OneVu, the electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) joint venture of VocaLink and CheckFree, is working on a service that would enable consumers to top-up their phones and those of their friends direct from their online banking interface.
OneVu says it is holding discussion with both mobile phone operators and leading online banks, with a planned launch of the service during the early stages of the second quarter 2009.
Top-up transactions will be stored enabling the customer to retrieve and organise them appropriately for example by name, amount or time. Top-ups can be re-used repeatedly with just one click.
The UK prepay mobile phone top-up market is currently worth over £4.2 billion per annum. OneVu estimates that 15% of all top-ups in the UK will be made through the Internet banking channel by 2014.
Miles Quitmann, CEO at OneVu says that today a large percentage of top-ups are being made through retail channels that represent a high cost of sale for the mobile operators.
"We aim to help them lower costs by providing a new channel for their customers that is secure, convenient and more cost effective," he says. "We envisage the service will be used for guest top-ups, for example a parent topping up the family stable of mobile phones, either regularly or on request."
OneVu's bill management service is currently installed at Lloyds TSB, and RBS and offers consumers a consolidated view of all their bills and statements direct from their online banking interface.