All you should know about Carrier Billing for Google Play in India

Google quietly rolled out carrier billing for Google Play in India, coming to Idea Cellular subscribers first. Carrier billing has been out for a while in the States mostly, which is supposedly the easiest way to allow users spend on digital content.

It is known to everyone how big the Indian mobile market is, after US and China. Being the second most populous country after China, the digital revolution has hit people here pretty hard and it’s good. Out of 1.25 billion people we have roughly about 125 million smartphone users in the country. Bringing the carrier billing now has been a wise decision but it do have its basic Terms and Conditions involved. Well, we have read all of them and here is what we think you should know before opting for it.

• Customer should own an Android smartphone (d’uh).
• Carrier billing would be only available to the customers of Idea Cellular with major carriers coming soon.
• It’s available for both Pre-Paid and Post-Paid consumers.
• As mentioned on Google Play Help, https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/6394130?p=dcb_taxes&rd=1 Idea customers will be charged an additional 16% convenience fee on purchase of any products from Google Play. This will change to 54% for Idea MP circle customers.
• Idea will apply a default spend limit of 300 and in case customer wants to buy something valued more than 300 bucks he/she should use other supported payment methods. This topic is subject to revision at sole discretion of Idea Cellular.
• Google Play’s refund policy will be applicable for refunds, here as well.
• Idea holds the right to discontinue this service at any time, depending upon its agreement with Google following TRAI rules and regulations.

Google already handles the currency conversion rates but adding another 16% convenience fee might not be a great IDEA. We will definitely try it out once and let you know about the same. For those looking to purchase apps and games for their Android handsets but didn’t have a credit/debit card can definitely make use of carrier billing because it is their only option available. Do let us know what do you think about this big step by Google. We shall discuss this in the comments section below.