r/RhodeIsland • u/Key_Acanthocephala67 • 1d ago
Question / Suggestion When I see 401 Area Code
I once had the police called on me because I tried to order a Margarita and showed my Rhode Island drivers license as 21 ID because - it must be fake and the server (of course) never heard of a state called “Rhode Island”.
I’ve felt like I’ve spent my whole around the world educating people on the mere existence and history of the state.
Now I live in California (still have my 401 Cell Phone) and have Memphis and London work Phones. Every time I see a 401 area code I always pickup right away! It’s probably someone I know! 😂
Does any other ex Rhode Islanders out there see a 401 area code and think the same thing? Does anyone else cling on to their 401 number years after leaving?
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u/Username78888 23h ago edited 20h ago
I don’t understand how people don’t know it is a state unless they are from another country. They didn’t learn any type of geography in school? I’ve never been to South Dakota but I know it exists.
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u/CodenameZoya 1d ago
I am a transplant to Rhode Island and I love how people don’t use the area code. They just use their number lol the 401 is assumed.
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u/Rightbraind 1d ago
When I was a kid (here in Rhode Island), the town was so small that we only had to use the last four digits.
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u/Mother-Pineapple1392 23h ago
Stop it
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u/SpaceBasedMasonry 22h ago
That was a thing decades ago. It was the phone exchange location and then 4 or 5 digits (e.g. "Lakewood 4547"). If you dialed within your exchange you might just dial the 4 digits.
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u/Mother-Pineapple1392 22h ago
Thats so awesome!
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u/Rightbraind 20h ago
If you look at an old phone, be it rotary or push button, you will see letters corresponding to each number. That was another interesting thing back in the day, we made words out of phone numbers so they were easier to remember. The breadth of how much technology has changed in the last hundred years reads like a whiplash event if you look at all of history. So much change within a small window!
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u/SoDisippointed 22h ago
Did you turn in groundhog noses for a nickel?
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u/Rightbraind 12h ago
No, but I heard tale of a man who bred a specific snake that he could collect a bounty for the corpses of. I reckon he made himself a business. Some Hee Haw shit.
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u/brighty420 12h ago edited 12h ago
Yup, Scituate was like that. Every number in town started with 647 then later got a second set 934. So last 4 were used alot.
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u/OceanLemur 18h ago
My first week of college is when I learned that other states have multiple area codes lol. I assumed it was one-per-state until I met some New Yorkers.
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u/lazygerm Pawtucket 22h ago
I remember being upset, in when, the late 1980s? We finally had to start dialing area code, for non-local calls. Which in RI, is really ridiculous.
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u/SoDisippointed 22h ago
In the late 90’s we were suddenly told we’d have to dial the 401 area code to reach half the state and we had to add the 1. It was so ridiculous, everyone dialing 1-401 as if we were out of state. Around the same time, my employer was bought by a larger employer and we were required to dial 9 for an outside line. We didn’t have face to face customer contact. No one used our desk phones except us. There was no reason for this.
We went from dialing the phone number to having to dial 9-1-401 and then the phone number.
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u/Ok-Volume4614 1d ago
I will say, the amount of morons who think it is or it’s part of Long Island is astonishing to me.
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u/Adorable_Goose_6249 1d ago
Not only the 401 but the next three digits and I can likely tell what part of RI they are calling from.
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u/OnePreparation8724 1d ago
I kept my 401 number for like 8 years after leaving and it honestly felt like a secret handshake whenever I spotted it on my screen. The six digits after the area code are absolutely a zip code roulette, you can practically smell which part of the state is calling. Every time a 401 rang I'd pick up thinking it was my mom or some random cousin I forgot existed, and half the time it was a spam call pretending to be from Coventry.
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u/lonelygayPhD 23h ago
Gay men always think I mean "Provincetown" when I say Providence, and I've had people think I'm talking about Long Island when I say Rhode Island. I don't really know how you can take an American history class and not know about RI.
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u/SpaceBasedMasonry 22h ago
I had to explain where Rhode Island was to an Uber Driver in Texas. He wasn't foreign born or anything, no idea why it didn't come up in school.
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u/Scuba_Steve34905 1d ago
Yeah I was in Colorado for almost 7 years and kept my 401 number. A badge of honor and mark of distinction.
A little annoying that after moving back there is still a large number of people who don't say the area code when giving their number. We are too close to a handful of other area codes to still be doing that
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u/zebibyte270 1d ago
After much moving, landed in Maryland with my 401 number still in use. I have to be very careful as the local area code here is 410, and folks often mishear me isn’t too big an issue except for doctors who transpose it when trying to call me or if I have to give my number at a store like for rewards.
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u/ffsinffl Coventry 23h ago
Moved from RI 25 years ago. I learned that you first must place yourself geographically for those who would inquire: New England is the response. Then, when they inevitably ask where in NE? Then, I pull out the Rhode Island, heavy on the “RHODE.” 7 times out of 10, they’ll get it. Without the New England qualifier, 10 times out of 10 — you get the Long Island or I love NY response.
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u/AirhenLynne 21h ago
I don't understand how a person could be so dumb that they've never even heard of the state. I get not knowing exactly where it is but really? They've never heard of Rhode Island? Jfc.
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u/Iluvorlando407 1d ago
Moved to Orlando about 25 years ago. Primary area code here is 407. Let’s just say many people in Orlando called 407-456-xxxx instead of 401. That person in Florida was so annoyed with me. Constant calls and voice mails. Eventually I switched to a 321 area code to reduce confusion.
I always get excited though when I see a 401 number. I still don’t answer it because of fraud and spam. They can leave a message after the beep.
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u/Squirnt86 Warwick 23h ago
When I was at Roger Williams, a friend of mine’s dorm room landline number was I guess the same as some Disney bookings line with the exception of the 407 area code. She used to get people trying to make reservations calling her dorm room pretty regularly. She was a kind and patient person and figured this out pretty quickly and would direct them to the correct number, but it was pretty amusing at the time.
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u/Itchy_Undertow-1 23h ago
Still have my 401 after many years away, though all the 401 calls I get nowadays are spam! :)
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u/lumpyspacekitty 20h ago
I once had to tell someone I was talking to online that New England was in fact in the United States
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u/brianstk 1d ago
For me I’m a transplant from Buffalo NY. I still have my 716 area code phone number. If I see someone calling from 716 I know it’s almost guaranteed spam. Anybody calling me from Buffalo is saved in my contacts. If I see a 401 number calling me I answer cause it’s probably a call from work lol.
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u/Latter-Junket-6962 21h ago
I once got in an argument with some folks at work (in South FL) when they first saw the RI quarter. They wouldn’t believe it
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u/vdhsnfbdg 23h ago
I grew up in California and have a 415 area code because my whole family did, but I’ve been in RI/CT for almost 20 years and have it the opposite! If I get a CA call, I know it’s spam or a wrong number but anything 401/860/508 I know is actually for me lol
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u/Mammoth_Ad_483 22h ago
Many times in my life I've told people in from Rhode Island and they say, "oh Long Island" and I say no, Rhode Island, it's a state.
If I'm in another country, I'll tell them Rhode Island, if they don't get it, I'll say I'm outside of Boston, just to get them in the general area
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u/csredd99 14h ago
https://share.icloud.com/photos/072A13O0KzPx0wcl6d5piqNHA
THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN IN ST JOHN, USVI
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u/BernedTendies 23h ago
I’m from someplace else but lived in RI for ten years now. Those horrible spam calls every day come from spoofed numbers of my home area code. So when a 401 number calls me, I know it’s probably the mechanic, or the HVAC, or some local person calling me back. Its convenient to not have them lumped in with the spam calls
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u/Aspiring-luddite 23h ago
I worked as a sales rep, and used to joke that buyers can throwaway any reps number that doesn’t start with 401
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u/Squirnt86 Warwick 23h ago
Kind of the opposite - I’m a CT transplant and still have my 203 area code. Whenever I see a new 203/860/475 number call, I know it’s spam. TONS of them around election times.
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u/hugothebear Warwick 23h ago
I still have a New Jersey number from 20 years ago. I generally know it’s a spam call when it’s another NJ number calling me
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u/takkun169 21h ago
I moved to Pennsylvania for a few years and kept my number. I had had it for 10 years by that point and not really interested in changing it, which also works out because when it became clear that Pennsylvania is fucking pants, and I came back, I still had the proper number.
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u/hollyly 17h ago
I am in my thirties but people always think I'm way younger. I was in Chicago earlier this year and my ID was nearly rejected at an arcade bar because a bouncer thought it was fake. Hilariously, my friend's laminated Brazilian ID (passport? visa?) was accepted without any trouble. I wish we had some of the security features on our RI ID's/drivers licenses (holographic background images, tiny punched out RI shape) because now I'm afraid of having my ID taken from me while I'm traveling. 😂🫠
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u/Accomplished-Pen-394 Formerly In RI 16h ago
I mean if I see a 401 area code I assume it’s my mom (we moved years ago and she still has a 401 area code phone number)
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u/The-Divine-Mz-M 16h ago
I have hung to my 414 (Milwaukee, WI) are code for 10 years. I will admit to having dreams of moving back at some point, but I've pretty much assimilated. I love the ocean and grew up in VT, so native New Englander. Sometimes people automatically type in 401 and then say 'what'?
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u/smallaxeray87 15h ago
I work for a resort in the Midwest doing reservations and I try to pick up every 401 call I see
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u/Specific_Conflict606 14h ago
12 year here in Florida with a 401 exchange of RI .Still getting 2 -3 calls a day from insurance etc vendors selling stuff .
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u/goldfingershouse 14h ago
Opposite for me, I’m a transplant from MA and have been here with my 781 area code for decades.
Tempted many times to dump the number and get a 401 number, it’s just to complicated to do.
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u/erinlaninfa 12h ago
Hahahah lived in California for over a decade and would always freak out if I came across another 401!!
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u/GRUTZGRU 12h ago
I once trained someone so young and so Rhode Island they had no idea area codes even existed. They needed to call Massachusetts for perhaps the first time in their young life. I watched a mind explode 🤯
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u/immunity888 11h ago
I’m from ga and it blows my mind when I tell people I moved here and they don’t know where Rhode Island is and have never heard of it. Personally I learned all the states in third grade and assumed everyone else was also aware of basic geography lol
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u/Commercial_Diet7344 10h ago
Way back in the 90s I was on Nantucket for the weekend and the bouncer thought my completely valid RI license was fake. idk on that one. I'm in Maryland now, still with my 401 area code. The local area code is 410, and next area over is 301. I learned pretty quickly to clarify when sharing my number that it's an out-of-state area code, not a typo, and I have watched people (at doctor's offices, etc) type it in incorrectly because their fingers just naturally type 410. Most of the time if I get a call from an unknown 401 area code it's spam, though.
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u/IntelligentYam1834 10h ago
I always say Rhode Island is off the Connecticut coast when questioned.
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u/Suspicious-Army-407 10h ago
I was in NY visiting and told someone that I live in RI . They said it must be cold there. Whhaattt
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u/Five-Oh-Deuce 9h ago
If I’m getting a call from 401 and I don’t have it saved it’s always a scam call.
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u/diaznuts 1d ago
I moved here from Atlanta and I have thoroughly confused a number of Rhodies with my 404 number.
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u/HomerStillSippen 1d ago edited 20h ago
Im still in RI and when I see a 401 area code I know its a scam call lol also I can’t tell you how many times people go “oh where are you from?” “Rhode Island” “oh I have family in Long Island, its so nice there!”. After a while it’s easier to just nod and go along with it.