How to turn off voicemail on Lebara (Australia)

Last checked 31 July 2026 · Lebara's own help page ↗

Lebara voicemail answers calls you don't pick up. If you'd rather those calls ring out — or go somewhere more useful — here's how to switch it off, and how to put it back if you change your mind.

Takes about a minute. Nothing here needs you to be a Don't Miss A Call customer.

Turn it off

  1. Dial 1213 — cancels every existing call diversion, voicemail included
  2. Dial 121600, stay on the line and choose the option to switch Call Catcher OFF
  3. Do both BEFORE you set up any call forwarding — not after

Not 1210. Lebara’s own help page says 1210 “removes existing diversions and sets diversions to Call Catcher” — so it swaps one interceptor for another, and if you dial it after setting a forward it wipes that forward too.

Check it actually worked

Dial *#61# and press call. Your network replies with what your number currently does when you don't answer. If voicemail is off and nothing else has taken its place, it should tell you no forwarding is set for unanswered calls.

The real test is better: get someone to ring you, let it ring right out, and don't touch the phone. If it rings out and stops — no greeting, no “leave a message”, no text arriving to say someone called — you're done.

Still getting voicemail? ##004# clears no-answer diversions and is the first thing to try.

Watch out for Call Catcher

Lebara runs on the Vodafone network, which has a second service called Call Catcher. It isn't voicemail, but it does the same thing to your calls — it answers when you don't and texts you the caller's number.

Turning voicemail off does not turn Call Catcher off, and on some brands the code people are told to use for “voicemail off” actually switches Call Catcher on. If you want unanswered calls to genuinely ring out, both have to go — dial 121600 and follow the prompts to switch Call Catcher off.

Turning it back on

  1. Dial 1211 from your Lebara service and follow the prompts.

Re-activates voicemail. This puts the conditional divert back on voicemail, so any forward you had set stops firing.

One more thing your phone might be doing

Newer handsets have started answering calls themselves. Google's Take a Message on recent Pixels picks up calls you don't answer and transcribes them; Apple's Call Screening does something similar on recent iPhones. They're handy, but they are another thing that answers before your phone finishes ringing out.

If you've switched voicemail off at Lebara and calls still aren't ringing right through, check your phone's own call settings — these features can arrive in a software update without you turning them on.

Why you’d bother

Voicemail made sense when the alternative was nothing. Now it mostly loses you work: most people who reach a tradie's voicemail hang up and ring the next name on the list rather than leave a message.

Switching it off is also the first step if you want a missed call to do something useful instead — like texting the caller back automatically. Voicemail and a missed-call text-back both trigger on exactly the same thing (you didn't answer), so whichever one the network reaches first wins. That's why it has to go.

Does this work on prepaid? Yes — and the plan is almost never the problem.