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Bill to Phone & ILD Teleservices – A Consumer Affairs Guide
“ILD Teleservices.” You see it on your phone bill and wonder: Who are they? Why are they billing me? Is this right? Well, look no further. This guide will give you the 411 on why you might be seeing our name on your phone bill and how we work with vendors to provide a safe and reliable alternative to using a credit card for purchases.
Why “ILD Teleservices” appears on your phone bill
ILD is a third-party payment processor, acting as a link between merchants and consumers. When a consumer purchases a product or service and chooses the Bill to Phone payment method the merchant submits the information to ILD who, in turn, submits the charge to the consumer’s phone company. The consumer simply submits payment for the purchase with their monthly phone bill payment.
If a charge appears on your bill, it’s because someone in your household may have authorized a merchant to charge your phone bill for products or services, such as ring tones, video games, or Internet services. If you have questions or need help with a charge, please contact our help center.
Why Bill to Phone is a payment option consumers trust
- It’s hassle free. With Bill to Phone there are no long credit card numbers to type in or super-small security codes to read. At checkout, customers simply enter information that’s unique to them, such as their phone number and the last four digits only of their Social Security number.
- It’s peace of mind. Because you’re not entering sensitive information like a credit card number, you lower the risk of online fraud and identity theft. Bill to Phone is simply a safer way to pay for the online goods and services you want.
Why ILD Teleservices is a payment processor consumers trust
Consumer protection is a priority at ILD. Before we agree to partner with a merchant, we do a stringent background check on the company as well as its key personnel, such as officers and owners. Our team also works with third-party investigators to examine potential partners.
We also offer a help center to resolve customer issues, whether it’s canceling a subscription or disputing a charge for a service you never received. What’s more, the resolution center keeps customers in the loop by allowing them to check on the status of credits.
ILD Teleservices is a respected alternative payment processor. For more than 13 years, we have been a leader in finding payment solutions that work for both merchants and consumers. In addition, we offer businesses a range of services, including audio and web conferencing and social media strategy.
More questions?
For more information about ILD or ILD charges listed on your phone bill, check out these links:
ILD Teleservices | Chipping Away At Chargebacks
Chargebacks hurt ecommerce business. A chargeback is a customer-initiated refund that is enforced by the customer’s bank or credit card issuer. They’re initiated for any number of reasons, including technical issues (non-sufficient funds, processing errors, etc.), quality-related complaints (customer claims the goods/services weren’t as promised), or fraud.
No matter why chargebacks are initiated, the fact is, if you’re an ecommerce merchant, they hurt. The process forces you to reimburse the cardholder and pay pricey fees to the bank. What’s worse, chargeback rates may actually dictate the payment forms you’re allowed to accept from customers. For example, most credit card companies require merchants to keep their chargeback levels below 2%–with some requiring even lower rates. Businesses with higher chargeback rates stand to lose their merchant status.
Ecommerce merchants can reduce chargebacks by implementing best practices, such as providing accurate product descriptions and clearly defining a return policy. There is, however, another tool for reducing costly chargebacks: go alternative.
No, we’re not talking about flannel shirts and grunge rock. Instead we’re talking about adding alternative payment methods, like bill to phone, to the shopping cart process. When customers choose this option during checkout, they simply authorize the merchant to bill the purchase to their monthly phone bill, taking the credit card transaction out of the equation entirely.
But ecommerce merchants can’t stop there. It’s critical to find a bill to phone processor with the ability to provide real-time verification of the customer’s identity and account information. By validating personally identifiable info, such as home phone number and the last four digits of the customer’s Social Security number, you eliminate a higher number of the fraudulent orders and information errors that trigger customer-initiated refunds.
Don’t let chargebacks chip away at the bottom line you work so hard to build. Reduce chargeback rates by talking to the bill to phone payment processing team at ILD.
Churn. It’s not a flu-like disease or an itch-inducing insect, yet it often triggers headaches and indigestion in ecommerce merchants. Churn is the term that describes the number of contractual or subscription customers lost in a given period of time. A high churn rate means your team needs to work harder—and invest more money—to convert new customers to replace those that were lost.
Customer churn happens for a number of reasons. Some of it is voluntary, such as when a customer stops buying from a brand because of poor product quality, cruddy customer service, or lack of desired payment options. It can also happen when the customer’s account is uncollectible, leaving the merchant empty handed.
Ecommerce merchants don’t need to live with the burn of churn. Consider these 2 remedies:
1 — Make it easy for the customer to do business with you. In this economic environment, more consumers are choosing to reduce their debt load by reducing credit card use, according to a study by Javelin Strategy and Research. By offering an alternative ecommerce payment solution, such as bill to phone, customers can easily maintain their subscription by using a payment method they’re comfortable with.
2 — Reduce uncollectibles by partnering with an alternative payment processor with a best-in-class, real-time customer identity verification system. For example, ILD’s iValidate program quickly verifies a consumer’s name, address, and phone number as well as the last four digits of their social security number. The process identifies false sign-ups and bad billing information, which means your company is straddled with less bad debt and fewer billing disputes.
Alternative payment solutions, such as bill to phone, make it easier for clients to do business with your company and, what’s more, they offer a validation system that reduces churn triggered by uncollectible accounts. Talk to the alternative payment team at ILD to learn about their solutions for relieving the burn of churn.
Bill to phone – the right ecommerce payment solution for your site?
You’ve been hearing more and more about bill to phone as an ecommerce payment solution. Maybe it’s raised conversion rates for a colleague. Perhaps you’ve come across it as you searched the Web, looking for alternative payment solutions that will attract clients and boost revenue.
So is bill to phone payment suited for your ecommerce business? Here are three categories that are ideal for this alternative:
Once and done services – Whether it’s a charge for technical support or a software download, bill to phone offers a low-risk payment option to clients who may be wary of doing business with an online company they’re unfamiliar with. By entering their phone account information, consumers are no longer required to provide sensitive credit card info to complete their transaction.
Subscription services – When you charge a monthly fee, an option such as bill to phone provides a common sense payment solution. You benefit from a manageable, easy-to-use billing platform, while your customer enjoys the convenience of paying for dating sites, online video games, or other ecommerce subscriptions with their monthly phone bill.
Pay-per-use products and services – From web conferencing and streaming movies to podcasts and music, when clients buy a product on a regular basis, they want an easy payment system that they don’t need to think too much about. In fact, the less a customer needs to handle bills and submit payments, the easier it becomes to do business with you. Bill to phone is transactions made easy—for you and your customers.
Learn more about bill to phone – This ILD Blog entry will give you the details on how the entire bill to phone process works. If your ecommerce firm will benefit from higher conversion rates and increased revenue, contact ILD, a team with the tools and hands-on expertise to transform your payment options into an asset.
Bill to phone – Is your ecommerce strategy missing this revenue booster?
Are you doing everything you can to generate revenue through ecommerce? Well, if you’re not offering bill to phone payment processing, then perhaps you’re missing out. It’s time to learn more about how this increasingly popular payment method can boost revenue.
In a bill to phone transaction, the customer submits their telephone account information as their payment method—much like they would enter credit card information. After the info is authenticated, the billed amount is added to the customer’s monthly phone bill. The customer simply pays the amount in full at the same time they pay for their phone charges. The payment is then remitted to the merchant. For a full explanation of the process, check out this ILD Teleservices blog entry.
Why should you offer this payment option? Here are just two advantages of bill to phone payment processing:
- You gain instant access to unreachable customers – Maybe your ideal customer is part of the senior set that shuns the use of credit cards. Perhaps some of your clients don’t have bank accounts. Engaging in ecommerce with these customers can be virtually impossible. In fact, in some cases you might find yourself consigned to doing business old-school style, complete with illegible handwritten order forms and personal checks or money orders.
By offering this payment solution you instantly gain access to groups that were previously inaccessible—after all, bill to phone services are available to more than 90% of the U.S. More customers. More revenue. What’s not to love?
- You provide customers with peace of mind – There’s no doubt your clients are worried about identity theft and credit card fraud. In fact, the 2010 Unisys Security Index found that 62% of Americans are seriously concerned about credit card fraud. (To put that number into perspective, the same survey found that a virtually identical number, 65%, of Americans are seriously concerned about national security.)What’s more, they found that the fear of credit card fraud is at its highest level in three years.
A bill to phone solution provides an alternative that alleviates this very real fear among consumers. Because they’re not required to share credit card information, the risk of fraud and indentify theft is lowered. This makes bill to phone an excellent way to reduce customers’ vulnerability. When consumers are more confident in the safety of the transaction, they may be more likely to initiate and/or continue their relationship with you.
To learn more about how bill to phone processing can build your company’s bottom line, contact the team at ILD .
There are many changes going on in the telecommunications world pertaining to telecommunications regulations and in the “Bill to Phone” third party clearinghouse industry more specifically, but today’s front page article in The Boston Globe, “Unwanted Phone Charges Raising Consumer Ire“ presents quite a distorted picture. This misleading article is a disservice to consumers.
It’s important for everyone to understand that ILD Teleservices is a third-party bill processor. Much like VISA and MasterCard, we do not provide, market or bill for services. As a supplement to credit card processing, we process payments for hundreds of merchants to the phone bill.
To clarify, on the first page of a consumer’s phone bill, the monthly statement clearly states ILD Teleservices charges in the summary section, and again in more detail on a separate page. This is done to make sure that consumers are aware right up front of all of companies processing charges on that phone bill. We encourage consumers to scrutinize all their statements, not just phone bills.
As a company focused on providing superior customer service, we provide toll-free assistance and have developed a full-service, Web-based self-help center that allows consumers to correct any inaccuracies, learn more about the merchant charges and receive credit online, all of which can be found at www.ildteleservices.com.
Additionally, we encourage readers to learn more about altenative payment methods. Much research has been done on this subject, and here are a few sources:
http://www.paymentsnews.com/2009/07/javelin-more-us-consumers-are-likely-to-use-p2p-payments.html
The internet has certainly become a part of our daily lives. Each person has their own activity they choose to partake in via the internet. Whether it is playing games, shopping for merchandise or services, or communicating, there is something for everyone. A wide variety of activities require some form of payment. This is where the internet can get a little scary. For a lot of people supplying personal information over the internet is a no brainer; you just don’t. This is a good policy to uphold. Identity theft is on the rise and anyone can be subject to becoming a victim. Regardless of age, race, or creed, if you have a name and personal information, you are susceptible to having your identity stolen. Once your identity is stolen, it is difficult to recover the damage that is done. The trick to this is to prevent this from happening however you can.
A good way to help prevent from becoming a victim of identity theft is to monitor your purchases online and be sure of the method you choose. One method that has proven tried and true is the bill to phone method. This method uses your land line telephone account to bill you for services or products. The information needed to complete this transaction is minimal. There is, of course, identifier information that will be obtained for confirmation, however, the information is not enough for someone to retrieve your identity. For example, full social security numbers are not required and no credit card information is needed. This should help to ease your mind. Those who have been reluctant to make a purchase online because of the information required to do so can begin to explore the wonderful world wide web for all its splendor.
Applying your purchase amount to your monthly telephone is secure. This method of alternative payment can give consumers the peace of mind needed to continue surfing the internet worry free. Making purchased online should be as easy as making them in the store. With alternative payment through billing to a telephone line, the online purchasing process is easy and secure.
If you are interested in learning more about identity protection and credit monitoring services, ILD Teleservices recommends Privacy Guard from Affinion.
When making a purchase online, there are a variety of methods that can be used to complete a payment transaction. Two of the most common used are credit and third party billing to a telephone bill. These two methods are similar in some aspects but vary in several.
Applying a purchase to a phone bill works similarly to credit card transactions in that the customer chooses the bill to phone payment option then is prompted to enter their telephone data much in the same way credit card information is entered to be verified and accepted. There is information obtained that is unique to the bill subscriber that is used strictly for verification purposes. The information is then communicated from the merchant over a secure gateway to a processor, or third party biller (also known as third party clearinghouse). Next, the data is authenticated by the processor or clearinghouse. Once the identifier information is authenticated, the clearinghouse sends confirmation back to the merchant. The merchant then sends the EMI record for billing to the clearinghouse for processing. The clearinghouse in turn sends the EMI record to the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) for inclusion in the next billing cycle. The LEC is responsible to remit payments received less processing fees to the clearinghouse, which then is remitted by the clearinghouse to the merchant, much like credit card payment flow as follows (courtesy of Bank of America).
Credit Card Flow (courtesy of Bank of America)
In the credit card world, the flow of information and money between the merchant, the acquirer, card association and issuer is known as the interchange, and it consists of a few steps:
Authorization
The cardholder pays for the purchase and the merchant submits the transaction to the acquirer. The acquirer verifies with the issuer—almost instantly—that the card number and transaction amount are both valid, and then processes the transaction for the cardholder.
Batching
After the transaction is authorized it is then stored in a batch, which the merchant sends to the acquirer later to receive payment (usually at the end of the day).
Clearing and settlement
The acquirer sends the transactions in the batch through the card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer. In effect, the issuers pay the acquirer for the transactions.
Funding
Once the acquirer has been paid, the merchant receives payment. The amount the merchant receives is equal to the transaction amount minus the discount rate, which is the fee the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transaction.
Bill to Phone Method
The bill to phone method is different from credit card purchases in that the consumer is not offered a credit line, but has the ability to charge services to their home phone bill by the phone company. Payment in full is due during the next billing cycle. In general, with this form of payment merchants are not paid until the consumer pays the bill. However, there are instances and companies that forward monies to the merchant upon receipt of the bill in expectance of compliance by the subscriber, which is direct billing.
There are benefits to applying a purchase price to an existing telecommunications account. Being that the account is already established, minimal identifier information is necessary to complete the transaction. This means that your credit information is still safe and secure and not across the internet for the public to see. Let’s face it; the internet is not the most secure place to display personal information. This method of alternative payment is not only more secure, it is easy to do. The ease of use coupled with the security is what sets this method apart from credit card transactions.
If you’re like most people these days, you’re trying to get your finances under control, which includes reducing credit card debt and saying “no!” to new credit offers. Without credit, however, you have very limited payment options for online purchases. Bill to Phone, also known as Local Exchange Carrier (“LEC”) billing, enables you to purchase items online and over the phone and have those services charged to your landline phone bill. Each month, Bill to Phone enables over 2 million households to pay for services by charging services to their phone bill.
So what kinds of companies offer the Bill to Phone alternative payment option? Internet access providers, like EarthLink, People PC and NetZero, credit monitoring services like Privacy Guard and long distance calling like Yak Communications offer this option to make it easier for people who either don’t want to charge everything to their credit cards or don’t want to use a credit card online.
Here are some of the places you can use Bill to Phone:
- Earthlink and People PC are award-winning Internet service providers (“ISP”) and pioneers in this space, providing dial-up Internet for more than 14 years and broadband for a decade. This past January, 11,000 satisfied customers were able to pay for Earthlink and People PC services on their phone bill.
- Privacy Guard is a credit monitoring service that watches your credit on your behalf and sends quarterly updates showing activity in your Transunion, Experian, or Equifax credit records. In addition, it monitors your credit records daily and will notify you of any derogatory remarks, credit inquiries, or new lines of credit opened in your name. Over 50,000 households use Bill to Phone for their credit monitoring service.
- With Yak Communications you can call worldwide with super low long distance rates and no contracts or monthly fees. You only pay when you use the service. Over 200,000 calls are placed each month with Yak and billed through ILD Teleservices.
These are just a sampling of services where Bill to Phone is accepted. For more information on where you can use Bill to Phone, or if you are interested accepting Bill to Phone for your business, contact us today.
Today, ILD Teleservices’s parent company ILD Telecommunications, Inc. announced its name will now be ILD Corp. The name change reflects changes to the business model and a new direction. As times and commerce changes, ILD has taken proactive measures to keep in line with today’s business needs and remain as leader in the industry from back-office support to e-commerce customer service.
Read the Press Release here. http://www.ildcorp.com/PR-namechange.html
Read FAQ’s regarding the name change here. http://www.ildcorp.com/faq-namechange.html
If you have any questions regarding the name change or any other questions please comment here or you may contact us at askild@ildmail.com.
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