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Comment by jimrandomh | Hacker News Reader

Do premium phone numbers have any remaining legitimate use? The last time I remember hearing about them was in the context of a callback scam, where scammers would call and hang up after one ring so that people would call the caller ID numbers. Actual pay-per-minute phone services seem like a rare special case that would be better served by having people type credit card numbers into the line with their dialpad.

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Not really. The examples mentioned here are very edge case and don't warrant the risk and fraud that this system brings. Big providers love the traffic and can blame things on "international tariffs." Though for all I know, AT&T and so might have deals that require them to terminate all traffic.

In the US it is compounded by the fragmented telco system. You can find numbers in the US that'll pay several cents (some bill up to dozens of cents/minute). This was really heavily abused by things like FreeConferenceCalls or "sexy local chat" lines. It's also used to provide "radio-by-phone" for expats. They'll target a large immigrant population, then play home-town stations over the phone call. This lets people without data use their unlimited-US calling get radio from home without paying directly. Lots of money to be made coming up with ideas like this.

The FCC has ruled this is mandatory and slapped US telcos that blocked such traffic. Though the owners of such numbers now usually mandate that the business be based or have operation in their jurisdiction to avoid running into more challenges.

I remember few car parks that were accepting this payment method. I think it is the most illustrative legitimate use case of premium numbers or the pay-by-call method.

Sometimes used for payment and donations, especially in countries where a lot of people have phones but not credit/debit cards (e.g. Germany)

How do Germans buy things online without credit cards?

Direct Debit (0) mostly through PayPal, bank transfer or invoice.

I need to add though that phone payment is mainly used for sites targeted at kids, sites that normal acquirers don't allow (file sharing) and donations (e.g. text XYZ to 000 to donate 5€). Not usually when ordering stuff from Amazon etc.

(0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_debit

PayPal

Or SofortÜberweisung where you give the login data to your online banking and a TAN to a shady 3rd party company and they perform the wire transfer for you - while sending a confirmation to the merchant that the money has been sent.

No, this is not a joke. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofortüberweisung

I am lucky to know nobody that uses this crap of Sofortüberweisung.

Commonly direct debit, which works overnight inside the EU. Also there is PayPal and other prepaid wallets, and a bunch of scattered other payment systems that amount to faster direct debit, which all have the benefit of being fast enough for digital goods.

And more and more, especially younger, people have credit cards for digital purchases (and travelling).

What about paid phone support?

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