Payforit is the name of the new UK mobile payment service, started jointly (1st of September) by Vodafone, Orange, 3, T-Mobile and 02.

The scheme standardizes the way phones can be used to make payments so the process is the same no matter which operator a customer has signed up for or which handset they are using.

Mike Short, chairman of the Mobile Data Association explained that PayForIt is for those customers who have not felt comfortable with mobile transactions or payments. So it is so called mark of quality, whenever customer is paying for goods with PayForIt he/she will see an information screen that lays out what they have bought, who it has been bought from and how much it will cost and customers can be sure they haven’t been tricked.

The Trusted Mobile Payment Framework allows customers to buy goods and services from content retailer and charge the cost to their mobile phone account, which is operated by customers mobile operator.Content retailer will use the service of payment service provider to facilitate a cost effective cross operator charging mechanism that is described below in the diagram.

How to use it

First, you need to read the terms and conditions that come up on screen. After that, here’s how it works:

*Customer goes to a website on phone and wants to buy a ringtone or something else. A button on the screen will say either ‘Buy’ or ‘Pay’.
* Next step takes customer to the Payforit page where he/she gets details like price, links to terms and conditions and a helpline number. When customer subscribe to a service, it also tells how often the customer has to pay.
* Customer can still change his/her mind - just have to press ‘Cancel’.
* Customer gets the ring tone. Payforit applies the cost to his/her next phone bill (or takes it out of customer’s Pay as you Go account

The framework has even made success and failure screens compulsory and fixed a lot of other things. To get a thorough view about the conditions have a look at the scheme rules. It seems to me that fixed conditions to all of the content provider will improve the quality in deed. Customers can always be sure when dealing with PayFotIt everything is honest and clear. In the worst scenario they have only one thing to blame and it makes things much more easier.