Make a mistake and you have taken out a subscription by mistake. The third-party lock protects you from such subscription traps while using your smartphone. You can find out here how exactly this works and how you can set up such a block.
Third-party providers - what is it actually?
Third-party providers are primarily of interest to those who have a classic mobile phone contract with monthly billing. Because these service services receive your money from the mobile operator. If you have to pay money to a third party, this amount will appear on your mobile phone bill at the end of the month. And that can even get really expensive.
Many people become customers of these third-party providers, mostly unintentionally. A seemingly harmless offer - such as ring tones, voting or competitions - means that the third-party provider finds out your telephone number and can thus collect the costs arising from your mobile phone contract..
The third-party lock protects against such subscription traps
So that you as a consumer are not at the risk of accidentally taking out subscriptions, you can have all third-party providers blocked by your mobile operator. Third-party providers then no longer have the option of accessing your telephone number and are also no longer allowed to have any services billed to your mobile phone bill.
Once you have activated the third-party lock, you can no longer access the paid services. This also includes services that you might actually want to use, such as purchases in the App Store on your mobile phone bill. However, you can still make purchases using a credit card or store credit..
How do I set up a third party block?
Since 2012, it has been regulated by law that mobile network providers must set up a third-party block at the request of their customers. This has to be done completely free of charge. So if you want to set up a third-party block, you have to contact your mobile operator. With some providers, such as Drillisch, the third-party block can also be set up by default. These can also be reactivated if necessary.
To do this, you can go to your local mobile operator's shop or call the hotline. The most common wireless service providers are listed below:
- Vodafone: 0800 172 12 12
- Congstar: 0221 79 700 700
- Telecom: 0800 33 02202
- 02: 089 78 79 79 40 0
- 1 & 1: 0721 9600
- Blue: 0177 177 1160
- Mobilcom Debitel: 040 55 55 41 000
Incidentally, you can cancel the lock in the same way.
And what happens to your active subscriptions?
Regardless of whether you want it or not, all subscriptions that are debited from your mobile phone bill will be discontinued. For example, if you have a premium subscription for Spotify, it will no longer work and would have to be paid for in another way.
However, once you have lifted the block, the subscriptions will continue to run again. So you should still cancel all unwanted subscriptions.