More reviews coming. Sorry I keep vanishing - busy busy busy!
More reviews coming. Sorry I keep vanishing - busy busy busy!
Member since:18.12.2004
Reviews:79
Members who trust:115
Note - I am only reviewing the free stuff on this site. This is because A) When I join a text site I don't join to pay someone loads of cash when I can do that on my phone anyway, and B) Because I haven't explored them yet due to reason A).
During the long summer holidays of 2004, I did what most jobless 16 year olds do.... ran out of credit on my phone. And frankly, I could not be bothered totopup. Now, the rest of my family used Lycos to text people, sending 5(I think) free texts a day. But that wasnt enough. So, armed with a keyboard and Google, I searched for oh, about ten minutes.
I found sms.ac, a small, simple, and easy-looking website. I was a bit dubious about giving out my phone number, but I decided to risk it. After about half an hour, during which I registered and activated my account, I was sending text messages.
It is that fast to register.
You get 8 free texts each day, but apparantly in some countries that will end soon, although there is no idea given as to when or where, and this has been advertised for almost a year. You also get 150 free texts when you first sign up (Worth 15 quid!) which can be used in the first 30 days. Free texts do not accumulate, ie. You cannot have 8 one day, then 16 the next day, you have to use them all up in the one day. There are also special things you can do to get more free texts, like complete a profile or upload pics (This seems to have changed now, however...). Also, on some occasions their database appears to mess up, allowing for a huge exploit which I will describe later...
Texts can be roughly 120 characters in length. This is about two thirds of the length of messages from my phone, meaning you cannot say as much as you usually might. However it is generally enough to say what you have to. At the end of texts you send are the words "Send FREE msgs from www.SMS.ac", although whether this is to advertise or show whomever you are texting how cheap you are I am not sure.
There are various mobile services that cannot receive texts for some reason or another. Also, you always have to include the +44 or whatever country code you need to use at the start of the number. However, this is the same on many websites. The texts are sent fast as well, usually instantly although it does on occasions take a few minutes, or even up to an hour. This is only when the site is particulary busy though.
The layout of the site is currently, really rather tragic. It used to be basic blue and white, quick and easy to send from, and fast to navigate. Now, however, it has various pictures and special animations and irritating ringtones as background music. As well as this, the last thing that seems to load is the text service itself, meaning it is slow to send texts, when it used to be fast.
IMPORTANT SECTION WARNING
===MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS=== The biggest problems with this site are the clubs and community. Basically, when you sign up,according to your profile it reccomends you several clubs and basic daily texts. UNCHECK ALL OF THESE! Texts sent to you cost 10p and as the clubs can send out unlimited texts in a day, depending on the number of members, this can drain your credit like a fat kid drains a pack of Milky Stars. You are signed up to about five daily texts if you do not uncheck them, and any amount of clubs.These are so expensive because the daily texts cost ten pence, as do any messages from the clubs.You are messaged whenever someone posts a new message in a club, so if ten people a day write something, thats one pound. Thats more than you save using free texts.
THEREFORE IF YOU ARE SKIMMING, READ THIS SECTION WELL! ===END===
You are able to reccomend your friends to this site, and you even have a guestbook to sign. This is supposedly for people to make friends, although I only ever have people I know sign mine. You are able to delete messages in your guestbook as well, in case anyone says something you don't like.
When the databases mess up, it can be possible to send unlimited texts for free, by signing in and out of your account when you run out of texts. For some reason, this then "refills" your texts up to 8 free once again. In one day I was able to send almost 50 texts - thats a fivers worth of texts for free! The length of time you can do this for varies considerably; it can be a few hours, or a few days, or even weeks and weeks.
All in all, even though it is slow, it is free and considering that 8 texts a day is 80 pence, in a week you would be saving five pounds and sixty pence. Plus, fifteen pounds worth of credit for the first month means there is no reason to not join. Just make sure you do not sign up for clubs, ok?
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
3 brings together video calling, video clips, location based services and amazing content to browse and download. 3 has great offers and a huge range of the 3G handsets. Visit the 3 Shop to find more info. on offers
Advantages: Maybe their free text but i never needed it to use it. Disadvantages: Difficult to use,forces you to give out your info and then uses it to get your money.Ingenuine
JBourne 16.10.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of sms.ac
Advantages: Get free texts for a month Disadvantages: Always sending you texts on your phone which cost you..when you cancel your account the texts dont stop
Pink735 30.08.2006 (30.08.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of sms.ac
Mar 14th, 2005
very helpful by (97%):
helpful by (3%):
