Direct Carrier Billing

  • Charging and Crediting

A fast, simple and secure way to make a one-off, or recurring payment by charging to a user’s mobile phone bill or pre-pay credit

Overview

We’re one of just a few brands who have a regular monthly billing relationship with 30 million end users. That’s how we can offer our partners a seamless payment experience – where our existing, verified end users can choose to charge services directly to their BT or EE bill, and pay as part of their regular payment cycle. No need for a wallet or payment card details, our end users can pay for music subscriptions, buy apps, give charitable donations and more via their pay monthly bill or pre-paid credit balance.

Our third-party payment APIs enable 160 million transactions a year across over 3,000 services. We only work with trusted payment intermediaries that meet our strict security and end user standards and comply with the Premium Rate Services Regulations (The Regulation of Premium Rate Services Order 2024)

Key features

  • No end user set up required to enable Direct Carrier Billing
  • Click to buy end user experience
  • Refunds available
  • Allows end users to charge one-off or, regular subscriptions to their monthly phone bill
  • A spend limit of £240 in place to protect end users
  • Description of the purchase is on your mobile phone bill

Benefits

  • Proven payment method with the biggest companies in the world utilising it
  • A secure method of payment that avoids the need to enter credit or debit card details on a merchant site
  • Gives the end user a faster checkout process (Less clicks, less data entry = greater conversion)
  • Increases checkout conversion by offering end users more ways to pay
  • Works seamlessly within a broad range of services including music, games, charity, apps, TV services, ticketing services and even parking to name a few.
Benefits

How does it work?

How does it work?
  • A merchant contracts with one of the BT trusted payment intermediaries. They can then offer end users the option to pay via their mobile
  • An end user selects the pay via mobile option within the merchant checkout environment and provides their mobile phone number via the trusted payment intermediaries payment pages
  • The trusted payment intermediary encrypts the end users’ mobile phone number and carries out an eligibility check before processing the charge to the end users’ mobile phone bill or deducting the charge from their pre-pay credit
  • The trusted payment intermediary returns a success/failure response to the merchant, who will then return an applicable response to the end user. E.g. a success page and a text or email receipt
  • When the end user’s bill arrives at the end of the month, the charge is clearly listed under ‘Services from other companies’ including the service name and merchant contact details

Ideal for:

  • Completing a one-off or recurring purchase in an online environment
  • Making purchases in-app, or in-game
  • Registered payment method within an account

APIs Included

EE
BT

Network identity

Identity and Authentication
Digital Identity
Charging and Crediting

This API product retrieves the mobile brand of a subscriber, to determine whether they are registered with EE, BT or with a mobile virtual network operator partner (MVNO).

Product Documentation
EE

Refund a customer

Charging and Crediting

Partners can refund transactions in relation to Direct Billing charges. Refunds must always relate to a Direct Billing original transaction.

Product Documentation
EE

Messaging

Messaging and Communication
Charging and Crediting

The Messaging API enables a developer to send a single text message (SMS) to EE mobile customers.

Product Documentation
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