As I prepare to jet off for a week in Texas at SXSW, one of the things on my ‘to do’ list was “figure out how to disable visual voicemail on the iPhone”. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of getting stung with a massive phone bill for downloading messages on a roaming tariff—but according to the internet, the only way to disable the service seems to be setting a password and then resetting the phone (so the phone effectively can’t remember how to connect to the voicemail service).

There had to be a better way, so I phoned O2.

How to make best use of your iPhone tariff

With thanks to the very helpful David at O2’s iPhone support centre, here is the recommended way to handle voicemail while out of the country:

1. Dial 1760 to disable your voicemail service altogether—this ensures that you don’t get hit for any access charges while abroad
2. Let people call your phone; if it’s not convenient to talk to them (or you’re asleep!), don’t answer it
3. Text them back (which uses up 4 normal text message credits) and ask them to phone back at a convenient time
4. Take their callback—this is half the cost of you phoning them back (45p per minute for you, rather than 90p per minute if you call them)
5. When you get home, call 1750 to switch your voicemail service back on

And that’s it—not ideal, but unless you want to pay through the nose for accessing your voicemail from abroad, it’s the best solution.