Credit Me / Credit U
Credit Me / Credit U
1. What is Credit Me / Credit U?
§ Credit Me / Credit U is a service which allows Digicel subscribers to request and transfer credit from one Digicel phone to another.
2. What is the difference between Credit Me and Credit U?
§ Credit Me allows Digicel prepaid customers to request credit from another Digicel Prepaid or Postpaid customer.
§ Credit U allows Digicel Prepaid or Postpaid customers to transfer credit to Digicel prepaid customers.
3. Are Credit Me and Credit U separate services?
§ Yes. Either can be used independently.
- A Credit Me is sent by prepaid customers wishing to receive funds (i.e. requesting funds).
- The recipient of the Credit Me is not obligated to respond by sending a Credit U. They may use any other available top up methods to honor the request if they wish to.
- A Credit U can be sent unsolicited – e.g. a parent sending a child credit or a grandchild sending a grandparent credit, etc.
- Postpaid customers CANNOT SEND a Credit Me.
§ Customers can request and receive any variable amount greater than or equal to US$2.00.
5. Is there a maximum amount of funds that can be transferred by a Credit U transaction?
§ No. USSD messages do not allow the entry of decimal points. Amounts requested and transferred must be in whole dollars.
7. Are there any criteria that customers need to meet to send a Credit Me?
§ Yes. Only prepaid customers, with balances less than US$3.00, or with expired airtime or service dates are allowed to send Credit Me requests.
8. What are the short codes for the Credit Me and Credit U services?
§ Both Credit Me and Credit U are USSD services, the short codes to use the services are:
o Credit Me: *127#;
Example:
Mary’s prepaid number is 12843418724. She wants to request USD$5.00 from John – John’s number is 12843417865. To request the funds, Mary simply sends the following USSD string to John’s number:
“*127*12843417865*5#”
o Credit U: *128#,
Example:
If John wishes to send the USD$5.00 credit to Mary using Credit U, he will simply send the following USSD string:
“*128*12843418724*5#”
9. Is there a service fee or any other charge for sending a Credit Me?
§ There is no charge and no limit on the number of Credit Me requests.
10. Is there a service fee for sending a Credit U?
§ Yes. The charge is US$0.10 per transfer.
11. Why is there a charge for Credit U?
§ Credit U is a Mobile Commerce Transaction and ALL such transactions incur a service charge to the customer (E.g. Wire Transfer service provided by commercial banks.)
§ This is to also ensure that Digicel is able to cover its costs for providing this service.
12. What are the criteria to send a Credit U?
§ Unlike Credit Me that is limited to Prepaid customers, Credit U can be sent by both Prepaid and Postpaid customers who are not blacklisted from accessing the service. Creditors must meet the criteria of having active accounts (i.e. airtime not expired), with adequate balances / credits on their accounts so as not to have a zero balance or less on the account after the transfer and service fee is deducted, as well as being in the same island group as the recipient of the CreditU transfer.
13. Are customers required to register or be provisioned for the services?
§ All prepaid customers will be automatically provisioned to send Credit Me and Credit U messages.
§ ALL Postpaid customers will be automatically blacklisted (i.e. restricted) from using the Credit Me/ Credit U service. They will need to call in to Customer Care to get the service activated (same as roaming). The customer’s MSISDN will only be removed from the blacklist after the proper verification has been done. This process is being adopted due to the risks associated with fraud and postpaid phones being stolen and the maximum credit amount being transferred to a prepaid account.
14. What does Customer “A” (requestor) get after sending a Credit Me message?
§ Customer “A” (requestor) will receive the following message:
“Your request was sent, you have requested USD $5 from 12843420000”.
§ This allows the requestor to check the number to which the Credit Me was sent. If there was an error, the requestor can send another request.
15. What does Customer “B” (creditor) get when a Credit Me message is sent?
§ Customer “B” (creditor) would receive the following text message:
“12843419999 requests US XX.XX. EC 0.10 fee will be taken from your account. Please type *128*12843419999*X# and press send to agree.
16. How do customers send a Credit U?
§ A customer can send a Credit U by typing the following from a blank screen on the handset:
*128*1areacodenumber*amount to be transferred# SND
17. What are the criteria for sending a Credit U?
§ To send a Credit U, customers must satisfy the following criteria:
1. Must be a Digicel prepaid or postpaid customer;
2. Must have an active account
§ Prepaid (i.e. airtime or service period not expired),
§ Postpaid (i.e. account should not be disconnected due to overdue bills etc.)
3. Must have adequate balance
§ Prepaid – so as not to have a zero balance or less on the account after the transfer and service fee is deducted.
§ Postpaid – account must have adequate available balance to transfer required amount.
18. If a customer enters an incorrect amount or incorrect recipient number, can this be corrected?
§ Yes. A customer attempting to send credit will be given the opportunity to confirm the information submitted. The customer will receive the following confirmation message:
Example: “To send USD 2.00 to 12843418945, USD 0.10 will be taken from your account. From a blank screen, type *128*1# to agree, or*128*2# to cancel. Reply in 10 minutes.”
§ If errors are made, then the customer can cancel using *128*2#, and start over.
19. How will the recipient be notified that credit has been added to their account via Credit U?
§ Recipients will receive the following SMS notification:
o “You have received USD XXX from 1284XXXXXXX. Your current balance is XCD XXX.XX.”
20. How does Credit U affect airtime expiry?
§ Creditor: There is no change in the airtime expiry of the creditor.
§ Recipient: The airtime of recipients is extended using a “lift up” system. The airtime is not extended beyond 14 days. For example, A Credit U transaction is done on September 15, the airtime for the recipient cannot be extended beyond September 29.
Therefore:
· If Recipient “A” is airtime expired then he is given the maximum extension (September 29)
· If Recipient “B” is not yet expired but will expire before the maximum extension date (e.g. September 20), he will be given additional days (in this case 2 days) so that his airtime will expire on the maximum extension date (September 29)
· If Recipient “C” is not yet expired but will expire on a date beyond the maximum extension date (e.g. October 1st) his airtime will remain unchanged.
21. Will Credit Me and Credit U work while roaming?
§ Credit Me / Credit U are USSD based services. They will work once the roaming network/s support USSD services.
22. Will customers be able to transfer funds to and from Digicel customers in other islands?
23. Can I bar someone from sending me a Credit Me request?
§ No. As with Call Me, barring will not be available.
24. Are customers’ balances accessible to creditors (either before or after a Credit U transfer)?
§ No. Privacy of customers is observed at all times.
25. What will happen in cases where credit is transferred to accounts that are at their maximum allowed balances?
§ As per a normal top up, the transfer is considered successful and the procedure for storing the excess funds and transferring them at later periods is actioned.
26. Will Digicel refund customers who claim that someone accessed their phones and transferred credit from it?
§ No. Customers are responsible for securing their handsets and will be responsible for all activities generated from the handset.
In the event of theft, the existing procedures apply and once reported to Customer Care, service will be de-activated.
27. What happens if a customer does not have adequate funds to complete the transfer?
§ The customer is issued an error message:
o “Your attempt to transfer USD xxx to 1284xxxxxxx has failed because you do not have enough credit. Please add credit to your account and try again.”
