Don’t hang up, I’m getting paid for this
3 has launched a service that, for the first time, pays customers to receive calls and texts.
The new pay-as-you-go price service from 3 – called ‘WePay’ – will see customers rewarded with a cash credit for calls and texts they receive – with 5p per minute for calls received and 2p per text received
Customers claim their cash credit each time they purchase a new WePay Top-up voucher – the credit can then be used to purchase any 3 services, from texts and calls to buying music tracks and watching TV on their mobiles.
Graeme Oxby, 3’s Marketing Director, said, “The introduction of WePay means we’ve raised the bar on rewarding loyal PAYG customers and at the same time created a way for everyone to enjoy music and TV on their mobile.”
3 says the service is designed to boost usage of data services, and also take some of the tarrif complexity out of the pre-pay market.
The company is making a big push to persuade customers to port their numbers to 3, and clearly hopes this cash back startegy will be attractive to customers considering churning from rival networks.
(In the contract market, Mobile Europe has learnt that the operator is also offering 50% discounts on the first six months of an 18 month GBP35 per month contract, with GBP250 cashback after the first six months.)
However, the operator has also called for greater ease of portability in the UK. It claims that it currently takes at least seven days to port your number in the UK, whereas in other countries such as Ireland and Pakistan, it takes “just a couple of hours”.
Marketing Director Graeme Oxby continued: “Because the process can be slow, only a fraction of people on PAYG port their number when they get a new phone. Our new reward for picking up calls and texts makes it worthwhile for consumers to move their number.”
The WePay tariff is available from 1 February 2006.
How it works…
A customer on WePay who receives 100 minutes of calls and 50 texts a month will earn £6.00 credit. He or she can claim their cash credit when they purchase a new WePay Top-up, and the credit can then be used to purchase any 3 services.
WePay cash credits are valid for 30 days.
As soon as a Top-up is purchased the 3 customer has 30 days to generate as many calls and texts as possible in order to earn maximum cash credits again.