Pay Your UK Credit Card Bill By Text Message

Do you ever get fed up waiting for your credit card statement to know how much your minimum payment is this month? Ever wished you didn’t need to go to the bank and line-up in a queue to pay your credit card bill? If so, you may be happy to hear that paying your credit card bill at banks and payment centres may now be a thing of the past.

A recent YouGov survey of 2,201 people commissioned by Mint reveled that 27% of UK credit cardholders felt they were too busy to pay their credit card bills in the traditional way. With this in mind, and looking for new and innovative ways to introduce easier and more flexible ways for their credit card customers to pay their credit card bills, Mint have introduced a new and easier way for their UK credit cardholders to make payments – via text message.

In order to make use of this very convenient method of making sure you pay your credit card bill on time, Mint requires its credit card customers to pre-register their debit card and mobile phone details. The system then works by sending each registered UK credit cardholder a text message on the same day as the day on which their UK credit card statement is sent alerting the cardholder of both the minimum payment they need to make that month and also the total outstanding balance at the end of that statement period. The fee for this service will be charged at standard network rates. Cardholders will also be able to get min-statements and balances to their mobiles phones for the minimal fee of 25 pence per text message.

As Jerry Toher, managing director at Mint, said “Given the fast pace of modern life, it seemed important for Mint to find a clever way for people’s money to work around them, rather than the other way round. By enabling people to simply send a text to get their balance and make a payment at any time of the day, our customers can manage their money easily.”

While other UK credit card issuers currently allow their cardholders to check their outstanding UK credit card balances using text messaging services, this is the first known case of being able to make payments on your credit card using a text messaging service. However, given the popularity and support among UK credit cardholders to try new and more convenient ways to pay their monthly outstanding credit card bills, it’s sure to catch on with some of the more mainstream UK credit card providers in the coming months.

Richard Smith
26th September 2006

More Information:

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• How To Avoid Paying Those Pesky Credit And Debit Card Fees
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• Common Credit Card Mistakes
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