diff --git a/msrest/pipeline/universal.py b/msrest/pipeline/universal.py
index 08b0787fd6..6aa1b105e8 100644
--- a/msrest/pipeline/universal.py
+++ b/msrest/pipeline/universal.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 import os
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 import platform
+import codecs
 
 from typing import Mapping, Any, Optional, AnyStr, Union, IO, cast, TYPE_CHECKING  # pylint: disable=unused-import
 
@@ -45,6 +46,8 @@
 
 _LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+_BOM = codecs.BOM_UTF8.decode(encoding='utf-8')
+
 
 class HeadersPolicy(SansIOHTTPPolicy):
     """A simple policy that sends the given headers
@@ -156,6 +159,9 @@ def deserialize_from_text(cls, data, content_type=None):
             # Explain to mypy the correct type.
             data_as_str = cast(str, data)
 
+            # Remove Byte Order Mark if present in string
+            data_as_str = data_as_str.lstrip(_BOM)
+
         if content_type is None:
             return data
 
diff --git a/msrest/universal_http/__init__.py b/msrest/universal_http/__init__.py
index 3c54222a31..e6f242d3a9 100644
--- a/msrest/universal_http/__init__.py
+++ b/msrest/universal_http/__init__.py
@@ -338,10 +338,10 @@ def text(self, encoding=None):
         # type: (str) -> str
         """Return the whole body as a string.
 
-        :param str encoding: The encoding to apply. If None, use "utf-8".
+        :param str encoding: The encoding to apply. If None, use "utf-8-sig".
          Implementation can be smarter if they want (using headers).
         """
-        return self.body().decode(encoding or "utf-8")
+        return self.body().decode(encoding or "utf-8-sig")
 
     def raise_for_status(self):
         """Raise for status. Should be overriden, but basic implementation provided.
diff --git a/tests/test_universal_pipeline.py b/tests/test_universal_pipeline.py
index 0291f196d3..6defd1cd3c 100644
--- a/tests/test_universal_pipeline.py
+++ b/tests/test_universal_pipeline.py
@@ -145,6 +145,12 @@ def body(self):
     result = response.context["deserialized_data"]
     assert result["success"] is True
 
+    # JSON with UTF-8 BOM
+    response = build_response(b'\xef\xbb\xbf{"success": true}', content_type="application/json; charset=utf-8")
+    raw_deserializer.on_response(None, response, stream=False)
+    result = response.context["deserialized_data"]
+    assert result["success"] is True
+
     # For compat, if no content-type, decode JSON
     response = build_response(b'"data"')
     raw_deserializer.on_response(None, response, stream=False)