Why are outgoing texts billed as minutes?

Can you show a screenshot of what you mean, @CASNS? You can mask any personal information.

This is a picture from my recent usage report.  I want to know why all outgoing texts are using my minutes since SMS are free with prepaid, but you have to buy minutes separately.

Do you see actual minutes deducted from your booster though?

How many minutes is koodo deducting from 1 outgoing sms? 

As far as I know, Koodo prepaid (and public mobile) displayed texts sent to “short code” as minutes.

Not sure the reason why but it shouldn’t counted toward your “normal” minutes.

@Dennis , I’m not sure how many minutes are deducted for one outgoing sms.. I’d have to test to figure that out.  But the fact that it’s billed as minutes leads me to conclude it is deducting some (even a fraction) for each SMS.  Otherwise you’d think they would bill as SMS.

@Dinh , I’m not sure what “short codes” are (maybe you mean the 5-digit numbers that you sometimes see in ads)?  In any case, the number redacted in the screenshot above shows a conversation with a “regular” 10-digit number. 

Koodo bills by the minute, so it either takes a minute, or it takes nothing. I can flag a Rep to explain why texts show up as such and to confirm if, in this case, it's deducting minutes for some reason. But you can just count on your bill now without waiting. You can see how much of your booster minutes was used. Does that number equal outgoing sms and talk time, or just talk time?

Are you viewing the usage history page from your phone or a computer screen?

Do you have an Unlimited Canada-Wide calling base plan?

Minutes are used for incoming and outgoing calls. Two columns to the left of where Usage Type/Minutes is shown, there should be a column labelled Duration. This displays the amount of time spent during an incoming or outgoing call but doesn’t appear to be showing up in your screenshot. 

Incoming and outgoing calls have an Originating Location and Destination Location, whereas incoming and outgoing SMS messages only show a Destination Location (e.g. NS). The Originating Location and Destination Location seem to be missing. There should be a total of ten columns.

It looks as though the system may have confused Minutes (incoming/outgoing calls) for SMS. Or we’re looking at a compressed screenshot that has omitted some of the details of your usage history. As per your screenshot, items listed as Minutes equal outgoing calls, not outgoing texts.

If you have an Unlimited Canada-Wide calling base plan, you’ll see $0.00 for calls and all base plans include unlimited international messaging (also $0.00).

My husband had a Prepaid Unlimited Canada Wide calling plan and both incoming and outgoing texts are shown as SMS.

Can we see a similar screen shot for your prepaid account? 

With Duration and Data Usage columns included 

Thanks everyone for your advice.  I’m not sure how many minutes the outgoing texts subtract from my minutes booster (if they do at all) because I haven’t been tracking.  To figure this out I’ll have to set up a test period where I’m sure not to call (or receive calls) and see if any minutes deduct.

I generated the screenshot from my computer (logged in to self-serve), but I did remove some columns thinking it would help to clarify things.  Here’s a raw screenshot, no columns removed, only the numbers redacted.  Duration is blank which might suggest nothing is being deducted but I’m not sure.  Still seems strange for it to be counted as minutes.

Edit: looked up my plan and it’s: Unlimited Messaging (Text and Picture) and 250 MB of Data

I guess the easiest way to check it is take a screenshot of your booster usage, it will tell you how many minutes you have used/left of your booster. Then send a few text messages and a few minutes afterwards check your booster usage again.

If nothing has changed (hopefully you didn’t receive a call meanwhile ^_^), you know it’s just yet another bug in the prepaid website but works as intended…

Edit: I’m talking about this screen (sorry really old screenshot but I believe things haven’t changed much since then):