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.