What is Premium SMS?
Premium SMS is a suite of services offered by third party service providers. You are charged for these services through your 3 account. Premium SMS numbers are also called short codes. They are either 6 digit numbers starting with 191 or 193, or 8 digit numbers starting with 197 or 199.
PSMS services offered include:
- Competitions – such as knowledge or trivia competitions
- Voting services – such as Australian Idol voting
- Horoscopes
- Chat and Dating services
3 does not contact you directly to sign up or subscribe to Premium SMS services. Any concerns you may have regarding a Premium SMS service (including what appears on your 3 Bill) should always be directed to the service provider operating the service in the first instance. You can contact the premium rate service provider directly using the following Premium SMS Lookup tool. Please note that sometimes the service provider is not the actual content provider with whom you have an agreement, so there are times when they may refer you on so that your dispute can be resolved directly.
If you are unable to resolve your dispute with the Premium SMS service provider or the content provider directly please contact 3 Care on 133320.
Premium SMS is a separate service to premium voice services. These services are voice calls where you are charged a higher than usual rate for the call.
Note: Not all Premium SMS services are available on 3 or run indefinitely. If a service is not available and you send a message to it you will receive a response to inform you delivery has failed. You will not be charged for a failed message response.
