Bill Payment by SMS

With the advent of cell phone, paying off the bills is also changing. In many places soon the consumers will have a cell phone and as a result can access anything from anywhere. This will definitely increase the selling point of any product if a bill can be paid via SMS (short message service). So while from a consumer’s point of view it is convenient, on the other hand from the seller’s side it will only increase their business.

In many services now the payment is asked when the good is being delivered and if bill paying by SMS is going to pick up then location of the customer won’t be hindrance anymore in getting the goods or the service while not being at that place. For example a person can pay his or her bill of a good or a service that he or she has received at some other place while enjoying a meal at a restaurant. While at one time carrying the plastic card to pay the bills became the most convenient thing in a person’s life and still is, with the popularity that cell phones has gained, it would not be surprising that the plastic cards are making way for the mobile phones to pay the bills by SMS.

But one thing that has to be done to have the payment of bills via SMS to be working is to bring the terminals of the point of sale (POS) to the places of purchase. So how does paying off the bills with a SMS work? Most mobile devices are now being integrated with various services; one of them is that a chip is being embedded into the cell phones that are capable of storing personal data and information which can provide identification and secure authorization.

Paying bills by SMS would also help the users to avoid late payment of the bills and incurring high interest and eventually having a bad credit score. One does not have to carry any paper or other details but just texting the information after registering the mobile with the network would do the trick. For this to work the various service providers has to work in collaboration with the cell phone service provider companies as well as the banks.

But making the wallets virtual might be a bit costly right now, but with the increase in its popularity and the collaborative work between the financial institutes and mobile companies, the prospect of paying all your bills by SMS is not a farfetched dream. So if you can just be a bit organized and decide on the time as to when you have to pay your bills, one would just need to send a SMS and the job will be done. It will be faster and much easier than online banking and even wire transfer procedure. Thereby, bringing in the concept of pay anytime anywhere a conceivable one. Already in many cases bill paying by SMS is in the go, it is just a matter of time when it can be done for almost all the services.