CFM is seeing an increasing number of complaints under Billing and Charging category, specifically in the subcategory of Direct Carrier Billing (DCB). Consumers need to smart in subscribing as it can lead to unexpected charges causing them to pay more than intended.
DCB also known as Direct Operator Billing (DOB), refers to the payment method used to pay for purchases made over a phone number. When a consumer chooses to pay for their purchase through their mobile service’s bill, the merchant will charge the respective Service Provider for the purchase, which is then reflected in the bill. Once this option is activated, the charge will continue to be billed unless and until the service is terminated.
“Consumers are getting bill shock. This could be a result of applications subscriptions in their devices, and they choose to pay via DCB. We tend to forget that we subscribe to any subscriptions in applications, so we need to be mindful, lest we are confronted by a huge bill. Worse still, if this then leads to us being blacklisted by the Service Providers for failure to pay”, said CFM Chairman, En. Muhammad Radzillah.
He also added “Either we make sure to disable this option as our default payment method and only enable it when we need to make in-app purchases or choose other payment options.”
En Radzillah further stated that as a Forum comprised of representatives from both consumer associations and Service Providers, the matter would also be debated internally as well to find ways to mitigate this issue.
Visit this link for a step-by-step guide on disabling direct carrier billing as one of your device payment methods.