Mastercard introduces Bill Qkr for global digital bill payments

The new platform is designed to offer a comprehensive, card-based payment option to improve the customer experience, allowing for faster, more secure bill transactions. Partners including 2C2P, AXS, CardUp, Curacel, and FitBank will be among the first to deploy the service, which facilitates various payment types and supports both recurring and one-time transactions. 

According to the official press release, digital bill payments have become increasingly common, with approximately 89% of consumers either currently using or planning to use digital tools to pay for services such as utilities, insurance, and telecommunications. Despite this, users face ongoing challenges, including a limited ability to pay by card, complex interfaces, and security concerns. Bill Qkr aims to address these issues by providing a reliable and user-friendly bill payment platform.

Addressing pain points in bill payments

Bill Qkr’s capabilities are designed to resolve common billing issues through a series of specialised features: 

• Tokenization allows cards to be securely stored on merchant websites for seamless recurring payments. 
• Automatic Updates replace expired card details with new tokens, reducing the chance of failed transactions. 
• Recurring Invoice Submission for fixed payments like monthly insurance helps streamline the billing process. 
• QR Codes and Click-to-Pay features simplify the payment process, allowing customers to quickly pay variable bills. 
• Guest Checkout enables one-time payments without requiring account creation, making online transactions more accessible. 

Additionally, the solution integrates Mastercard’s Click-to-Pay technology for ease and provides automatic tools for transaction approval to reduce the frequency of payment declines. 

Partner companies across various regions are leveraging Bill Qkr to expand digital payment acceptance. In Thailand, 2C2P will incorporate Bill Qkr into its easyBills+ platform, allowing users to make recurring card payments easily.  

AXS in Singapore is set to automate recurring payments on its mobile app, while CardUp (a Funding Societies subsidiary) will use Mastercard’s recurring payment capabilities for uncarded verticals in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Curacel in Africa and FitBank in Latin America are both incorporating Bill Qkr’s tokenization and secure card-on-file features to facilitate digital payment acceptance across diverse sectors.