Communications network DuoCash and IPSP iBill have a joint and exclusive marketing deal letting iBill merchants accept prepaid telephone cards as credit card alternatives.
"In an era of identity theft and credit card fraud, the DuoCash system provides security and anonymity to those wanting to make Internet purchases," said DuoCash chief operating officer Al Case, whose company's prime product is a patented communications network letting consumers use stored values on prepaid long distance cards to buy goods and services online. "Consumers don't have to fear buying online."
Chief executive Victor Nappe said that goes for merchants as well. “When you think of DuoCash and its unparalleled ability to address markets of anonymity, protection against identity theft, accessibility, ease of shopping experience, and micropayments, it is usually more then one of these features that a merchant chooses," he said.
"The micropayment functionality that DuoCash maintains is truly the best available – it has been around for decades," Nappe continued. "We leverage the largest and most successful micropayment system – the telephone network, which has helped process countless microtransactions globally for years.”
IBill vice president of sales Mark Smith said DuoCash offers iBill a new payment option letting them reach consumers hesitant to buy with their credit cards in cyberspace or who don't have credit cards at all. "Our merchants are excited about a non-credit card payment method," he said.
Both companies anticipate client merchants seeing sales increases between 5-15 percent when DuoCash is added as an online payment option. IBill said the DuoCash option should be available within the next sixty days, the deal letting iBill use DuoCash's network exclusively to the online entertainment market.
DuoCash's Michael Sperber told AVNOnline.com the company had been talking with iBill "for some time" about such a partnership and decided at last it would be mutually beneficial. Sperber said the key was DuoCash being impressed with iBill's newly aggressive stance in the adult marketplace, in terms of reaching out to both former and new clients.
"And, combined with the situation as it stands right now, the constantly changing situation in regards to credit card processing," Sperber continued, "we believe it makes credit card alternatives that much more attractive."
Sperber added that the time is "absolutely right" for more, similar programs, either derived from or inspired by the DuoCash/iBill program. "The credit card situation is so volatile, both in terms of regulatory issues from the credit companies themselves as well as customer perceptions involving ID fraud and other security risks," he said.
But he wouldn't speculate on just how many such programs or ideas might be present in, say, a year from now. "My guess would be as good as yours," Sperber said. "There are probably three to four good alternatives to credit processing in the market right now. I believe ours to be the best because it is a unique solution, utilizing the telephone billing infrastructure that is already in place. As to how many other types of systems will come in the future, I wish I knew."
