Not receiving SafePass text message from BofA

I am able to receive Safe Pass text messages from BOFA with no problem. No special setup on my iPhone was required. Are you abel to receive text messages from other people? Are you certain BOFA has your correct phone number?

I have the same problem. Iphone support thinks that BOfA uses MMS, Iphone cannot receive MMS messages, only SMS.

I also have no problem receiving the safe pass messages from BOA. However, if I use the internet on my phone it allows me to access my account information without the safe pass options.

I'm having the same problem (although I was able to receive the BoA Safepass message during the first week after I bought my phone). There is another thread on this ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7094970) The solution found in that thread is having AT&T turn on the "Pay Per Use MMS". This doesn't make much sense since the iPhone apparently can't receive MMS messages. Regardless this appears to be a possible solution. The trick is convincing AT&T to turn on MMS given that it is not supported on the iPhone. I am on the phone with AT&T now (well I'm on hold for tech support). The first support rep I spoke to refused to even discuss turning on MMS. If anyone is able to convince AT&T to turn on MMS support for their iPhone and that fixes Safepass, please let me know. If I'm able to do so I will post again.

Message was edited by: gregorymc

SafePass doesn't work for me either. Used to have a Palm Treo 650 with Verizon Wireless, and safepass was fine. Now I have an iPhone, and no joy. I pleaded with AT&T and someone claimed to have turned on "pay per use Multimedia Messaging" but it made no difference - I still don't get the SafePass text messages. My phone number is right with the bank, and all other SMS messages work fine on my phone.

I wish someone at either Apple, BofA or AT&T would take this seriously and look into the problem.

Ray888,

Are you able to receive SMS messages from carriers besides AT&T? If not, you may consider contacting AT&T for more assistance.

Typically when receiving an MMS message on the iPhone, it is received but since the iPhone does not support displaying MMS, it directs you to visit: http://www.viewmymessage.com/en/legacy/login.jsp

iPhone: if you can't send or receive text messages
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1337

Hope this helps,

Raleigh

I wish we could stay on point here. I know I can receive SMS messages correctly, both from other AT&T subscribers and Verizon Wireless subscribers.

The problem is just with BofA. Their system wants to send a "text message" to my cell phone. It doesn't work. I don't know what mechanism they use (SMS or MMS) or how they format the messages. I do know that it used to work on my old Verizon Wireless phone. It doesn't work on the iPhone.

I simply wish someone (Apple, AT&T or BofA) would seriously try to debug the problem here. I have made repeated calls to AT&T and BofA and no one has a clue.

Wish I knew what's wrong, but I have been able to receive the Safe Pass messages from Bank of America from Day 1, without any special setup at all. Both versions of the iPhone software work fine for me.

I saw a post on a different forum which has the likely explanation. If you have ported your number from another carrier to AT&T, you number is likely still registered as being with your old carrier in the databases available to BOA. Therefore BOA cannot route the sms properly.

See the following post:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=mobilebanking&view=bydateascending&message.id=63#M63

Well, I called and emailed BofA tech support numerous times, and they were truly useless.

Eventually, my SafePass did start working again (I just tried it periodically until suddenly one day it worked again). I am convinced the problem is with BofA's implementation though.

When you register your device with SafePass, I think BofA's system merely looks up your phone number in the basic public listings and assigns its carrier based on that. Of course, if you then port your number, as I did, to a new service, BofA's system is completely incapable of determining the change in service provider, and so cannot re-assign the proper text message address. Even now, any public database you could search will list my number as being owned by Sprint Spectrum - they, like BofA apparently, have not thought of a means of dealing with number portability.

I ended up having to call BofA tech support, and get SafePass disabled on my account. Then, after a couple of months after porting, I was able to reregister my device and, a few weeks after that, it finally started working again (even when it initially let me reregister my primary device, the confirmation SMS did not go through - that didn't work until just a week or so ago). To what, if any, extent, tech support did anything in the background, I do not know, as they never did "keep me informed" as they promised they would.

So, word to the wise, if you use safepass and ever want to port your cell number to another carrier - FIRST, disable your SafePass settings on your account BEFORE you port. Then, after you port, you will have to call BofA tech support, get them to remove your previous device and try re-registering your new device. It seems that the ONLY way to get their system to link the phone number with the appropriate carrier's SMS address is via the device registration process (ie. their techs seem unable to manually update such information in a clients account profile). Be prepared to wait at least a few months for it all to work again.

P.S. There is no point calling AT&T about SafePass, as they simply have nothing to do with it in any way. If BofA can't update a client's info to include the appropriate SMS address, there's really nothing AT&T can do.

Message Edited by gwnorth on 06-24-2008 08:46:41 AM

Message Edited by gwnorth on 06-24-2008 09:11:55 AM "

percy13 -

Thanks so much for your response. This makes perfect sense. It explains why some people have no problems with SafePass on the iPhone, and why others do.

I will contact the bank again and see if I can get through to someone who understands.

Thanks for the info, percy13. I wish I would've known about this before I switched from Verizon. I have been going back and forth with Bank of America for the past few days. They keep coming back and saying there are no issues with their system. In my latest reply, I sent them a link to both this thread and the one on att forums. I'm sure they will come back and say it's an AT&T issue.

FWIW, as part of the early trouble-shooting process, B of A tech support said to text "help" to 73981. Supposedly this resets their system when numbers are ported. I was told all should be well within 24 hours. Going on 60+ hours now and still not able to receive safepass codes.

Anyway, I'll try your method once I get the word from them that there is nothing they can do. Thanks again.

Same thing happening to me. I ported over to my iPhone from Verizon and SafePass was working fine on my Motorola Q, but not iPhone.

Since I ported - no dice. Have spoken with B of A several times, and yesterday they gave me the text "help" to 73981 suggestion and told me it would take 24 hours to sort itself out. Not yet.

I'm wondering if it finally worked for you Trash Can?

I have an open ticket with BofA to resolve this. They have the ticket for > 1 week now, and last check yesterday showed no progress. I will keep calling them.

I will post to this thread when I have a response from them.

I am having the same problems as everyone else. A Google search turned up this thread. I tried texting help to that number (even though it seems to not have worked for anyone) about 30 minutes ago.

Please keep the thread up-to-date.

My phone number was ported. I was able to get the safepass codes immediately. They stopped working recently. The only change that I made was upgrading to the 2.0.2 firmware. I don't think there is a link between the two, but just wanted to mention it for completeness.

Well its now been 72 hours since I followed the instructions of the B of A tech support and texted the word "help".

It's still not working. Time to call B of A again...