MoneyGram Teams With CellPay to Expand Bill Payment Offering

MoneyGram has partnered with CellPay to expand its payment option to over 30,000 billers.

“This strategic partnership further accelerates both companies’ growth in a highly competitive bill payment arena,” the companies said in a news release Tuesday (Dec. 27). “MoneyGram is efficiently expanding the number of bill payments it processes through its powerful [application programming interface (API)-driven] infrastructure and best-in-class technology.”

In addition, CellPay will offer its customers new options through access to more than 25,000 MoneyGram retail locations in the United States, as well as access to the MoneyGram website and app, the release stated.

CellPay Chairman and CEO Parvez Jasani said in the release that the collaboration “will lead to new revenue streams for both companies and expand MoneyGram’s bill payment footprint to be much larger than its competitors.”

Earlier this year, CellPay joined forces with Klarna to offer Klarna’s “pay-in-4” option to customers purchasing prepaid cellphone minutes from CellPay.

“This is the first time U.S. customers, especially underbanked, will be able to pay for prepaid cellphone minutes over time, allowing them to keep connected with their loved ones with greater flexibility,” CellPay said at the time. “Interest-free [buy now, pay later (BNPL)] is a smarter, fairer alternative to high-interest credit and gives consumers the flexibility and convenience to manage their money and budget.”

The new partnership comes as consumers are seeking an easier way to pay their bills, as PYMNTS research has found.

Our surveys have shown that consumers report they are content with the status quo, but 91% of billing companies get complaints about the inconvenience of their services.

We also found that bill-payers accept the current state of affairs as normal, and 80% are happy with how they currently pay their bills. Nevertheless, 91% of billers reported that their customers complain about billing services, and 34% said that these consumers feel dissatisfied with their payments choice.

Meanwhile, 38% of U.S. bill-payers said they want a one-stop bill payment solution that can simplify their bill payments and cut down on the associated hassles.

Fifty-seven percent of bill-payers said they were at least somewhat interested in moving to a one-stop solution, and more than one-third would be very or extremely interested. Simplified tracking and ease of use lead the list of features that would cause bill payors to move to a one-stop solution, at 54%. Convenience was a close second, at 52%.