![]() Why BOKU has decided to use a third party, rather than spend some of the money it raised on developing its own gateway is anybody’s guess. So BilltoMobile’s gateway would be the m-commerce equivalent of Authorize.Net. In the e-commerce world in general, and in the mobile commerce (m-commerce) in particular, payment gateway is a service that connects the website on which a transaction takes place with the processing bank and facilitates the exchange of transaction information between them. The start-up claims to be “the only mobile payments company that has integrated its payment gateway directly with both Verizon Wireless’ and AT&T’s billing platforms.” In essence, the gateway allows BilltoMobile to evade the high costs associated with short code messages. The problem with short codes is that they are expensive.īilltoMobile’s system is designed to minimize the processing costs. short codes) to bill their transactions (such as the 90999 code used for donations to the Red Cross for the victims of the Haiti earthquake). The difference between the two companies lies in the way payments are processed. Both BOKU and BilltoMobile provide mobile payment acceptance services to U.S. ![]() The reason this is an interesting development is that BOKU is already connected with Verizon’s billing system and Verizon customers making BOKU payments see the charges on their monthly phone bills (a practice known as direct billing). In other words, BOKU’s users will be connecting with Verizon through BilltoMobile. ![]() Under the terms of the agreement, BOKU merchants and customers will get access to the BilltoMobile Direct Mobile Billing (DMB) payment service, which is already running on the Verizon Wireless billing system. The two start-ups are San Jose-based BilltoMobile and San Francisco based BOKU. are teaming up to provide Verizon customers with direct billing payment capabilities, the companies said in a press release. "Verizon will charge you extra to pay your bill online"Įditor's note: Since this story was published, Verizon has dropped its plan to implement this $2 fee.In an interesting development, two of the highest-profile mobile payments start-ups in the U.S. "Let's bury them under a mountain of paper and see how they like that." So "those of us who like to give our statement a scan before firing off a wad of currency to Verizon" shouldn't gripe online, we should make Verizon pay, literally, by mailing in our payments. Giving Verizon what it wants is the best revenge: The new $2 fee is "preposterous for a few reasons," not the least of which is that "it almost certainly costs Verizon more to handle your bill if you pay by check/mail," says Kyle Wagner at Gizmodo. If Verizon wants its "already handcuffed customers" to surrender another $2 a month, they can. But despite the "legitimate outrage" over its "bullying" tactics, "the unfortunate reality is that, unless Verizon customers have the available funds to pay an exorbitant early cancellation fee," they won't switch carriers. Like it or not, customers will pay: Verizon is hardly the first company trying to push its customers to sign up for automated bill pay, says Matt Stanford at Experts Exchange. "Verizon is heading for a Bank of America moment" And I wouldn't be surprised if the $2 fee gets "shouted down by its critics, much as Bank of America's did." It's not like Verizon engenders "fierce customer loyalty or devotion." In fact, "this could get ugly for Verizon very quickly if consumers start asking themselves other questions about its policies" and fees. ![]() Verizon just opened a can of worms: Customers have every reason to be "furious" that the company is trying to slip yet another shady fee into their already crammed bill, says Erika Morphy at Forbes. ![]()
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