I am a little paranoid when it comes to credit cards and bank accounts, so I have all my accounts set up to report any activity immediately – by email, and text to my phone.

This reassuring short “ding” sound coming out of my phone every time I swept a card somewhere went silent about a week ago, though. Email notifications were still coming through – but they take a bit too long for my taste.

So I went and checked all my settings with all my credit cards and bank accounts, I also checked all the messaging settings on my phone, and Google fi account – no luck.

Until today. Doing research online about my problem I finally discovered an old thread from 2013, where different people went back and forth about their different cell phone providers, all having the same problem: short code SMS not coming in. Deep down on page twelve of the discussion I found the hidden treasure.

Here’s what you need to do, in case your credit card usage notifications don’t make it to your phone anymore:
Text Allow All to number 9999.

You may get a response like “this service is not available” – just ignore that, your short code messages will come in again.