cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Cant send SMS,hit my 'spending cap' apparently

simonburt66
Tuning in

Just trying to send a simple text message and I cant as I am getting a message failure and then a message from Virgin saying I have hit my 'spending cap' . This seems to be happening despite having unlimited texts and minutes. As suggested tried to log in via the app and it won't log me in, even though I'm on 5G. I recently upgraded my phone but I have had a Virgin mobile contract for some years. Some help would be appreciated

10 REPLIES 10

Steve1701
Rising star

Simon,

Get a Giffgaff sim card, put the VM one in a drawer.

😊

Steve

Utrinque Paratus

Natalie_L
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi simonburt66

 

Thank you for reaching out to us here on the Community. 

 

I am sorry to hear you are having problems when attempting to send an SMS. 

 

You would usually only get this message if the text you are attempting to send has a charge, such as a competition.

 

Is the text going to a friend/family member? If so, are they in the UK at the moment?

 

Let us know and we will be happy to assist further. 

 

Thanks 

 

 

 

Nat

enlli
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Some phones have a nasty habit of turning text over 160 characters or containing emoji to MMS which is chargeable on Virgin

Check this is not the case. Send a one word text like Test and see if that goes 

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

That worked but it sent it as an iMessage so not really like for like. The original SMS (not an iMessage for some reason) was less than 100 characters and contained nothing other than text, no emoji no attachments etc.

The text was going to a family member it was in fact being sent to two people, two different numbers both are also on Virgin Mobile, both in the UK. It was a plain text less than 100 characters no emojis, no attachments.

Thanks for your reply, simonburt66,

 

There's a few things to consider when setting Spend Caps:

  • Is the mobile activity higher than the set spend cap?
  • Is the spend cap set to a value lower than the monthly tariff?

If the answer is yes to either of these then you need to change your spend cap to a different value that accommodates for these.

Cheers,

Corey C

I'm not sure how this applies as my mobile plan has unlimited SMS and unlimited mins. Any speeding cap set was to my allowance, nothing above. I think I've sent less than 20 txt messages this month. I've removed any spending cap completely via 'My Account' online now but thats not ideal. I dont understand why I am having any issues for a simple SMS to 2 other Virgin mobile users?

The spend cap cannot be set to the allowance it should be set to the tariff, because if for example you set a cap of £5 and your tariff is £10, then you get the warnings and the blocking of the service because technically you have already gone beyond the cap by 5.

That doesn't explain why I am near a spending cap at all with unlimited SMS's on my contract.

I'll take it up with Virgin Support, hopefully they can explain it to me.

 

Thanks for your advice.