How do I call a 6 digit Austrailian phone number with a US based mobile phone?32 sclt.s,msionediun d t2V
This may not exactly fit the context of this site, but I think its worth a shot, and the answer may be useful within the context of the site.
I am attempting to call the Australian phone number listed as 131542 on the Kia of Australia Contact Us page from my US based mobile phone. Though, even after reading the Wikipedia page on Telephone Numbers in Australia I can not seem to get it correct. My best guess is to use the "International Access" code of 1100 along with the country code 61 prepended (totaling 61-1100-1315421). Though I've had no luck with that or any other seemingly esoteric collection of codes and the listed number.
How can I dial a 6 digit Australian phone number from a US based mobile phone? I have Verizon Wireless for my mobile carrier.
This may be useful to other travelers trying to contact Australian companies, hotels, etc. And for those interested, Kia of Australia sells a cargo roof rack for my car that Kia of America does not recognize or sell. I am trying to get more information on it.
-
3I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it relates to shopping, not travel. (And not shopping for something travel-related.) – WGroleau 12 hours ago
-
8@WGroleau, on the other hand, knowing how to call out of a country can be very handy for travellers. I remember being sent to England on a business trip. After I arrived I wanted to phone my wife and had a lot of trouble doing so. It was a small hotel, with no staff in the evening or at night. The room phone had good instructions: "9" to get an outside line, "00" to make an international call, country code, and finally the phone number. But it took me a long time to figure out that for Canada, the "country code" was the "1" that I normally use for long distance calls. – Ray Butterworth 9 hours ago
-
@RayButterworth I'm not sure why you're putting scare quotes around "country code", as if to suggest that that's not really what it is. And, as your comment demonstrates, you could easily find out how to call out of the country because clear instructions were provided. The only reason you had difficulty is that you neglected to find out what your country code was before leaving. – David Richerby 50 mins ago
5 Answers
Where are you getting the "1100" code from? That might be your problem.
Most (all?) phone companies in USA, Canada, and other countries in country code "1", use "011" as the international dialing prefix.
You would normally dial:
- "011" - "I want to call a different country."
- "61" - "Australia country code."
- "131 542" - "The number in Australia."
To call you, people in Australia would dial:
- "0011"
- "1" - North America country code
- "213" - Area code for Los Angeles
- "555" - Exchange
- "2368" - Number
International Calling Codes - Nations Online Project
-
23If you hold 0 on most mobile phones when entering a phone number, it will enter the ‘+’ symbol, which avoids the need to enter locale specific prefixes to country codes. – Eric 8 hours ago
They aren't accessible from every country, but from the US it should be.
[International dial-out code] + (61) + your inbound number should do the trick.
So in this case, 1100, if that's your dial out code, 61, then 131542.
Note: + usually means international too, replacing 00, so in my experience I just dial +61 131542.
I'm not sure about the dial out code, you'll need to see if you need that (I don't from NZ), but as I'm in NZ at present I just tried, and dialling +61131542 worked for me.
-
This is actually one of the first numbers I tried. Ill try looking around for what my dial out code may be. Though Ive only ever heard of one in terms of a business phone line, like from within a large corporate building phone network. – KDecker 13 hours ago
-
11@KDecker: Dial out codes. But I think it's extremely common on mobile phones that the
+key automatically dials your dial out code, whatever it happens to be for your phone, so you should not need to actually look it up. – Nate Eldredge 10 hours ago
Telephoning Kia from International may not be possible because of their short number - it may be a special number like a US 1-800 that doesn't work internationally.
Australian landline telephone numbers are 8 digit.
Australia uses eight digit local phone numbers preceded by a two digit STD area code.
Source
So the quoted 6 digit phone number is something odd.
The Australian country code is 61. When calling from outside Australia, leave out the leading '0' from the STD area code or from the mobile telephone number.
Example: Fixed line example calling Canberra from outside Australia: +61 2 (local eight digit number)
The Area Code for NSW is probably 02 but some areas may use the 08 and 03 area codes instead.
Source
Alternatives, why not use a simple local telephone? Payphones still exist, or your accommodation should have some kind of telephone. You could also purchase a "prepay" or "pay as you go" sim and see if it works in your phone. Or purchase a cheap cellphone for the time you're in Australia, and gift it to someone else before you leave.
To dial a number in another country, you first dial the international access code for your country, then the code for the country you're calling, then the actual phone number, usually omitting the first zero if any.
The international access code for the US is 011.
The country code for Australia is 61.
So that would make it 011 61 131542 for your example.
However, that will likely not work. The Australian equivalents of the US 1-800 numbers are 13 numbers (as well as 1300 and 1800). They are calls that are charged at a local rate. The downside is that they're often not available from abroad, likely because the owner is charged the actual cost of calling the number.
However, Kia has a dealer locator that shows phone numbers for those dealers. Those seem to be regular phone numbers that are callable from outside Australia. Pick one of those and call them, either doing your business with them directly, or asking them for a number to call from abroad.
Alternatively, you can call Kia USA and ask them for a number to call Kia AU on.
One approach that is generally useful for calling toll-free numbers (from outside the country they're intended to be used in) but, unfortunately, fails in the case of Australian toll-free numbers is to use Skype to phone (you need to have a credit to use the service, about $10 USD is the minimum):
Yes, use the dial pad to enter toll free numbers on Skype. The following countries and number ranges are supported and are free of charge to all users:
France: +33 800, +33 805, +33 809
Poland: +48 800
UK: +44 500, +44 800, +44 808
USA: +1 800, +1 866, +1 877, +1 888
Taiwan: +886 80
That also allows you to call regular phones from a cell phone using local cellular data or WiFi access points, which I find very useful. Again, it's not free, but quite cheap (2-3 cents/minute), in my experience.
