diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index b9b5ae4fb..e52b9730b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 CHANGELOG Roundcube Webmail
 ===========================
 
+- Fix bug where default_charset was not used for text messages (#1487836)
 - Enable TinyMCE's contextmenu (#1487014)
 - TinyMCE 3.4.1
 - Stateless request tokens. No keep-alive necessary on login page (#1487829)
diff --git a/program/include/rcube_imap.php b/program/include/rcube_imap.php
index b998c224e..79acdeed9 100644
--- a/program/include/rcube_imap.php
+++ b/program/include/rcube_imap.php
@@ -2426,9 +2426,11 @@ class rcube_imap
      * @param  rcube_message_part $o_part Part object created by get_structure()
      * @param  mixed              $print  True to print part, ressource to write part contents in
      * @param  resource           $fp     File pointer to save the message part
+     * @param  boolean            $skip_charset_conv Disables charset conversion
+     *
      * @return string Message/part body if not printed
      */
-    function &get_message_part($uid, $part=1, $o_part=NULL, $print=NULL, $fp=NULL)
+    function &get_message_part($uid, $part=1, $o_part=NULL, $print=NULL, $fp=NULL, $skip_charset_conv=false)
     {
         // get part encoding if not provided
         if (!is_object($o_part)) {
@@ -2458,10 +2460,13 @@ class rcube_imap
             return true;
         }
 
-        // convert charset (if text or message part) and part's charset is specified
-        if ($body && $o_part->charset
-            && preg_match('/^(text|message)$/', $o_part->ctype_primary)
+        // convert charset (if text or message part)
+        if ($body && !$skip_charset_conv &&
+            preg_match('/^(text|message)$/', $o_part->ctype_primary)
         ) {
+            if (!$o_part->charset || strtoupper($o_part->charset) == 'US-ASCII') {
+                $o_part->charset = $this->default_charset;
+            }
             $body = rcube_charset_convert($body, $o_part->charset);
         }