What is carrier billing?

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Carrier or direct carrier billing is a payment system used for online payments. This payment method works based on the mobile carrier. The payment is deducted from the mobile bill. Anyone who owns a smartphone can use this payment option. It doesn’t require to have an account in the bank. All the customer needs is a phone with a SIM card that has enough funds.

This solution makes it easy to pay for a variety of digital services on smartphones, tables, or even Smart TVs. For instance, the customer can buy or update the Smart TV’s streaming service subscription by confirming the payment on the smartphone.

Carrier billing differs from mobile or contactless payments. They require to own an online banking account to make payments. In its turn, the seller debits your mobile carrier account while using direct carrier billing. This method is easy and comfortable to use during online shopping. Carrier billing is widespread in developing countries. Moreover, there is one credit card owner to five phone owners globally.

What are the benefits of carrier billing?

Firstly, more people own phones, compared to payment cards. That makes the reach much wider. Besides, we can highlight three other important benefits.

High conversion ratio. This fact depends on how users prefer and make payments. That to say, the easier and faster the process is, the higher conversion you may expect. With payments via bank cards, the customer has to enter the card number, the expiration date, the CVV, and the name on the card. Unlike this method, with the carrier billing option, the user enters the phone number only.

Well-adjusted CX. This feature appears thanks to the carrier billing easiness. The customer eliminates making a lot of extra steps. The phone number is all they need.

Personal data protection. If the customer doesn’t have a bank account or a credit card or simply doesn’t want to share it, carrier billing comes in handy. The person feels more secure as s/he doesn’t need to share any of the personal data. The consumer only shares the phone number. Then s/he needs to confirm the purchase with the help of the physical device.

How to use carrier billing

If the customer shops on the website that provides the carrier billing payment methods, s/he enters the phone number. The funds are deducted directly from the account. So, the shopper needs to make sure there is a sufficient amount of them.