Prepaid Portal Targets Mobile Customers

March 8, 2010

Vesta Corporation, a Portland, OR-based firm with roots in the prepaid telephone card market, has today announced the launch of Prepaid.com, a Web portal that allows mobile phone users to send airtime to friends and family around the world.

The Prepaid.com portal is being made available to consumers in Mexico, according to an announcement released by Vesta to coincide with the Mobile Money Transfer Conference, which is being held this week in Mexico City.

"Recharge without borders," the Prepaid.com home page proclaims. "Recarga sin fronteras."

For now, the transactions being supported by Vespa's technology are "closed loop." In other words, it's really not much more than a mobile phone account top-up service that accepts all major credit and debit cards for payments. It's not a stretch, however, to expect companies like Vespa see these types of services as a way to tap more directly into the payments space with mobile payment solutions.

Prepaid.com says it offers mobile carriers a white-labelled plug-and-play solution that can support in-country and cross-border recharges for prepaid airtime and other mobile services.

User features include immediate, no-fee recharging for prepaid mobile phone accounts. "By using Prepaid.com, consumers now have a convenient way to send airtime to family and friends in other countries," said Chris Parsons, Vesta's Chief Marketing Officer.

No registration forms, PINs or refill cards required; the recharge process is fast, reliable and secure, Prepaid.com boasts. The portal features 24x7 online and live-agent transaction support, and consumers can create accounts to securely store payment details and recipient phone numbers, and where they can review payments and print transaction receipts.

Worldwide, 3.5 billion people lack access to financial services. By 2012, 1.7 billion of these unbanked individuals are expected to have access to mobile phones.

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