto-retrieve settings on your phone. You would then receive a SMS notifying of a MMS (no charge) but the data contained would not download automatically. You could then choose whether or not to download the associated data contents. You should also note that, with the exception of Wifi-calling, MMS does not generally get transmitted via Wifi. Downloading MMS while connected to Wifi would likely incur roaming charges. That said, if your device is supported for Wifi-calling, some types of usage would be considered roaming.
As far as I am aware, having calls go to voicemail and/or rejecting calls to send them to voicemail should not incur roaming charges (see here). However, checking your voicemail would be considered roaming as one must call the voicemail service.
So receiving a SMS and receiving voicemail should not incur roaming charges. However, sending text messages and checking your voicemail would likely incur those charges.
In order to prevent roaming, it is generally recommended to enable Airplane or Flight mode on your device. You can then manually enable Wifi when required. However, since a device is not able to connect to the networks with those modes enabled, you will not be able to receive text messages over the cellular networks. If your device is supported for Wifi-calling, you could possibly receive them when connected to Wifi.
If you keep Airplane or Flight mode enabled for the duration of your time away, it's unlikely you will receive all of your received text messages upon return. Text messages are not kept on the system indefinitely. Generally, once a text message gets delivered, it is deleted from the system. If a text message is undeliverable, it is only kept on the system for a few days while they attempt to re-deliver it. Unfortunately, if a text message remains undeliverable, it is removed from the system.
If you did not wish to use Fido Roam, you would need to opt-out of that service. If you chose to do so, any usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. You can view those rates here.
If you did not wish to use either of those options, you might consider switching your services to pre-paid. However, you should note that pre-paid roaming may not be available in some locations (ie US - due to '3G' network shut-down). In addition, you should also note that there would be a fee to migrate your services to pre-paid as well as back to post-paid upon your return. As well, it should be mentioned that when you return, you might not be able to regain your current plan if it is no longer in-market.
As already mentioned, if your device (and plan) is/are supported for Wifi-calling, that may be an option. That said, there seems to be some misunderstanding regarding Wifi-calling . I'm not sure how people have gotten the impression that Wifi-calling does not use the networks. However, that is not true. While the calls and messages do not transmit via cellular towers, they still use the networks via the internet gateway (see image here). The cellular towers and Wifi are merely alternate means of accessing the networks. Calls and messages would not be able to complete or get sent/received without the networks. As such, using Wifi-calling is technically using Fido services. However, they have allowed certain usage to be free from additional charges. All the messages and calls you receive (from anywhere in the world) will be taken from your plan's voice minutes and messaging limits. As well, all Wifi-calling messages and calls you make to a Canadian phone number while abroad won't incur long-distance or roaming charges (see link above).
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
