Pay through SMS?

[Sinzygy]

Does anyone know how to be able to get a pay by sms-option in a game?

I think this is the option with most potential to be used as it usually doesn't require either a specific account, a credit card or any other money transfer options which include work on the players side.

[Zeggy]

http://www.smskambi.com/en/
http://www.sepomo.com/en/welcome.php

Two websites that offer SMS payments.
They both look pretty good, and I've heard about SMS Kambi.

[Sinzygy]

Thx Zeggy, exactly what I was looking for!

I found some sites, but they all didn't seem very competent/trustworthy. SMS Kambi looks decent and it covers a lot of the EU and US, which is about the players I expect to participate in a game.


Can anyone provide some feedback for SMS Kambi?

[Zeggy]

btw, here are two more alternatives:
http://www.glpayment.co.uk/
http://www.daopay.com/

I think daopay is the most popular of all, I've seen it used in a few games.

And here's a very short review of daopay:
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-9588-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=22575&messageID=512864&start=-9989




The commissions for SMS payments seem really high though, ranging from 50% to 70%!

[Sinzygy]

If I read it right then daopay is only for voice-calls and no sms support (or at least that's what my 3 minutes overview of the site told me )

yep, the commissions are indeed very high, but I still believe that implementing this will yield more revenue thatn via paypal and thelike.

[StianLG]

http://www.mobilemoney.com/ - SMS/Phone calls (they also have ringtones, wallpapers, etc you can sell)
http://www.daopay.com/ - Phone calls only
http://www.glpayment.co.uk/ - UK only

[bullarky]

The commissions for SMS payments seem really high though, ranging from 50% to 70%!

Ouch!! There have got to be some lower-commission services out there!

[dvd871]

What about the legal issues with sms pay?  I mean it is possible that parents will buy kids a cell phone that are under the age of 13.

[Sinzygy]

What about the legal issues with sms pay?  I mean it is possible that parents will buy kids a cell phone that are under the age of 13.

I think as long as you state it in your terms of service that the sms-pay-service can only be accessed by people above X years or with their parents permission, you should be fine, no?

The commissions for SMS payments seem really high though, ranging from 50% to 70%!

SMS Kambi doesn't want to have their commission rates available to the public. I just sent them an email asking for those. I'll let you know what they "charge".

[Sinzygy]

I've just recieved a mail from SMS Kambi with the rates, etc.

It seems that the commission varies a lot. For Switzerland it ranges between 35 up to ~60%. While this is more or less accpetable, their set-up fee is really high. It would be 500? which is about $670 US. So for it to acutally generate revenue one would have to bring in a lot of cash before hand... I could pay my server costs for about 6 or 7 years with 500?...

[bullarky]

Thanks for the update! Obviously I'll be looking elsewhere...

[blueweb]

Some information on the fees associated with SMS payments.

The service providers take 50% for billing the end user.

The aggregators ( the company that has the relationships with the service providers ) charge anywhere from $1000 to $1500 a month to let you use their short code and maintain your keywords.

The key to using SMS as a payment option is volume. Ringtone companies only make a few cents from each sale, but they sell millions of ringtones each day.

Hope this helps.

[Chris]

I have found these sites:

SMS:
http://www.surfpin.com/
http://www.easysms.gr/
http://pay2access.net/
http://www.oitg.com/index.cfm?PageID=215
http://www.m-bill.net/coverage/sms/premium/northamerica/usa
http://www.sacaya.com/e_topup.html
https://www.textpayme.com/us/secure/index.tpm

Misc:
http://www9.wirecard.com/games.html  (they mention some offers for browser game owners)
http://www.runescape.com/members/subscribe.ws  (MMO that use SMS and many other payment processor links)

[lewt24]

i had a system setup for a company called bip or something like that

prisonstruggle uses them so i think they are trust worthy and they dont charge.... which is even better.... will have t try them out especially seeing as they pay via paypal

[Mafiarampage]

https://www.mobillcash.com/
i use it they're trustworthy and i cashed out my balance a couple of times..