3 has launched a service that 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. 3 says the service is designed to boost usage of data services, and also take some of the tariff 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 strategy will be attractive to customers from rival networks. 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.
Marketing director Graeme Oxby said, “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.”