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It's been 2 or 3 months that I used to get alert from my carrier that a amount has been deducted and I couldn't find what those charges were for. It's today so happened that the alert of deduction and Apple ID verification came simultaneously and that directed me towards imessage and FaceTime. With a few google searches I found this Apple Support link very helpful, in that forum it written clearly

Depending on your carrier, it can be normal for the activation of iMessage and FaceTime to involve incurring a cost for sending an international SMS message.

And when I searched for the cost of international SMS in my country and carrier, it was same as the deduction amount that I got alerted for. Here is a screen shot of a SMS that I get enter image description here

And soon after this I get a deducted alert from my carrier. To ensure that my FaceTime and iMessage are toggled on and activated let me attach images of them:

enter image description here

enter image description here

So, now it's clear that my Iphone 7 is sending international SMSs for the activation of imessage and FaceTime (which I say is already activated). Now, I have two questions:

  1. Why it is sending those international SMS even after activation is done?
  2. How to stop it? It has already cost a good deal of deduction.
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  • Is the activation toggle for iMessage and/or FaceTime indeed activated in the respective settings screen? Can you see the number associated with the SMSes (in the bill etc.)?
    – user302097
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 12:44
  • @Gummibando Yes, see the edit.
    – Knight wants Loong back
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 16:35
  • I had a similar problem a while ago, where a newly set up iPhone constantly tried to activate iMessage/FaceTime (via a British number as well), failed and repeated. (From Germany, e.g. international rate as well). I don't remember if it was the above number, but it had a +44 prefix. (Btw. I had expected the US territory to have a domestic number for activation, but looks like it doesn't.) Anyway, I could only resolve this by calling Apple support, as this was apparently an error with their backend.
    – user302097
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 16:48
  • By the way, even though you have attempted to redact them, I can still read your phone number and carrier...
    – Moo
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 19:38
  • @Moo :) oh really? Thanks for letting me know. I shall remove it after a while.
    – Knight wants Loong back
    Commented Oct 19, 2020 at 4:40

2 Answers 2

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The most logical answer to this is that it is not sending international SMS messages after activation is done, so it must be something else your carrier is charging you for.

I would contact your carrier to get an explanation of the costs.

As far as I understand, many carriers have business relationsships with Apple and ensure that you are not charged for FaceTime/iMessage activation. You can check a list of carriers here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039

UPDATE

You have updated the question with the requested information.

The phone number you quote is indeed an Apple registration number in the UK. Your own phone number seem to be in India. The carriers I know in Europe usually do not charge their customers for Apple registrations, but your Indian carrier apparently does.

The text message you have is not the FaceTime registration message - it doesn't look like that. It does however look like a standard receipt that indicates that a has been delivered succesfully.

I would try disabling and enabling FaceTime/Messages (i.e. specifically your phone number from FaceTime/Messages) to try to trigger a re-registration.

If that doesn't work, contact Apple to work out why it keeps trying to register.

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  • 1
    I would contact your carrier to get an explanation of the costs, I contacted but they said they didn’t know.
    – Knight wants Loong back
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 12:10
  • Well, if they don't know, who would??
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 12:31
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    @Knight That doesn't sound reasonable. Ask for an itemized bill where you can see the phone numbers you've sent text messages to - that should clear things up. You could also write here which carrier and country we're talking about, that would make things a lot easier for us.
    – jksoegaard
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 12:35
  • If the carrier says they don't know, they might not. But even if they are lying, iTunes Store support could be contacted.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 15:23
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    @jksoegaard They know about calls that I make and SMSs that I do, but they don’t know about this particular matter (at least they say like that).
    – Knight wants Loong back
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 16:37
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Apple charges nothing so your title is quite misleading. If you have excessive SMS to register or your activation is messed up, I can see how you might have to pay for text messages if you don’t have unlimited SMS or are over your quota.

  1. Can your carrier temporarily block SMS or offer unlimited while you work out registration issues?
  2. Can you de-register your SMS and use messages without an expensive cellular number attached? - https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage/
  3. Are you using the phone in a geography / country that’s not the same as your SMS account?

Using this guide, you hopefully can select a carrier that is easier on your wallet if needed.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204042

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  • I don't know about India, but I don't think it is that common to see carrier offering unlimited international text messages. I.e. the text message for FaceTime/iMessage activation must be sent to a UK phone number - even when you're in India or Denmark or many other countries. It's not in general always possible to have the SMS be sent to a number local to your own country. I agree on de-registering the phone number while the carrier or Apple support works out the issue though.
    – jksoegaard
    Commented Oct 19, 2020 at 9:01
  • It would be galling if you pay per message and the carrier that charged you for the first activation message didn’t deliver the paired data service that was reliable enough for it to complete registration @jksoegaard
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Oct 19, 2020 at 11:15
  • Yes, definitely annoying... around here I don’t know any carriers that do NOT charge you per message sent to other countries.
    – jksoegaard
    Commented Oct 19, 2020 at 13:59

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