Who doesn't get a mobile signal at home ?

[RogerS]

Or an iffy or intermittent one? Do you do much online buying ? Not for much longer, you won't.

March 2019 - enter a new directive from the EU, the PSD2 (Revised Payment Service Directive). Basically things like Mastercards' Securecode are not good enough and you are going to be sent a OneTimePasscode on your mobile (and no...you can't use a landline and get the MS that way..the EU says landlines are not secure..bless). So no mobile signal...no OTP.

Ah, I hear you say, the banks and card companies are putting in place alternatives. Dig a bit deeper and, no, they are not. Unless you think that at the point you are being asked to enter the OTP, the alternative is for you have to walk downstairs to wherever the phone is, ring customer services at the card company, wait, wait a bit more, go through security, ask for a OTP - assuming that their systems in realtime are capable of accessing that specific transaction that you are trying to make ...which takes some believing that they can make that all work ...get the OTP, walk back upstairs, sit down

"Sorry...your session has timed out. Please start again"

The other 'alternative' being proposed is for you to ring them and they will send you an email with the OTP which is what M&S and John Lewis are saying...unless they've asked Mastercard nicely to alter their screens to let you click on'Send me it by email which somehow I doubt....

But in reality this is only a backstop for those without a mobile signal temporarily..not for those of us without any signal... as M&S only allows this for five transactions.

 

[Rorschach]

What if you don't own a mobile phone?

 

[RogerS]

What if you don't own a mobile phone?

LOL....best hope your High Street is still open then.

You might still be able to buy online with any sites that allow PayPal but I'm guessing that you might not have a PayPal account either.

 

[MikeG.]

I dunno Roger. Visitors to my last house told me there was no signal. I'm not sure that anyone's ever tried here.

 

[RogerS]

I dunno Roger. Visitors to my last house told me there was no signal. I'm not sure that anyone's ever tried here.

It may depend on the provider. Here, EE is bad. O2 is bad. Three is marginal. Vodafone is OK.

 

[LancsRick]

Most modern mobiles can make calls and send/receive messages over wifi so you should be ok unless on old kit.

 

[AES]

Fortunately I DO have a good signal at home. But re MasterCard and the 1 time secure code being sent by SMS, here (Switzerland) it's happening already. On a recent transaction it happened to me and it worked fine. With SMS that was a first time for me and I was quite surprised (MasterCard had not said anything beforehand).

BTW, here anyway, I think (repeat only THINK) it depends on the vendor, but with MasterCard I don't always get asked for that extra special password step.

As I say, I'm guessing it depends on the vendor, but with about 50 MasterCard made transactions this past year, I've only had the extra security code asked for in about half of these transactions. With all the others, after entering the 3 digit security code from the back of the card the transactions just completed with no further steps.

But in principle I think you're right to be concerned - it seems that with many companies, current thinking is that absolutely everyone has a mobile phone that works. For various reasons, including poor signal (not to mention some people just not owning a mobile at all) I'm sure that isn't always the case.

 

[LeeElms]

Three have a 'Three in Touch' app which allows making and receiving calls & texts over WiFi -- seems to work quite well.

 

[RogerS]

Most modern mobiles can make calls and send/receive messages over wifi so you should be ok unless on old kit.

Depends on the mobile provider, I think. I'm pretty sure that mine (Vodafone) doesn't.

EDIT: Am out of date ! They recently started offering it.

The point is moot though because a lot of people don't have modern phones.

 

[MusicMan]

O2 does allow phone and text by wifi, on the iPhone at least, though you need to activate this once you have the package.

 

[RogerS]

Three have a 'Three in Touch' app which allows making and receiving calls & texts over WiFi -- seems to work quite well.

I used to be with Three. The signal was very marginal and I tried using 'Three in Touch'. I missed so many incoming calls....it was a veritable CoS.

 

[RogerS]

....
BTW, here anyway, I think (repeat only THINK) it depends on the vendor, but with MasterCard I don't always get asked for that extra special password step.

As I say, I'm guessing it depends on the vendor, but with about 50 MasterCard made transactions this past year, I've only had the extra security code asked for in about half of these transactions. ......

You are correct. It depends on the thresholds that are set by each company that offers a card. I've never been asked for my Securecode and I buy a lot online as we're renovating a house.

But those thresholds are going to be reduced once the OTP comes into effect ...so expect more of them!

 

[Beau]

Most modern mobiles can make calls and send/receive messages over wifi so you should be ok unless on old kit.

Depends on the mobile provider, I think. I'm pretty sure that mine (Vodafone) doesn't.

EDIT: Am out of date ! They recently started offering it.

The point is moot though because a lot of people don't have modern phones.

With Vodafone you can have a Sure Signal if your handset is not bang up to date. We had no reception inside due to a foil insulation and I got them to give me a Sure Signal for nothing. Works pretty much perfectly http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile- ... 5375-white

I should add my phone is only a year old so not exactly old-fashioned but can't do WIFI Calling on it

 

[John Brown]

EE in theory have texts and voice calls over WiFi, but, in my experience, it doesn't work too well. If the phone sees a glimmer of a signal from a mast, it switches from WiFi to phone network, and then often fails. You can get round this by activating flight or fight mode, and then re-enabling WiFi. But even having done that, callers ask if I'm underwater, as the quality is so poor. Added to which, the EE "WiFi calling " app on my Samsung maintained a file that grew and grew until my phone was unable to update any of the Apps (most of which I don't want anyway) . The only way round this problem was a factory reset and disabling of WiFi calling. Strange that Skype and Whatsapp both seem to work well over Wi-Fi, with video as well.

 

[RogerS]

Most modern mobiles can make calls and send/receive messages over wifi so you should be ok unless on old kit.

Depends on the mobile provider, I think. I'm pretty sure that mine (Vodafone) doesn't.

EDIT: Am out of date ! They recently started offering it.

The point is moot though because a lot of people don't have modern phones.

With Vodafone you can have a Sure Signal if your handset is not bang up to date. We had no reception inside due to a foil insulation and I got them to give me a Sure Signal for nothing. Works pretty much perfectly http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile- ... 5375-white

I should add my phone is only a year old so not exactly old-fashioned but can't do WIFI Calling on it

It will cost you, though.

 

[Beau]

It will cost you, though.

Other than paying of calls as per normal how will it cost me?

 

[RogerS]

It will cost you, though.

Other than paying of calls as per normal how will it cost me?

£69 to buy. I know you managed to blag one for nowt

 

[Beau]

It will cost you, though.

Other than paying of calls as per normal how will it cost me?

£69 to buy. I know you managed to blag one for nowt

I had only been with them a few weeks and got it for free. If they think you might go somewhere else phone companies can be quite accommodating :lol:

 

[clanger]

Most modern mobiles can make calls and send/receive messages over wifi so you should be ok unless on old kit.

Or you only 1Mbps on a good day with a trailing wind due to being so far from the exchange - I think that the hills don't help either, as the electrons get tired running up and down them.
Where I live, there is no mobile signal in the house (the walls are 3ft thick cob) and very poor outside (have to go 100 yards up the road if I want to have a decent quality call).
We have a campsite next to us, and in the height of summer it can be entertaining watching three or four happy campers all huddled together by the side of the road, trying to get a signal.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

As I understand it, Vodafone offer WiFi calling, but not texts. And, unless it's changed recently, you only get it if you got your phone through Vodafone with all their pre-installed c**p on it. EE does both calls and texts. Don't know about the others.

I ended up resorting to going back to the High Street this year, because so many places the delivery is so slow I wouldn't get my stuff in time for Christmas.