[Nemencine]

Biz Idea: Consolidating Used Prepaid Calling Cards(a $1.6 billion dollar industry)

I went to a nearby store to buy some gloves, there i ran into these two hot and semi-hot Bengal girls talking back and forth in bengali...i inserted myself into their convo....i then learned that they were discussing the headache of using calling cards...long story short, i didnt get a number close...but i did get a business idea: consolidating used prepaid calling cards.

The prepaid calling cards business is expected to be $1.6billion dollars in 2013 alone.

One of the main headache these girls were talking about, is that you can use a calling card and have a tiny amount remaining... e.g start with a $10 calling card, make your call, then have $0.25 remaining...then you will have to start over with fresh calling card because $0.25 cannot make the next round of fresh calls...therefore, you will need to go and buy a new $10 or $5 or $20 calling card.... this can repeat itself ad nauseum ...with a tiny amount remaining everytime...and starting over with yet another new one and still having tiny amount of minutes/cash remaining... one calling card could have $0.10 remaining after you've used most of it..another calling card could have $0.24 after you've used it... and then another could have $0.05...another could have $0.40..etc all piling up...one card after another after another after another....

the problem is that, if you want to call somebody, you cant call them with a $0.05 or $0.24 calling card...you will need to go and buy a new calling card with $2 or $5 or $20 for you to have enough minutes to call them internationally..and this new $20 could be left with $0.36 after you've used it...wash, rinse, and repeat and this piled-up fractionally used pre-paid calling cards.....

Also, there is the problem that there are soo many different calling cards... you can have all these little amounts spread across different calling cards....

THE SOLUTION?

wont it be nice to consolidate and dump all those little unused calling card minutes that is spread all over the place...consolidate them all into one, single pile and use it to make calls all from one random card of your choosing?

In this way, i could have a $0.02 left on my habla espanol calling card...and $0.13 on my Asia first international calling card and $0.29 on my Africa lion international card....i can then go to a website(e.g. nemencine's international poosyraider's calling card unlimited.com) where i can then consolidated all of them(habla espanol, asia, africa calling cards) = $0.02 + $0.13 +$0.29 = $0.44 into one calling card(be it asia or latin america or africa card calling cards) and used it to make my calls. And If i want to spread the consolidation into more than one calling cards, that is cool too.

this business model is not unique at all. We already have: Business that allows you to consolidate coupons for supermarkets. There are businesses that helps consolidate your various loans. There are business that let you consolidate your reward points. There are also businesses that allows you to consolidate credit cards. Wallaby is such a business.
etcetera, etcetera ... But none that i can find that does calling cards consolidation despite calling cards generating $1.6billion per year. Strange. Weird.

Why not a business that helps consolidate your used, fractionated prepaid calling cards-- a $1.6 billion dollar industry--into one calling card of your choosing? Any calling card of your choosing.

Instead of joining the fray with one calling cards trying to outdo and outsmart the other...this business will be a facilitator. Letting customers convert the remaining fractional dollars on various calling cards into one, single calling card through a website(nemencine international poosyraider calling card website). The technical structure: Instead of converting cash into minutes......it will convert minutes(from diverse calling cards) into cash and then back to minutes.

That is the gist of the idea.

criticisms, analyses, etc are welcome. Especially, if you have background in telecom or if you have experience with a business model involving similar consolidation strategy.

[calculus]

I don't see where the revenue comes from, because the companies that issue the cards aren't going to buy them back. So what do you actually do with all these fractional cards you buy?

If I were a calling card company, rather than use cards I would manage it all online, so each customer has one permanent account, and you never have the wasted nickels and dimes.

[Nemencine]

thanks, calculus. i will reply later...for now...

This four part video goes into the structure of the prepaid calling cards.

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

.

[Hades]

This looks like a pretty good idea, sort of like the robbery hustle on office space where they were cutting a tenth of a cent off of each transaction and throwing it into a third party account. I don't have a background in telecom or anything like that though. How do you plan on implementing it?

[OSL]

(09-22-2013 07:36 PM)Hades Wrote:  

This looks like a pretty good idea, sort of like the robbery hustle on office space where they were cutting a tenth of a cent off of each transaction and throwing it into a third party account. I don't have a background in telecom or anything like that though. How do you plan on implementing it?

This is the first thing I thought of when I read the proposal.

[Architekt]

How many people are actually going to keep cards worth only a couple of $0.01, though? For that kind of service, it may be hard to find customers. It may also prove difficult to actually make your business float with such small numbers being thrown around. If you were to have it set up so that whenever your customers purchase a recharge from you, it would automatically consolidate, you could draw in a lot of customers (providing not many companies are already doing this). This could be especially useful as a global service, so that your clients don't need new calling cards every time they head across a border. Eventually it could become very profitable, as long as there are minimal overhead expenses, but it could prove rather difficult and arduous in the beginning.

[paninaro]

I'm not quite sure how you would make money. Can you explain that further?

So let's say a customer comes to you with a $0.10 and $0.20 calling card from companies A and B. What do they get, and how do you monetize it? Do you give them a $0.30 calling card in return?

Also long-term, I don't think this is such a viable industry (though maybe the short term will last for many years). First, telecom prices continue to drop as the infrastructure shifts to VOIP, and IP transit prices drop along with it. So if calling prices drop to $0.01/minute, then even a 10-cent card is worth keeping, and it only becomes useless when it's about 2 cents, but most people will just toss it at that point because who cares about 2 cents?

Next, mobile phones, especially smartphones with calling apps like Skype, will become more common among the type of people that buy prepaid calling cards, so they'll have less of a need for such cards.

[Nemencine]

How is this going to get monetized?

The four videos that i posted above, especially, video #1 and video #3 are critical in shedding light on this. Because it goes into the voIP, cardsaver billing server, termination carrier, distributors, service providers, etc.

Here is how i will try to make money:

When Lindy West comes to my website with 20 used calling cards that she wants to consolidate....this is what is going to happen.

For the sake of simplicity, Let us say that on each used calling card she has $0.50 for 1minute(60seconds) remaining...she will enter the card # and the card pin # into the https portal of my website....

then, i will BUY the $0.50 minutes from her cardsaver billing server for $0.52...at this point, i am at a loss for $0.02. It also means that the 1minutes(60seconds) gets transferred to my own cardsaver billing server. I will imagine any business entity/person would be more than willing to sell me $0.50 for $0.52. that is a deal for them. (This part of the deal i will need to physically arrange with distributors and the service providers.)

I will then turn around and give lindy west 50 seconds of time for her $0.50 from my own cardsaver billing server...since she has 20 used calling cards that translates into 0.833minutes X 20 = 16.66 minutes of call time for her.

So, instead of throwing away 20 used calling cards that has $0.50 remaining on each of them...she can go to my website and consolidate all the 20 and get a 17 minutes of call time. Between zero or 17minutes of call time, i think she will take 17minutes.

On the other hand, i bought $0.50 for $0.52...then turn around and sell it for $0.5833(i gave lindy west only 50 seconds instead of 60 seconds). Making me a net profit of $0.0633. which is roughy 12.66% gain.

Look at this from this angle:

$0.50 = 60 seconds time equivalent....
Bought it($0.50) from cardsaver billing server for $0.52 = which has time equivalent of 62.4 seconds... that means that i am at a loss of 4% = 2.4 seconds.....because i use 62.4 seconds to pay for 60 seconds. I used $0.52 to pay for $0.50 = 62.4 seconds to pay for 60 seconds....

so far soo good....

Then, i turn around and gave lindy west only 50 seconds out of all of this 60 seconds....keeping the remaining 10 seconds for myself = which mean i gain 16.66% - 4% = +12.66% net profit. Remember, it is a choice between zero or 17minutes of call time for lindy west, simply because she cannot use 1minute($0.50) or 60 seconds to make any meaningful phone call.

The 12.66% gain of calling time will then be aggregrated in my own cardsaver billing server and poured into a new prepaid calling card and sold to my customers on a $5 or $10 calling card == this is how i redeem the time for CASH.

Basically, i am making roughly 13 cents on the dollar for every transaction.

The other alternative is for lindy west to throw away all the 20 used calling cards with $0.50 remaining on them...or she could simply consolidate them at my website and have 17 minutes of calling time. between zero versus 17 minutes of calling time...i think the choice is clear.

(09-22-2013 03:58 PM)Nemencine Wrote:  

.......
THE SOLUTION?

wont it be nice to consolidate and dump all those little unused calling card minutes that is spread all over the place...consolidate them all into one, single pile and use it to make calls all from one random card of your choosing?....

[WanderingSoul]

Isn't Skype and other similar services going to kill calling cards in the near future? Does anyone here use calling cards anymore?

[Nemencine]

@ calculus

I hope my post here has addressed your question. thank you. i appreciate the question. I am going to have the remaining $0.20 from lindy west transferred to my cardsaver billing server by offering to pay $0.22 to the service provider or who ever is hosting her calling card server. I am betting that they will take my offer because $0.22 is better than $0.20. And i am not asking for a refund. again, i hope this post answered your questions. if not, let me know. thank you.


@hades and @ YMG.

It is sort like that.

if we think of it in terms of oranges.
60 oranges that sells for $50...i can buy those 60 oranges for $52(4%) and turn around and sell them for $58.33(16.66%). and make a net profit of 12.66%.

or

60 oranges that sells for $50...i can buy those 60 oranges for $52(4%) and turn around and sell 50 oranges for $50(16.66%) = and net profit of 12.66% gain. the same math.


@ Architekt

thanks for the queries. I think people keep pennies and dimes to redeem at banks and coinstar. I think people will keep a couple of calling cards to get 20 minutes or so of calling time. Of course, i like your other suggestions about re-fills. Definitely, there will be some outlays to jumpstart the business.


@ paninaro

i tried explaining myself further in this post. I hope that make things clearer. If she has $0.10 and $0.20 from companies A and B...she gets back $0.25 in total or something like that. Since i will be buying the time for 0.105 and 0.21 from both companies = 5% against me....so, she will get a time equivalent of $0.25 = +16.66% for me...making a total of 11.66% net gain. i will then turn around and accumulate enough until i can create a $5 or $2 calling card and sell it: thereby turning the time into cash.

I agree with you on skype...in fact, the market used to be $2.2 billion in 2006...skype decimated the market to $1.6 billion in 2013. Still, it is a very robust market....for the time being....solid constructive criticism, paninaro. good job. thanks. i appreciate it.

[calculus]

I think this is your downfall: The card-issuer- or service provider- counts on that $.50 going unused. It's pure profit. If they sell the $.50 to you for $.52, they only make two cents. If they simply tell you to fuck off, they keep the whole $.50. Unless I'm missing something.

[Nemencine]

(09-23-2013 01:34 AM)calculus Wrote:  

I think this is your downfall: The card-issuer- or service provider- counts on that $.50 going unused. It's pure profit. If they sell the $.50 to you for $.52, they only make two cents. If they simply tell you to fuck off, they keep the whole $.50. Unless I'm missing something.

Hehehe. i had to smile at that. Good job. Really, nicely done. I totally missed that blindspot...i was so focused on the leftside of the equation that involves myself and the customer.

thanks for pointing it out. yes, they will only make $0.145($0.02+$0.125).
they make $0.125 for every $0.50 if the customer makes a phone call. So, add my $0.02 = that makes $0.145.

My cost will be $0.02, my net gain will be 13 cents on the dollar. The customer bears the brunt of this by paying $0.50.

So, if they tell me to frack off, (a)they get to keep the whole $0.50, or $0.125(if their customer decides to not forfeit the $0.50 but make the $0.50 phone call conversation anyways, regardless of how short it will be). or...they could make a guaranteed $0.145 with me.

So, basically, their three choices are:

(a) $0.50 (b) $0.125 (c ) $0.145(with me)

I was soo focused on option B and option C that i forget about option A. You pointed out that blindspot, calculus. kudos. Of course, option C will only cost me $0.02 in reality. the remaining $0.125 came from the customer.

ANY POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS?

hmmmm....at the moment...all i can think of are:

Make exclusive deals with a select group of calling cards companies and use increase volume of business as a justification? That is how distributors drive down service provider profit to $0.07 for every $0.50 phone call. Distributors get away with this because of sheer volume.

Increase their size of the pie coming from my end? from $0.02 to $0.1? while passing on the cost to the customer through extracting more minutes from her calling card?

The extra 12% i am already leeching off the customers like a vampiric octopus to create my own calling cards....share that with the service provider? Reducing my profit to...say...9% or so.

anyways, Ensam has some interesting insights to give. Perhaps, that will provide some potential solutions.

-----------------

anyways, solid job, calculus. Thanks for a solid constructive criticism. You've earned yourself a +1 vouch. I like stuff like this...comments that points out my blindspots

[BLarsen]

*Despite skype and other video chats there are places without good internet coverage that have decent phone coverage, e.g., developing nations and rural/remote areas of developed nations.

*Your market is the call maker, not the receiver. There are billions of Chinese and Indians with phone coverage, but they're receivers. The number of makers is a fraction of that.

*Since most of your market would be speaking English as a second language you'd have to invest money into a multi-language interface (Mandarin & Cantonese Chinese, multiple Indian dialects, Spanish, Vietnamese, French [Africa]).

*As calculus noted, I don't see any incentive for the card issuer to buy into this deal. You'd make money, the customer would be provided a good service, but the card issuer is keeping those 10 or 50 cents that don't get issued. I assume after awhile the card holder forfeits the balance. That's probably where the real money is made.

[Nemencine]

Blarsen. the minute i saw your name, i knew instantly you are going to bring the heat. respect.

Let me try and address your points.

On the issue of skype.
Yes, you are also right...limited internet coverage in certain areas will slow down the gormandizing of the calling card business by skype and other video chats....But, paninaro is also correct that skype is still doing some damages. as the article points out the trend. So, yeah, there is still money to be made...for the next 10 years., perhaps.

On the issue of call maker/call receiver.
True. I am only interested in families in western countries calling back to their native countries....Hispanics alone that are present in the USA generates 100s of millions for calling card businesses when calling Latin america.

Multi-language interface.
You are dead on, mate. Dead on. The website, etc, will be in multiple languages. English will be a second language. This will eat up the outlays.

Good point, by both you and calculus. I am looking into Ensam's suggestion to see if it offers a potential solution. Apart from that, the best i could instantly come up with right now are these.:

If i can get enough volume to justify the lowered cost the same way the distributor does with the service providers.

Increase the buying price to a higher amount.

If i can split some of the extra profit with the service providers.

Thanks, Blarsen. well thought out points.

(09-23-2013 08:16 AM)BLarsen Wrote:  

*Despite skype and other video chats there are places without good internet coverage that have decent phone coverage, e.g., developing nations and rural/remote areas of developed nations.

*Your market is the call maker, not the receiver. There are billions of Chinese and Indians with phone coverage, but they're receivers. The number of makers is a fraction of that.

*Since most of your market would be speaking English as a second language you'd have to invest money into a multi-language interface (Mandarin & Cantonese Chinese, multiple Indian dialects, Spanish, Vietnamese, French [Africa]).

*As calculus noted, I don't see any incentive for the card issuer to buy into this deal. You'd make money, the customer would be provided a good service, but the card issuer is keeping those 10 or 50 cents that don't get issued. I assume after awhile the card holder forfeits the balance. That's probably where the real money is made.

[BCien]

If you're in the USA.
There's already refillable calling cards, that roll over whatever cents you might have left, that also don't use a PIN all you do is register the customers phone number.for example:
https://info.qpay123.com/html/info_files/Star123FAQ.pdf

http://www.mystar123.com/

I've been in the phone business for quite a while and one of the "in" things right now is unlimited international dialing however not a lot of prepaid services offer it to mobile phones. A good idea would also be a kind of service that lets say for a flat rate (regardless of the customers mobile/landline carrier they use) lets you dial international with unlimited minutes or a decent amount pre arranged mins. Now I know that kind of unlimited dialing won't work to certaing countries due to the fact there's islands where the rate to dial there is about $1.50 dollars.

[calculus]

(09-23-2013 08:15 AM)Nemencine Wrote:  

anyways, solid job, calculus. Thanks for a solid constructive criticism. You've earned yourself a +1 vouch. I like stuff like this...comments that points out my blindspots

No problem man, I like these mental puzzles because, like you, I too am trying to stack enough chips to flee to poosy paradise for good. Also, thanks for my first rep point.

Some of the other ideas you've posted are interesting. I think you're on the right track, anyway.

The only way I can think of to get the cooperation of a service provider (SP) is this:

Let's say you somehow acquire 20,000 of these cards with $.50 on them. Those cards represent $10,000 pure profit in SP's pocket. Now, let's say you have a robo-caller that can burn through the credits left in these cards automatically. How much of SP's profit would that eat up? Let's say his cost is 50%. So now, you've taken $5,000 out of his pocket.
So, instead of doing this, you offer to surrender these cards to SP in exchange for part of the value, say $2,500. So you both make $2,500.

Now you just have to figure out how to get $10K worth of cards for less than $2,500. Maybe have some app or game that gives people in-game trinkets in exchange for their old cards.

Clearly, this is a long-shot.

[Ensam]

Here's what I sent in a PM:

Quote:

Actually that's a pretty decent idea. Set up an internal routing system so that you can open up lines for brief period of time and then seamlessly transfers the calls across as they come up and down. You might be able to do it with something like Asterix http://www.asterisk.org/.

Good luck!

[samsamsam]

Nemencine,

I got your PM, happy to take a look at this, but you got some top notch feedback already.

What is jumping out at me is (this is just a flow of thoughts and in no particular order):

1) Developing the business tools and excecution. Can you build such a process cost effectively?
2) I don't think all cards are going to be at 50 cents remaining. I don't know how much a buck buys a person phone call wise. Some ads, I just googled, claim that you can get a minute per penny. So 50 cents is still 50 minutes. That isn't worth trading in because that is still good time left on it.
3) Each phone card seems to be different - so a person would buy the one with the best rates to the country that that person wants to call - best rates probably means 2 or 3 cents or under.
4) Based on the fact that people buy cards with the best rates for their needs will you be able to give them a card that gives them that same rate? i.e. cost per minute for a certain country? Can you do that?
5) If your business tools are complicated and frustrating then no one will want to sit around trying to redeem Five - 5cent cards and spend 10 minutes doing it.
6) Your business model needs to look at worse case scenario. I think using 50 cents is too high of a number in your model. I get it is a percentage thing - but I think you consider how much it will cost to build such a system, execute such a system and see when you might recover your investment. How many transactions will you need to get a good return on your investment (plus your unpaid use of time) if all you had to work with were 2 cent cards?

I think the biggest thing is this - People living in Western countries will buy prepaid cards with the best rates for the country they want to call, which means they will probably still be able to get a call off with even 15 or 20 cents (maybe even 5 cents). A quick hello how are ya? call - may take just 2 mins. That means they might only toss it at 2 or 3 cents. How many western people are going to spend minutes of their lives for a quarter in a new time card?

Maybe I am way off here. Been a long few days, but that is what is jumping out at me.

[naswanji]

I think most of the criticisms above are valid. Several other things jump out at me:

People need to go on your website to access your service. But I would assume that a large proportion of calling card users don't have a computer or internet access. And then people who do have reliable internet access have cheaper alternatives to calling cards. Can't you make calls to a landline from Skype at rates that are competitive with whatever calling cards can offer? So there's a sort of mismatch between where the potential customer base is and the way you're trying to reach them.

Then the telecom companies are pretty powerful interests, and I'm not sure they would appreciate you piggybacking on their profits. They could very easily shut you out of this and there's nothing you could do.

And as others have mentioned, this is a market in decline. If you really want to get in on a growth market, prepaid phone minutes are increasingly being used as currency and a way to transfer money in the Third World.

I'm sure there's a way to make a killing in that, but I'm not familiar enough with the workings of that system to figure out where the opportunities are.

[Brodiaga]

(09-23-2013 01:34 AM)calculus Wrote:  

I think this is your downfall: The card-issuer- or service provider- counts on that $.50 going unused. It's pure profit. If they sell the $.50 to you for $.52, they only make two cents. If they simply tell you to fuck off, they keep the whole $.50. Unless I'm missing something.

This pretty much kills the idea. Same thing with gift cards, rebate cards, airmiles and everything else of that sort. The companies are counting on people being dumb/lazy and not using all of them.

(edit). To add to this point, I used to get rebate checks, but last time I requested a rebate I received a prepaid card for $30 even though it's more expensive to issue it than to write a check. Why? Because I would cash the check immediately using my phone app, but with the card, I still have $10 left on it and may forget about it. Even if I don't, chances are I'll spend less than the exact amount and forget about whatever is left.

[Caligula]

These guys are trying to do it, seems to be the right model: http://www.rebtel.com/

[Dr. Howard]

Definitely focus on more developing countries to do this. I have no experience in this realm besides talking to a guy who tried to do this in the Philippines before being arrested for immigration violations.

[Nemencine]

thank you all for your thoughtful replies. ALL OF YOU.

Others that i havent replied to, either on the thread or through PM : Bcien, samsamsam, naswanji, brodiga, caligula, wiscanada. LET me extend special thanks. I appreciate all of you taking the time to contribute thoughts and constructive criticisms to this idea. Only a fool goes headlong to implement any idea(regardless of how brilliant he may think the idea is) without subjecting it to assessments/analysis of others. It is better to realize the mistakes early on, than to be halfway done or completed and realize that all your efforts and time has been wasted because you overlook certain things.

Besides, that is the tradition in the scientific discipline(my uni/college training) : your research paper gets analyzed and criticized from 20 different angles...if it cannot withstand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Of course, improvements are also suggested. Which is what i like about these threads: some of you also tried to come up with potential solutions to the problems you raised. You are like my think thank--and i am not even paying you! hahahahaa.


Mr. Calculus

suggestion here, is admittedly farfetched, but the core remains solid: i need a business plan to hold the SP hostage in some way. That is what i take from his suggested solution. I have been thinking of how exactly to go about doing that....Let us say, i am impressed by Groupon's ability to reach a 1billion dollar valuation while exploiting/cheating the restaurants/retailers/merchants. It was a clever loansharking scam.

Mr. BCIEN.

Thanks for the contribution...the business idea intends to bypass the refillable calling cards. Of course, skype and refillable calling cards will eat out of the market share....but still...the market share of un-refillable cards are still in the 100s of millions. This asian chick merely took photos of food and share it...and she cashed out with a solid, $10million in cash. I am not hoping to be ted turner or some telecome giant...i just want to be in and out quickly, i wont mind a couple of million here and there, for an early retirement at a very young age. I am not trying to build a telecom giant. I dont mind a nice car, either. (the slampieces/smokeshow i can get on my own)

Respectfully, i dont quite like the unlimited international phone call idea. I have a hard time imagining that will make money. Bitches can talk for hours, non stop. Flat rate/unlimited talk works concept will work for something like a gym membership: flat rate/unlimited usage...because people are generally too lazy to come to the gym. Bitches are not too lazy to talk all fracking day long. But thanks for your suggestions, Bcien.


mr. ENSAM.

Your suggestion is superb. Instead of trying to negotiate with SP or whoever is hosting the cardsaver billing server...i simply not deal with them: i will need a robot/algorithm that will go through the fractional reserve on each different cards, jumping seamlessly from one card to another, as they are exhausted...while somehow managing to keep the customer connected to their friends in china without a break or prompt, until all the minutes are exhausted. A technical feat.

Of course, i will make money by charging them a registration fee on the website/app. In fact, the website/app will be a place, where you can simply download the minutes from your various cards regardless of what kind of card it is. It will be one card/app to rule them all.

IT IS THE BEST SOLUTION SO FAR....of course, creating such a robot/algorithm is where the difficulty lies. Excellent suggestion.

I can even link their account to a card...so they carry one card around instead of different cards for different countries...the same way that wallaby is trying to do one credit card for all the cards.

I will research this further...to see if i can get it done and what it is going to cost me.

mr. SAMSAMSAM

You make a lot of good points...let me try and address them:

#1. Can i build such a platform cost effectively? i will soon found out the more research i put into ENSAM's solution idea.
#2.The $0.50 is just an arbitrary number used for the sake of doing the math calculation. I certainly dont expect all the cards to be that exact amount. Also, what is advertised by calling cards and what you get generally differs: too many hidden costs. Pennies or sub-pennies doesnt matter: millions upon millions of pennies adds up quickly.
#3 and #4. True, different phone cards have different rates based on different countries(excellent point, samsamsam), this potential problem will be resolved by ENSAM's idea too: the algorithm will simply select the best calling rate for you to use, going from the cheapest to the costliest like wallaby's credit card does. Ensam's solution will basically be like wallaby's business model applied to calling cards.
#5.User-friendly business model? It better be. Otherwise, it is waste of time. In fact, to make it even more user friendly is to create an APP that allows people with 4g phone to take snapshot of their calling cards' serial # and pin # and access #. (they can do this in one shot--it is at the back of the calling card)...and the APP will upload the info into their account...which they can then use to call anywhere using the plastic card that i issue for them, all under a minute. It doesnt take more than seconds to take a snapshot with a phone. they wont even need to enter pin# anymore.
#6. All pertinent questions...but first, i need to see what it will cost me to get a setup that mimicks wallaby's but designed for calling cards...then, i will do a projection of all other costs...right now, i need to hash out potential technical problems,competitions, and viability...then, i will look into various setup costs and volume of business. All that i need is volume, really....millions of pennies/subpennies will add up to a shitload of cash. That is what HFT does in stock trading...they make little cents all over the place millions of times over. I beleive chase bank in america allows you to upload/deposit your check with a snapshot...i dont see why the same cannot be done with regards to calling cards: upload the info about your remaining balance on your calling cards with a snapshot. that will take less than 15 seconds. The problem is the engineering challenge/cost of designing such an algorithm/app/plastic calling card. One to rule them all.

thanks for all the ideas.

mr. NASWANJI

I think they do have computers and internet access and 4g phones. who doesnt nowadays? The best way to answer this definitely, which i will look into, is to look at the data/statistics of household income/geographical location of people that uses prepaid calling cards in the western world to call people in developing worlds like mexico or china or india. yeah, i will definitely do the research on that.

Skype is competitive. I am not denying that...but why then is the prepaid calling card business expected to be $1.6 billion dollar in 2013? why hasnt skype crushed them to absolute pieces? Maybe in the future, skype will crush them, but for now...they are set to reach $1.6 billion this year...and hundreds of millions for the next couple of years.....my goal? i wont mind a couple of million here and there, for an early retirement at a very young age. I am not trying to build a telecom giant.

Yes,the telecom are big giants....that is why i like ENSAM's solution which is basically a wallaby's version of prepaid calling card. In this way, i dont even have to say hello to the telecom giants. i can tell them to kiss my arse. The problem, of course, is the engineering feat/algorithm programs needed to pull this off. I will look around and see what comes up and how much it will cost versus the time frame i think i have with regards to samsamsam's point; and skype emerging dominance. i appreciate the input, naswanji

mr. BRODIAGA

You echo Calculus' counter-point very well...pointing out/elaborating with similar business schemes with regards to rebate cards, etc...thanks. I also think using wallaby's business model will work here...by completely ignoring any deal with SP. I have to thank ENSAM's for germinating that idea. The problem of course, is creating wallaby-like algorithm or setup that will accomplish the same thing for prepaid calling cards.

mr. CALIGULA,

Frack it! on a cursory glance, we are on similar trajectory. You can even use their app with any calling option you have. I can see them taking ideas from this thread and merely adding to their app as upgrade. Where did you get these lads, caligula?


mr. WISCANADA,

Thanks. I will try and avoid getting arrested with a philippino slut for immigration purposes. Perhaps, if i can develop it well enough(the algorithm), i can license the idea/technology to Service Provider or companies like CALIGULA's rebtel. who knows.

--

Again, i appreciate everybody for taking their time to help me sort out the germane from the chaff of this idea. Much appreciated.

--Nemencine.

[Grizzly]

(09-24-2013 08:38 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

(09-23-2013 01:34 AM)calculus Wrote:  

I think this is your downfall: The card-issuer- or service provider- counts on that $.50 going unused. It's pure profit. If they sell the $.50 to you for $.52, they only make two cents. If they simply tell you to fuck off, they keep the whole $.50. Unless I'm missing something.

This pretty much kills the idea. Same thing with gift cards, rebate cards, airmiles and everything else of that sort. The companies are counting on people being dumb/lazy and not using all of them.

(edit). To add to this point, I used to get rebate checks, but last time I requested a rebate I received a prepaid card for $30 even though it's more expensive to issue it than to write a check. Why? Because I would cash the check immediately using my phone app, but with the card, I still have $10 left on it and may forget about it. Even if I don't, chances are I'll spend less than the exact amount and forget about whatever is left.

Issuing rebate cards might be a free or discounted service provided to the merchant by the card issuer--usually either Visa or MC--or some other payment processor like Elavon. Merchants are usually charged a flat rate or percentage of each transaction by their processor, for the convenience of using a card-based payment system instead of cash. Therefore, when you swipe that rebate card somewhere, a cut of the transaction eventually makes its way to Visa or MC. The card costs next to nothing for the issuer to produce.