Interesting Payment Statistics

I came across some other interesting stats related to alternate payments, which further solidify the need for online payment alternatives in the United States.

Did you know that nearly 25% of the population doesn't have a credit card, yet approximately 100 million US households are online? How do these consumers pay for services online without a credit card?

Additionally, there are more than 150 million wireline phone subscribers in the US (FCC) and according to Forrester Research over 60% of consumers would prefer local phone bill or broadband billing for charging small online purchases. Also according to Forrester Research, 64% of parents would be more likely to purchase if the site promoted “no credit card required".

Consumers require a simple and dependable checkout option that enables them to pay for content and services from participating merchants, and they want an alternative to credit cards. ILD's Bill to Phone service provides consumers with a safe and convenient alternative to credit cards. In contrast, the phone billing payment option enables the merchant to reach a broader audience. For more information on ILD's Bill to Phone service, visit www.ildpayments.com.

What Is Validation and Why Is It Important?

Validation is a critical cost-savings tool, often neglected in the payment processing cycle. All too often, a consumer will sign up for a merchant’s service, then move and disconnect the phone number, or change telephone numbers or perhaps even change local telephone providers. These records are then submitted to a clearinghouse, like ILD, containing inaccurate information, which ultimately costs the merchant through processing fees and rejection fees.

By simply utilizing ILD’s validation service, merchants can rest assured that they will reduce bad debt and bill their customers. Validation also reduces customer acquisition costs by ensuring that direct marketing dollars are spent on billable prospects. The validation solution weeds out end users that cannot be billed in addition to providing valuable information required to bill others.

The cost of validation is more than offset by the expense associated with soliciting customers, providing services, and incurring billing fees for unbillables.

We think ILD’s Billing Validation solution is superior to most industry validation services because ILD can incorporate information from our billing experience. We use billing history to provide:

• End users that have cancelled their service
• End users in a collections status with the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC)

This online service is part of ILD Payments suite of services. For more information on validation or any of ILD’s payment services, visit ildpayments.com.

Third Party Bill Block

I recently read a blog that stated phone companies cannot prevent 3rd party billing clearinghouses, like ILD Teleservices, from charging a consumer's phone bill. That is not, in fact, the case.

You can request a bill block for third party billing from your local phone company. Most of the telephone companies refer to it as “bill block” but if you describe it as a block for all third party billing, the phone company should understand your request.

If you have been billed by ILD Teleservices, you can call our customer service team to have your telephone number blocked. Call ILD Teleservices at 1-800-637-4009 between 7 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Central Standard Time Monday through Friday or between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday or visit http://www.ildteleservices.com/ and click on "Contact Us".

There are usually pro's and con's to virtually anything we do these days, and you should also know that there is a down-side to blocking your telephone number for third party billing. If a service provider is using ILD Teleservices as their billing clearinghouse and you want to download their software or music, subscribe to an online service, or receive a collect call, you won't be able to bill the charges to your phone bill and will have to pay via another payment method, like disclosing your credit card information.

Phone billing simplifies the purchase process and increases protection from identity theft, and that is why most merchants use ILD Teleservices payment option. There is a level of safety that phone bill payment provides. When you charge a service to your phone bill, you don't disclose credit card numbers or provide access to checking account details, so there is less risk of identity theft in phone billing.

As a tireless consumer advocate, ILD works hand in hand with consumers and merchants to resolve any conflicts quickly and efficiently. Please visit ildteleservices.com or call ILD Teleservices at 1-800-637-4009 with any questions about your phone bill or to block third party billing by ILD.

How Charges End Up Billed By ILD Teleservices?

ILD Teleservices is a billing clearinghouse that takes authorized charges from merchants and passes those charges on to a telephone bill based on information furnished by the merchant selling the services. ILD does not provide the services it bills for; ILD bills consumers on behalf of merchants.

This service enables merchants to bill for their products via phone billing due to an extensive range of agreements that ILD Teleservices maintains with Local Exchange Carriers (i.e. local telephone companies) across the United States.

Why doesn't the merchant work directly with the local phone company? It is extremely costly for merchants to independently set up billing with Local Exchange Carriers. So, as the billing clearinghouse, the phone bill lists ILD Teleservices at the top of the bill page, and subsequently lists the name of the merchant below.

Is Phone Bill Payment A Valid Option?

Due to the staggering number of credit card fraud and identity theft cases in the United States, security has become the primary concern for consumers, while reliable and safe payment options become increasingly important for merchants. Most consumers now think twice before paying with a credit card over the Internet, and argue that many merchants are not doing enough to protect customer information. This new consumer market is setting the stage for a change in payment methods, creating a demand for alternative payment options.

Did you know:

• More than 50 percent of all online consumers prefer an alternative method to credit card payment, yet the primary method of payment for more than 90% of online transactions is the credit card.
• The biggest challenge in the e-commerce environment is the large market of consumers with limited or no access to credit cards.
• Not all consumers have credit cards, many do not have bank accounts and yet even more do not have available credit on their credit cards.
• Nearly 23% of US households do not have a credit card. Approximately 10 million of those US households are online.
• Of the total cardholders in the US, approximately 45% are within 5% of their credit limit.

What does all of this mean? This means that there is a clear need for secure and reliable alternative payment methods. It also means that there is a market of ~10 million households who, should they wish to make an online purchase, have no other option than to disclose their personal banking information, either through PayPal or via Automated Clearinghouse, if these options are available with the specific digital merchant.

Providing consumers with a choice in payment methods greatly increases a businesses marketing opportunity. However, any successful business will vouch that to grow revenue, it must be simple and safe for the consumer to buy the service. In addition to credit card and e-check acceptance is phone bill payment; a payment option which is gaining traction among online consumers and digital merchants.

Who is ILD Teleservices?

A question I've seen online lately is "who is ILD Teleservices?" So, we've created this blog which will be updated on a regular basis to talk about who we are and what we do, discuss what we see from a market perspective, and address the world of online payments.

Visitors can also find ILD Teleservices at http://www.ildteleservices.com/.


So, to address the question at hand, ILD is a registered billing clearinghouse reaching more than 1,300 local exchange telecommunications carriers, enabling communications companies and digital content providers an alternative payment to traditional credit cards. As an example, similar to the way Visa® and MasterCard® process credit card payments on behalf of merchant customers, ILD is a billing clearinghouse that processes phone billed transactions on behalf of merchant customers.