How to Stop Call Forwarding on a Verizon Land Line
By Elizabeth Mott
Verizon's custom calling features add convenience and flexibility to your land-line phone service. If you expect an important call and know you won't be home to receive it, you can use call forwarding to transfer it automatically to another number rather than letting it roll over to voice mail or ring unanswered. When you return home, deactivate call forwarding so your calls once again come through to your line.
Activation
To turn on call forwarding on a line that includes the feature, pick up any telephone handset -- or put a phone on speaker -- and dial "*72" (without quotes here and throughout) after you hear a dial tone. To activate the feature on a rotary phone or one that uses tone-based dialing with a push-button interface, dial "1172." After you hear a responding tone, dial the local, long distance or mobile number to which you want to forward calls, including the area code if the number falls outside your local calling area. Two beeps let you know that you've activated call forwarding successfully and that you can hang up or continue to make outgoing calls. If you're on the line when a call comes in, you hear a beep indicating that call forwarding directed the caller to your chosen alternate number.
Deactivation and Reforwarding
To turn off call forwarding, you must be at your home with clear access to a dial tone on the forwarded line. Dial "73" on a touch-tone phone or "1173" on a rotary or pulse phone. Two beeps confirm that you deactivated the call forwarding feature. To change the forwarding number without turning off call forwarding, dial the activation code -- "72" or "1172" -- instead and enter a new remote number. If you subscribe to Verizon's FiOS digital calling service, you can activate, deactivate and manage its list of forwarding-number options through an online interface known as the FiOS Digital Voice Account Manager (see Resources).
FiOS Service Options
Verizon's digital calling service offers a configurable version of the call forwarding feature that enables you to program in a list of remote numbers and select among them; it also lets you schedule call forwarding to take over your line only at specific times or on specific days. You can turn on and deactivate FiOS custom calling features, including call forwarding, from your line itself or from the online account-management page. If you turn the feature off from your phone, that action overrides the active/deactivated status you set online and vice versa.
Special Considerations
If your Verizon phone plan doesn't include toll dialing, you can't use call forwarding to transfer incoming calls to a long distance number. On a plan with limited long distance minutes, call forwarding can use up your free toll-call allowance and instigate per-minute charges for transferred calls. You can change the forwarding number as many times as you like, but the feature must be activated, changed and deactivated from your home line. Variations on the call forwarding feature enable you to select either six or 12 numbers to forward, leaving your remaining calls to ring through to your home number. You can change these numbers at any time and deactivate call forwarding without deleting numbers from your list.
References
Writer Bio
Elizabeth Mott has been a writer since 1983. Mott has extensive experience writing advertising copy for everything from kitchen appliances and financial services to education and tourism. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Indiana State University.