Credit card processing through cell phones
 

Can anybody recommend a billing solution that allows customers pay via wireless phone. For example, they can just dial a certain number and pay using their cell phone and the charges will appear on their cell phone bill.

Thank you in advance!

Mmm... depends, and can vary depending on a number of things - including telecom rulings, the applicable technology, the amount of the charge and the country (back to individual country telecom rulings).

You *may* be looking at the audiotext industry to have this solution, it's not so bad in the EU, but can remember FCC had stricter regulations within the US.

Suggest you chat with Marc from Pay By Phone.

Pay by Phone? Do they have a URL? What's Marc's ICQ?

Billing for adult content is currently not allowed in the US

Is there a law or a regulation? Are we talking wireless payments?

You really need the core back end of the audiotext biz, but Marc may be able to suggest *something" - think he's about the only audiotext guy here. I used to do this and think someone else, possibly PleasurePays (?), may have some background, but takes a lot of organizing and regs have since changed.

Damn.. my bad, wrong name, should be Password by Phone (password-by-phone.com). Marc's handle here is emjay and ICQ is 308-478-660

There are also phone billing operations in the EU, but that's a different scenario from stateside where the FCC kinda killed this potential market.

I researched this a little more and it seems that the charges would be showing up as "Premium Services" on the customers' cell phone bills.

You can not bill premium sms charges with adult content in the USA, The carriers will not allow it

I thought that this was going to be a thread about wireless credit card processing machines. I've got one from Way Systems...but that's not what you're looking for.

http://waysystems.com

Is there a law or is that just a common practice from the wireless phone careerers?

i know some when they bill dont look like a website

nocreditcard.com offers sms billing along with many other "none creditcard" services

If you work for them - can you ICQ me?

NCC is basically the same as other audiotext operations - they are governed by the same telecoms regulations.

Really depends which countries you want to charge. If it's worldwide - there are some problems, if it's eg the EU, far more possible, if it's the US, it's too tightly governed by FCC rules. US used to be virgin territory and excellent earner - but that stopped, mainly due to scammers/fraudsters - but not before we pulled $12 mill in 9 months, - pity idiots messed it up tho.

You are correct re the phone billing descriptor - in the US it would say "Premium Services" and there is a limitation (tho need to check this) on how much can actually be charged under FCC rules.

I'm only talking about the US and Canada. I see an average charge being about $50 per couple.

great thread. I need to look into this.

Got ya! OK.. main problem are the main carriers eg AT&T etc who will be the ultimate money-holders and payers assuming the termination point is in the US (even if it's not, these same carriers will have to do an accounting exercise which wherever the termination point actually is - so basically back to the main problem).

The climate at the moment on this stuff is not good - basically the main US carriers have been hauled thru court more often than we have had breakfasts and the also have the FCC breathing down their necks. Unfortunately, the main source of these problems have been abusers of their system and, in turn, false/fraudulent/overcharges on client phone bills.

$50 is on the kinda high side for this... it's normally charged on the basis of X minutes. In eg the UK, this can be covered in less than 30 mins billing time (UK happens to have one of the highest permissable charge rates), but in both the US and Canada it's going to take longer to crank up that $50.

Really depends what the potential market is and, least from an audiotext legal standpoint, it's relevant that whatever the proposition is, that this is acceptable and reasonable (ie need to stay clear of the usual old scam stuff).

It *may* be possible to rig up something with a govt and do a deal on termination with that country and use whatever country as the termination point. Almost any country is interested in profiting from their telecoms system and that was the basis on which many terminations were set up. (Tho, if marketing this service within eg the US - there would be some obligatory text stating clearly how the charge is made up and what the actual cost would be - FCC stuff). Depends how much volume can be generated from billing as well, since there is a degree of work and capital setting it up and also allowing others a profit margin.

Just a thought - and never had time to look at this... Could it be possible to used low-cost VOIP services and attach a billing system on the back end of this to accept "billing"?? Not sure if FCC have their hands on this - perhaps someone here who may happen to run VOIP services may have a clue.