Click&Buy to offer phone billing option
Click&Buy, an Internet-based micro-payments network that allows consumers to pay small prices for web-based digital content, will offer U.S. users a phone billing option through SBC Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. beginning in November.
Click&Buy, which entered the U.S. market in September 2004, already has a phone billing option in Europe, where the payment network began five years ago. The billing will be handled through a joint venture between Billing Concepts and Webpay International, Click&Buy’s parent company. The charges will appear on consumers’ regular phone bills.
The payment network is offering the phone-billing option for consumers who are uneasy about funding their Click&Buy accounts using a credit card because of concerns about identity theft, says Fabian Siegel, Webpay president.
When opening a Click&Buy account using the phone-billing option, consumers will be asked to enter their phone numbers. Their carriers will then ask for information the consumers already submitted when applying for phone service, such as mother’s maiden name, to verify the consumers’ identities. “That’s really private information that’s not available in the market,” Siegel says. “This gives the consumer peace of mind because they can sign up securely.”
Click&Pay has 60 online merchants in the U.S and 3,000 merchants worldwide, including abc.com and Kiplinger.com. It has about 5 million customers.
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