Planning on giving a phone to your grandparents or kids this holiday season, but are scared how much they’ll charge to your bill? Telstra is offering its customers a neat way around adding a credit card to a Google account.
For the first time ever, owners of Google Android smartphones won’t necessarily need a credit card when they join Google’s Play service, with Telstra offering both pre-paid and post-paid customers a way to pay using their account.
“With more than 700,000 games, apps, books, movies and magazines now available on Google Play, many of our customers have told us they would like a simpler way to
buy,” said Freddie Jansen Van Nieuwenhuizen, Telstra’s Director of Consumer Applications and Services.
“So we’ve teamed up with Google to allow our customers to place Google Play purchases of up to $20 per transaction on their Telstra mobile bill. We’re also making it easier for our pre-paid customers to buy apps by letting them use their main account balance to make Google Play purchases provided they have credit available.”
If you have an Android device on Telstra, you can now opt to purchase by billing your Telstra account, just make sure you select the arrow on the right when you’re selecting “Pay with” to select “Bill my Telstra account.”
Post-paid customers are limited to $100 of purchases per month, though this limit can be changed by talking to Telstra.
While we’re fans of not having to use our credit or bank debit cards to buy apps, games, books, magazines, and movies, Telstra’s idea could also be useful for families setting up their kids and grandparents with phones, as you’ll be able to top up a phone’s pre-paid amount and not worry that your credit card is going to be charged severely for app downloading addicts.
