Questions and Answers

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  • When will I receive my payout?
    The payout will be made by the 15th day of the month if the following conditions are met: 1. Payouts have been correctly configured on the Payouts tab. 2. The payout cycle for the respective month and country is completed 3. Revenue to be paid out exceeds 50 EUR.
  • Which payout options does Fortumo support?
    Fortumo supports wire transfers to bank accounts and payouts through PayPal, Webmoney and Moneybookers. The following transactions costs apply to each payout:
    - Paypal: free
    - Moneybookers: 1 EUR
    - Webmoney: 2 EUR
    - Wire transfer to EU country: 1 EUR
    - Wire transfer to a country outside EU: 8 EUR
  • Why the payout cycle is different among countries?
    The time needed to collect the money your services have earned varies by country and operator, and is usually done within several months. The payout is made once the money is received. You can see the length of the payout cycle from the countries page.
  • How is the service's revenue calculated?
    Customers are billed for every successful transaction. End-user price consists of VAT (kept by local tax authority, ~15-20%), mobile operator commission for handling billing and transaction costs (usually 40-60% depending on the country), Fortumo's commission and service's revenue. The share of the service revenue from the price, excluding VAT, can be found on countries page.
  • Why my country is not provided yet? When will it be available?
    We constantly work on expanding our coverage and most probably the country will be connected in the nearest future. If you wish to suggest a particular country, please send us an e-mail to support@fortumo.com and we will do our best to consider your request. In case you are related to local premium connectivity provider and wish to partner with Fortumo, please send your offer to partnership@fortumo.com.
  • The users of my service claim that they have not received a reply message. What should I do?
    First, check if the user has sent the message to the right short code and started the message with the right keyword. If yes, then check your service's settings - is the service still active and the back-end properly set up. If no problems are found, please contact our Customer Support team (support@fortumo.com) explaining the issue, also send us the phone number of the customer with date and time the message was sent. This will help us to investigate the case.
  • When my service will receive operator's approval?
    In some of the countries it’s required to approve every new service with local operators. You will be asked to provide the promotional materials (url of the website, short description and service model), that will be sent to operators. Depending on the country, it may take up to 7 days, but with proper materials provided, new services are usually approved within 24 hours.
  • How to configure my payout?
    Under the "Payouts" tab you can see whether your payout is configured or not. Fortumo supports monthly and one-time payouts to both, private individuals and companies. The minimum payout is 50 EUR (~ 75 USD).
  • Did not find an answer?
    Write to support@fortumo.com and we will answer you as soon as possible.
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General

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  • How much does it cost to create Fortumo services?
    None. There is no setup nor monthly fee and it will always remain so!
  • Do I need to have a permission to create campaigns, lotteries etc via SMS?
    Most marketing campaigns do not require any permissions, but some types of campaigns may be treated as lotteries and require that you follow local law. For example, contests and lotteries are permitted in some countries, yet not in others. There are also restrictions for adult or obscene content, which varies by country. To find out, if your campaign requires permission, please contact the appropriate local institution. You can also review our terms and services for rules and regulations listed by country on our site, for instance on countries page.
  • Is there a difference between a company and a private person to use Fortumo's services?
    In most countries there is no difference. If it's regulated by the local law, private person has to declare earned revenue as his income. In Latvia and Lithuania, only registered entrepreneurs can receive payouts from Fortumo. For VAT registered companies from Estonia, the VAT is also added to the payout.
  • Can mobile payments be used anywhere else except the web?
    Yes. Mobile payments can be used anywhere, online, offline, on mobile handsets and even inside social networks and applications. In addition, many mobile services can be advertised using radio, television and newspapers.
  • Are subscription-based services available via Fortumo?
    Because of the complexity and higher fraud risk, we can not provide subscription-based services as easy as we do it with traditional mobile payments and the work is done on a case by case basis. For additional information regarding subscriptions please contact our Customer Support team at support@fortumo.com.
  • Are MMS or WAP-Push services available via Fortumo?
    Due to technical reasons, the use of MMS and WAP-Push services is not supported at the moment.
  • What's the difference between MO and MT billing?
    "MO and MT billing are the two methods how carriers charge users. With MO-billing (Mobile Originating Billing), the end-user is charged for sending a message, thus the billing status is checked before the request to service backend.
    With MT-billing (Mobile Terminating Billing) operators charge for the reply-message sent back to the user. In this case, users are billed only when they receive the reply-message. If there are not enough funds on the balance, the reply message is not delivered. Please note, that with MT-billing the billing status is checked after the request to service back-end.
    Different operators support different billing methods, for additional information please check the countries page."
  • I don't want to use Fortumo's services anymore. How can I delete my account?
    In Fortumo's web interface, all inactive accounts are deleted automatically. Just delete all your active services and do not to use your account anymore.
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Taxes and payouts

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  • Where can I see my overall revenue?
    You will find the information from the dashboard. On the "Statistics" tab you can view the overall performance of all your services, while on the "My Services" tab, the detailed numbers on every service are available. In addition, "Estimated next payouts" will show the revenue according to the payout cycles.
  • Is Fortumo withholding any taxes from the payments?
    Fortumo isn't withholding any taxes from your revenue, but you might be required to pay income tax of your own country, if you are a private individual.
  • What is BIC / SWIFT?
    To transfer money to your bank account, we need to know your IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identification Code), also known as the SWIFT address of the bank. BIC / SWIFT is 8-letter code that identifies the bank, and it looks like DABADKKK or HABALV22. Usually it can be found on the website of your bank.
  • My "Payable in the future" has decreased. Why?
    The money may decrease when some messages with status "pending" change to "failed". It may happen if the operator fails to deliver the billing report or the end-user refuses to pay the bill.
  • What is an unsuccessful payment?
    Sometimes operators fail to bill the customer. This happens when end-user refuses to pay the bill or there is not enough balance on the pre-paid card. Such transactions are marked as failed and will not be counted as a revenue.
  • What is bad debt?
    When end-users do not pay their phone bill, it is withheld from your revenue as bad debt.
  • I seem to be getting less money than I should. Why?
    Most of the end-user prices include VAT (value added tax) of the particular country (usually between 17-25 percent). It is collected by the local tax authorities and is not paid out to you. Thus, the actual amount shared is the end-user price excluding VAT of the user's country. In addition, some of the payments may be unsuccessful.
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Services

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  • What do "pending", "ok" and "failed" payment statuses mean?
    Status "pending" means the transaction was completed but no information regarding the billing success is yet available. Status "ok" means that the operator has managed to successfully bill the end-user and "failed" means the opposite, end-user was not billed and you will not be paid for this transaction.
  • Why the transaction is "pending" for so long?
    Although for MT countries the billing status is usually available instantly, in some cases it can take some time before it changes to either "ok" or "failed".
  • Can I use my own first keyword?
    Fortumo services are set up with our own pre-determined keywords for you to get started quickly. It is possible to use your own custom keywords, but it usually requires an additional monthly fee. For additional information please contact our customer support team at support@fortumo.com.
  • Is it possible to use a higher end-user price?
    In most cases, mobile operators do not provide higher pricepoints because of the high level of fraud risk. Still, some exceptions are possible on a case by case basis. Please contact our support team for additional information.
  • What happens if the customer does not receive the service? Are error messages billed?
    Unfortunately yes. This is due to the fact that operators charge for receiving and forwarding messages regardless of whether the user has received the service or not. So in case your service is experiencing technical problems or the end-user made a mistake while typing the keywords, an error message will be sent to the customer. In some counries it will be free of charge or with the minimum price.
  • How to test the service without paying for it?
    On the "Test" tab of the service's profile you will find a testing interface for simulating payments.
  • Can a local service be used by customers from other countries?
    No. Service is only available with contract and pre-paid clients of local operators. If you want to provide your service for other countries' citizens you should create a service for those countries separately.
  • Is it possible to use mobile payments with roaming?
    Usually yes, although it's not always guaranteed. Please contact your operator for additional information.
  • Are there any per-user limits for the number of transactions?
    To protect the end-users and at the same time avoid services abuse we have set a limit of 100 messages per phone number, per 30 day period.

    - Due to market regulations, in Denmark the limit is 50 messages.
    - In Latin America countries customers are usually limited to 6 messages per day.
    - In United Kingdom customer is limited to £30 per day. Exceeding amounts will not be billed.

    For restrictions in other countries check the countries page.
  • Is the number of services limited and how to raise the limit?
    One account is allowed to have up to 30 active services. If you reach to services limit, you can raise it by 10 additional services by sending a premium SMS. You will get the exact information through our web interface once you've reached the limit.
  • How long are my services valid?
    Service is valid as far as it receives payments. If during 60 days no payments are received, a notification will be sent to your e-mail. After that you will have 3 days to reactivate your service - you must either send a message to the service yourself or advertise it so the customers will send messages. If no payments are received after that, the service will be stopped and the keyword will become available.
  • Can I also view the phone numbers of the users of my service?
    Yes. To view the phone numbers of the users of your service, click on the service in the "My Services" page and navigate to the "Messages" tab.
  • Why the reply-message is limited to 120 characters, while the usual SMS is limited to 160?
    Our mission is to offer a universal international mobile payment platform. Since there are different messaging standards in most of the countries, we have reduced the limit to make sure that your reply message would always reach your customers. Please not that using non Latin letters may reduce the limit.
  • How to add new countries to my services?
    You can easily add new countries to your existing service in 1-2 minutes. Follow this step-by-step guide:
    1. Click on the service in your Fortumo account
    2. Choose EDIT
    3. You are delivered to a new page, where under title “Adding, modifying and removing countries”, choose MODIFY.
    4. Now you are ready to add new countries.

    Please be aware than when changing price point of your existing service, in some countries the service goes under approval again.
  • How to remove countries from my services?
    You can easily remove countries from your existing service in 1-2 minutes. Follow this step-by-step guide:
    1. Click on the service in your Fortumo account
    2. Choose EDIT
    3. You are delivered to a new page, where under title “Adding, modifying and removing countries”, choose MODIFY.
    4. Now you are ready to remove countries.

    Please be aware than when changing price point of your existing service, in some countries the service goes under approval again.
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Premium SMS API

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