A phone showing an unexpeected bill on screen chases another phone show a bag of money.Results from a survey commissioned by ACCAN show that 12 per cent of respondents had experienced unexpected third party charges on their mobile phone bills in the last six months. Consumers can opt out of these services by texting ‘STOP’ to SMS notifications they receive from third party providers. However, ACCAN’s survey found that over three quarters (77 per cent) of people who replied ‘STOP’ still had the charge added to their bill. Over a third (36 per cent) of unexpected charges were for $10 or more.

ACCAN questions whether consumer safeguards are working to protect consumers from these unexpected charges on their mobile bills. The industry code controlling third party charges is currently under review, and ACCAN is calling for better protections to be put in place.

To understand more about this issue, download the report and media release below. 

Report

Download: docxMobile third party billing - Consumer experiences and expectations 1.46 MB

Download: pdfMobile third party billing - Consumer experiences and expectations1.71 MB