HOW TO: block your number when calling someone
Filed under: consumer, home phone, how to, mobile phone
Sometimes there’s a genuine need to call someone and prevent your phone number from being displayed. Perhaps you’ve received a call from a number you don’t recognise, and you want to call back to check who it is without revealing your number. You can do this on both your home phone and mobile phone.
There’s two methods of hiding your number from being displayed – either on a call by call basis, or permanently.
Block your number on a call by call basis
- From a home phone, dial 1831 then the number you’re calling
- From a mobile phone, dial #31# then the number you’re calling
Block your number permanently
For mobile phones, most phones include a “show my caller ID” settings in the settings, which you can turn off. For an iPhone, this is located in Settings > Phone > Show My Caller ID. For Android phones, this is located in Phone > Settings > Call Settings > More Settings > Caller ID (or similar).
For home phones, we can hide your number when you call others permanently. We’ll also block your details so that your name, phone number and address are not published in the White Pages directory or on directory assistance services. A $2.93 monthly fee applies.
Please do contact us if you’d like to set this up.
Windows Phone 7.5 has a great feature which allows you to show your caller ID to only your contacts. If you call a number off the bat, you’ll show as private. Add them to your contacts and they’ll see your number. It’s a really good set and forget solution!
I had an old ericsson where i could type the number in, press the option key and select ‘call as private’
I thought it was a good feature but have not seen it on a phone since.
What a great feature! I hate calling service providers when making enquiries & knowing that once I have called them, even if I didn’t leave my number they now have it in their database!
This sounds really GR8!
( HELP please.
I have a iPhone using the Optus network & home phone with same provider, how can I set this up on my phones. Not sure what you mean by using Windows 7.5 ? Not a NERD at these kind of things
Hi Sue,
Best thing to do is chat to our 24×7 Customer Service online help team via this link: http://tinyurl.com/24×7-service they’ll talk you through the process
Sue you have an iPhone, not a phone running windows phone 7.5 or higher.
You cant do this with an iphone (Yes the miracle iphone actually does less things than other phones)
All you can do is the methos stated by the author
Block your number on a call by call basis
From a mobile phone, dial #31# then the number you’re calling
However that is for telstra, it may not work for optus.
cool method of hiding id when calling
will #31# prevent a mobile call from abroad being displayed as international to the recipient either on their mobile or landline in the uk.
Thanks
This is a great idea but how do I reverse the process once I have made my call?
Hi Denise, our customer service team can help out with this. You can start a live web chat with them here.
Is it possible to block my home phone number for people dialing *10# after receiving a missed call from me and still keeping my listing in the white pages directory?
If so, would the monthly fee still apply?
I used to have this service on my phone free of charge but it apparently disappeared some time ago.
Why would the service disappear?
I hope you can answer my questions.
Hi there Doug,
Good question! I’m going to direct you to our customer support team who you speak to online 24×7 via Live Chat: http://tinyurl.com/24×7-service
If the service still exists, they’ll be able to help you out!
Dial 1831 before the number you want to call, you need to do it for every call you make.
can I use 1831 with a 1800 number?
Hi Jan,
Not quite sure about this one. 1831 temporarily blocks your number being displayed when you dial out so are you referring to calling a 1800 number that isn’t automated? Mayeb have a chat to our 24×7 Live Chat Customer service crew via the links above – they’ll be able to clarify this for you
if you block your number from showing up on another phone. What shows up on the blocked persons bill from carrier. Does your number show up or is it labeled private.
Hi Mike,
As your making the call it should only appear on your bill. You won’t see calls received on bills.
When you ring someone you pay for the call so it will show on your bill.
It will never show up on the bill of the person who you called as they do not pay to receive the call.
So nothing changes.
i cannot toggle on/off of my caller id in iphone. and do you have any number to be placed before dialing to appear private in UAE?
Hi Blaise,
Sorry, I don’t know the specific calling code for the UAE. A temporary solution for you may be to disable it for all calls on your iPhone then just enable it when you’re happy for it to be displayed again. Go to “Settings” -> “Phone” -> “Show My Caller ID”. Simply disable the caller ID feature by turning the switch to OFF.
yeah yeah yeah what do I have to do what ow is it *670183810369 is it or what REPLY ASAP
What?
how to hide number in india? What should i dial to hide my id ?
Hi there,
Sorry, we don’t have the info for blocking your ID with Indian mobile networks. Please speak to your local provider in India.
Az
#31# should work in India as it is a GSM code.
So it should work on any GSM network
how do I unblock my Telstra land line
Hi Paul,
To block or unblock temporarily from a home phone, dial 1831 to block and 1832 to unblock.
If you want to block/unblock permanently, you’ll have to give us a call.
Az
Hi, my home phone rang a few times and I wasn’t able to answer it. Used *10# and the response was “No unanswered call registered……..” Was this a call from a blocked number ???
Hi Dave,
Yes, it was either a blocked number or you may have picked up the phone just as the other person was hanging up and there was a slight overlap which meant there were no unanswered calls registered.
Az