Transferring Funds Problem

[Old Croc]

Looking for advice about a recent difficulty that has arisen with my bank transfers/payments.

My income from several sources is deposited in my Westpac bank in Australia and I use on-line banking to transfer funds to my bank here or for any payments in Australia.

For security purposes the bank sends an SMS code to my Thai phone before proceeding. It's worked without a hitch for years until very recently. The SMS is being sent, but I'm not receiving it. I haven't changed my phone number and it is the number they are sending the message to.  I can still receive ordinary SMS messages from friends in Australia, and have tried putting the SIM in a different phone, but the Bank's Code SMS still doesn't come through. My bank says it must be a problem with my local service provider.

My first attempt to get Dtac to advise/fix the problem wasn't very satisfying. I'll probably have to try again.

Has anyone heard of a similar situation and know what is causing it?

[JimmyJ]

I have a secondary phone carrier/phone number, for VOIP calls.

That number will not accept "promotional" SMS - i.e., SMS sent from a 4 digit number - the company's sender ID - rather than a normal telephone number.

 

Perhaps your bank changed their methodology of sending the SMS alert and it is now a "promotional" SMS, and DTAC doesn't accept those.

Edited January 21, 2019 by JimmyJ

[Pib]

The Australian service WestPac uses to transmit bank security codes may have blocked Thailand for bank security codes; not all SMS...just bank security codes. Bank security codes "have different underlying coding" as to which networks that can be relayed to/carried on and the banking codes have stopped arriving DTAC.  

 

I went thru a similar things around 5 years ago when security codes from one US bank I use to have an account with stopped arriving.  After several calls with the bank's technical department I also end-up talking to the service the bank used to transmit/launch the security codes (it happened to be TMobile) and the TMobile technical rep said they had stopped relaying "bank security codes" to Thailand based on my US bank's instructions.  Regular SMSs to Thailand no problem, but banking security codes may not be relayed/sent if a person's mobile number was pre-paid number but OK if post-paid. 

 

And by pre-paid vs post-paid I mean the type of registration associated with the mobile number/SIM are different.  Pre-paid is less stringent in terms of identity docs required to open a pre-paid account.   And some bank's don't allow bank security codes to go to VOIP-based numbers like Magic Jack, etc.   Getting banking security codes can sometimes be a pain.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Pib

[Old Croc]

Thanks to the posters who responded.

 

The possibility that the problem may lie with the SIM registration has been considered and I'll bring it up when I try again with DTAC.

Other than that I could try to get the bank to change the security system used.

[KittenKong]

To get around this problem I have a UK SIM in the second slot of my phone. I pay nothing monthly for this SIM - I just have to make a couple of short pay calls each year - and I can receive SMS messages worldwide for free on it. I have never had a problem with bank messages not arriving this way.

 

Even if they did change the rules and oblige me to have a very cheap monthly package on that SIM, I would do so because I like having something that always works everywhere.

[Old Croc]

Problem solved.

I had blocked many numbers from spammers like Horoscopes and others trying to sell me all manner of apps. This included the constant SMSs from DTAC trying to get me interested in 5G and other things.

Talking to Westpac they suggested I might have blocked their number used to send the codes.

I hadn't, but after I unblocked several other numbers, including those from DTAC, my security code message worked again.

I'm sure it was something initiated by the telco because I hadn't actively blocked anyone for months.