Payforit better for consumers than Premium SMS

Link: Bango Reports Fewer Refund for WAP Sites Compared to Premium SMS

Mobile billing experts Bango have just released some interesting statistics on consumer satisfaction for mobile purchases. The study shows that customers who purchase content through mobile websites are generally happier than those that do so via the traditional premium SMS route.

During the month of May, Bango reported just 142 refunds per 100,000 transactions; customer queries were closer to 70 per 100,000 transactions. So compelling is the data for off-portal WAP that network operators in Europe are showing a strong preference for this model and in the UK, WAP billing through the cross-operator “Payforit” scheme is being mandated.

Or to put it another way:

Compared to the traditional Premium SMS off-portal content model, where refunds can be between 10-20% of sales, off-portal WAP sites result in refunds for fewer than 1% of transactions, on average.

I’m all for Payforit – it’s long overdue. Hats off to Bango for being so open with these figures when they’re involved in both charging models.