If you searched for Optus MessageBank, you are in the right place. On an Optus mobile, voicemail is reached by dialling 321. That one number sets the service up, plays your messages back, and lets you change your greeting. This guide walks through all of it in plain language: setting up, checking messages at home and overseas, giving yourself more time to answer, fixing the usual problems, and turning voicemail off if you do not want it.
Quick answer: From your Optus mobile, dial 321 and follow the setup prompts to choose a PIN and record your name and greeting. Finish the whole tutorial, or the mailbox will not be set up properly. To listen to messages later, dial 321 again. From another phone in Australia, dial 133 321 and enter your PIN. Overseas, dial +61 411 000 321. Optus’s own 321 guide lists the same numbers.
First, do not mix up 321 and 101
This is the mix-up that causes the most confusion. Telstra’s MessageBank is reached on 101, but that is a Telstra service. Dialling 101 on an Optus phone will not open your Optus mailbox. If you are with Optus, the number to remember is 321. If you ever switch providers, your old voicemail messages do not move with you, so check and save anything important before you port your number.
How to set up Optus MessageBank
Setting up takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing properly the first time. Callers hear a much better greeting when your name is recorded instead of a bare phone number being read out.
- From your Optus mobile, dial 321. If you have two SIMs, make sure you call from the Optus line.
- Follow the tutorial prompts. You will be asked to set a PIN and record your name.
- Record a greeting. Keep it short: your name, a line about when you will call back, and nothing you would not want a stranger to hear.
- Finish the tutorial in full. Optus is clear on this point: stopping halfway can leave the mailbox unfinished.
- Change the default PIN to one only you know. Do not use your phone’s unlock code or your date of birth, and do not keep guessing if a PIN is rejected, as repeated wrong tries can lock you out. Ask Optus for a reset instead.
Once setup is done, test it. Ask someone to call you, let it ring out, and leave a short message. Then dial 321 and check that you can hear it. If the call never reaches voicemail, your diversions may not be pointing at 321, which brings us to the next section.
How to check your messages
There are three ways in, depending on where you are and which phone you have in your hand:
- From your Optus mobile: dial 321 and follow the prompts.
- From another phone in Australia: dial 133 321, then enter your PIN when asked.
- From overseas: dial +61 411 000 321. You will need your PIN, and if you are setting the mailbox up from overseas, you will also be asked for your full mobile number followed by the hash key, then your PIN followed by hash.
While a message is playing, the keys listed in Optus’s guide are: 7 to replay it, 3 to delete it and move to the next one, 5 to save it and move on, 6 to return the call (within Australia), 4 to copy it to another person, and star to go back to the previous menu. If the menu you hear sounds different, follow what your own mailbox says, as menus do change over time.
One more thing to know before you travel: check your plan before relying on voicemail overseas. Retrieval while roaming can be charged differently from retrieval at home, so a quick check with Optus before you leave can save an unpleasant surprise on the bill.
Give yourself more time to answer
If calls keep going to voicemail before you can reach the phone, you can lengthen the ring time. Dial **61*321**30# and press call to allow up to 30 seconds before an unanswered call diverts to voicemail. You can use other values in place of 30, in five-second steps, such as 15 or 20, depending on how long you want the phone to ring. This changes how long the phone rings before diverting; it does not change your ringtone or volume.
Choosing when calls go to voicemail
Voicemail normally picks up when you are busy, do not answer, or cannot be reached. Optus’s guide lists these diversion codes, which you dial from your Optus mobile:
- All of them at once: **004*321#
- Only when you are busy: **67*321#
- Only when you do not answer: **61*321#
- Only when you cannot be reached: **62*321#
- Every call, straight to voicemail: **21*321#
To cancel a diversion, dial ## followed by the same code and then hash. For example, ##004# cancels all conditional diversions. Overseas, use +61411000321 in place of 321 in these codes.
What if you do not want full voicemail?
Some people only want to know who called, without the caller leaving a recording. Optus offers a Missed Call Service as a simpler alternative: instead of a voicemail, you get an SMS with the caller’s number. It has a generic greeting rather than a personal one, so it suits people who just want the missed number and nothing else. If you would rather have messages you can read at a glance, ask Optus whether Visual Voicemail is available on your phone and plan. On supported iPhones it shows your messages in a list, so you can pick which one to play first instead of dialling 321 and listening in order.
How to turn Optus voicemail off
There are two different things here, and it helps to be clear about which one you want. Cancelling the diversions with ##004# stops unanswered calls going to voicemail, so callers will simply hear the phone ring out. But if you want the service itself removed from your account, message Optus through the My Optus app or contact support and ask them to remove voicemail, then ask them to confirm what callers will hear afterwards. That way you do not accidentally leave a half-removed setup in place, and you do not disturb any other call forwarding you actually want to keep.
Fixing the common problems
321 does not connect
Check that you called from the Optus SIM, and that you are not overseas without realising it. Overseas, use +61 411 000 321. If it still fails, contact Optus, as the service may not be provisioned on your account.
Callers cannot leave a message
This usually means setup was never finished, or the diversions are not pointing at 321. Run through the 321 setup again from the start, then make a test call from another phone. If it still fails, ask Optus to check the voicemail provisioning and the no-answer diversion on your service.
You never get told a message arrived
First, dial 321 and check the mailbox directly. A notification can be missed, but the mailbox itself does not lie. If messages are there but alerts are not coming through, check that you have not blocked the notification number, and restart the phone before assuming the service is broken.
You forgot your PIN
Do not keep guessing. Your voicemail PIN is not your phone unlock code, and repeated wrong attempts can cause trouble. Ask Optus for a PIN reset, then choose a new PIN you will remember and keep it private.
The bottom line
For Optus, everything comes back to one number: 321 to set up, 321 to listen, and 133 321 from any other phone in Australia. Record a proper greeting, finish the setup tutorial, and save +61 411 000 321 before any overseas trip. Once those three things are done, voicemail mostly looks after itself, and when it does not, the diversion codes and the fixes above cover nearly every problem you are likely to hit.
