Airtime, data and utilities.
WHAT THE CATEGORY COVERS
Mobile airtime and data Electricity tokens Television subscriptions Betting and gaming wallets Transport and toll payments Education and government fees
WHY IT MATTERS COMMERCIALLY
High frequency, low value, and a reason for customers to return.
WHAT THE MARGIN LOOKS LIKE
Thin, set by the biller or an aggregator.
WHAT AN AGGREGATOR PROVIDES
One integration reaching many billers.
WHY THAT IS PREFERABLE
Integrating each biller directly is slow and fragile.
WHAT THE TECHNICAL RISKS ARE
Value delivered but payment not captured Payment captured but value not delivered Duplicate delivery on retry Biller systems unavailable
WHY THAT SECOND RISK IS THE SERIOUS ONE
The customer has paid and received nothing, and will demand resolution immediately.
WHAT TO BUILD
Idempotent requests with a unique reference Status queries for unknown outcomes Automatic reversal where delivery failed definitively A manual resolution path
WHAT TO NEVER DO
Deliver value before payment is confirmed Retry delivery without an idempotency key
WHAT TO MONITOR
Pending transactions, which must always resolve.
WHAT TO RECONCILE DAILY
Value delivered against payment received, per biller.
