SMS Bill Payment Helps and Tips
Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Getting Started
1. Introduction

The SMS Bill Payment system is specially designed for the purpose of Batelco bill payment.

It allows the customer to get bill information, get payment information and pay the bills via SMS.

This service is dependent on Batelco eServices and only can be used by Batelco Postpaid customers who have a user ID on this site.

New postpaid users can register with Batelco eServices by following the instructions as available on the e-Services site
2. Getting Started
3.1 Register Process
3.1.1 Visit www.batelco.com
3.1.2 Select "e-Services link" in the "LINKS" menu
3.1.3 If you are a new customer, please follow the new user registration link, or if you are an existing user and can’t remember your login ID and password, please click the forgot password link and follow instructions. If you are still facing difficulties please call the Batelco e-Services Helpdesk 17 88 11 11
3.1.4 Once you have logged in the system as you see below, you will see a new link which says "SMS Bill Payment".
3.1.5 Click on the link and you will have a new page that will provide you with information and details on what needs to be done
3.1.6 Click on the new link which says "SMS Bill Payment" and you will see the screen as shown below
3.1.7 The user will need to enter the following details
  1. The primary number has to be the GSM number, which will correspond to the eshop profile, else it will not allow them to proceed to save the profile.

  2. Once that is done the user can add upto 4 other numbers in his/her profile to facilitate SMS Bill Payments. These numbers need not be owned by this user and could be normal GSM or fixed line numbers.

  3. All numbers entered must have "3" for GSM as the prefix and "17" as the prefix for fixed lines.

  4. In the second section, the user will need to enter his/her credit card details which is stored in a safe a secure database with 128bit security keys provided by Verisign.

  5. Once all the necessary information is entered in the system, the user can click on UPDATE PROFILE so that the entered data is updated.
3.1.8 As soon as the data is updated, the user will get an SMS as follows:
Dear Customer, Welcome to Batelco’s SMS Bill Payment Service. Send "q" for bill Inquiry and send "P" for Bill Payment to 4646.
3.2 Inquiry Process
3.2.1 User can type "I" or "q" or "inq" in the SMS message body and send the sms to 4646
3.2.2 The sms will be sent to the Bill Payment by SMS system and it will verify with the system for the GSM number (if it has been registered or not).
3.2.3 If not registered, then the user will get the message as follows:
Please register your profile on the Batelco eServices site to enable SMS Bill Payment. Powered by Batelco
3.2.4 If registered, the user will get the billed amount to all the telephone numbers provided in the profile: For example
Your O/S Amt is: 39421172 – 11.232, 17280175 – 12.111, Send "PAY" to 4646 to pay your bill. Powered by Batelco
3.3 Payment Process:
3.3.1 Full Payment
3.3.1.1 A customer can pay for the entire amount billed to him by just sending "P" the following SMS to 4646
Note that when P is sent, the entire billed amount total of the numbers mentioned in the profile will be paid.
3.3.2 Partial Payment
3.3.2.1 A customer can pay for the partial amounts from the billed amount by just sending following commands:
P 39421172 11 <pay_tel no_amount>, send this to 4646

If the Payment is successful, BD 11 will get credited to the customers account and the balance will show in the billing database.
Note: Partial payments can be done for each circuit individually. No decimal values will be accepted in the system.
3.3.3 3.3.3 Advance Payments
3.3.3.1 A customer can pay an advance for the billed amounts by just sending following commands:
P 39421172 11 <pay_tel no_amount>, send this to 4646.
Note: Advance payments can be done for each circuit individually

Note that when the sms is sent for the payment, based on the transaction being successful or not, the customer will receive an SMS with a reference number which can be used for further investigation.
3.4 Transaction History:
3.4.1 All users are provided with a link for their transaction history and can click to see their transaction details as and when required.
3.5 Errors
The customer will face many errors in the system and some of the important ones are listed below:
3.5.1 If a new customer sends an SMS to 4646 without registering in the Batelco eServices page, he will get the following message:
"Please register your profile on Batekci eServices to enable SMS Bill Payment. Powered by Batelco"
3.5.2 After registering the customer sends a I or a P to process his/her inquiry to system, and doesn’t get a response for a long time, due to delivery delay from the SMSC or the Application Server or the Payment Gateway, the customer will get a timeout message.
3.5.3 Other error messages:
Error Code Error Description
0 Dear, your payment has been successful. Your Ref No is . Pl. preserve this for future ref. Thank you
4 Failed to contact Payment Gateway.
5 There is an internal error, please try agian after a while. Thank You.
14 There is an error in your card, please check with the respective bank and try again later. Thank You.
33 Dear Customer, your card has expired, please contact your relevant bank. Thank You.
36 Your card has been restricted by the bank, please contact the bank for more information. Thank You.
54 Dear Customer, your card has expired, please contact your relevant bank. Thank You.
61 You have exceeded the maximum transaction amount for a day. please try again tomorrow. Thank You.
62 Your card has been restricted by the bank, please contact the bank for more information. Thank You.
77 Your card is not currently a part of this payment network, please contact your bank for more info. Thank You.
1001 Sorry, the SMS Bill Payment system is out of service temporarily. Please try later.
1002 Please register your profile on www.batelco.com on the eServices link to enable SMS Bill Payment.
1003 Invalid Message. Send q for Query and p for Payments.
1004 Telephone No not found in the Profile.
1005 Dear Customer, we were unable to verify the credentials supplied by you. Please contact 17881111 for more information.
1006 Unfortunately your transaction has timed out. However, it has been queued and we will notify you when it has completed successfully.
1007 Your Transaction was NOT COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY. Error Code . Your Ref No is . Call 17881111 for more info
1008 Dear Customer, Welcome to Batelco’s SMS Bill Payment Service. Send q for bill Inquiry and send p for Bill Payment
1009 Sorry, only Postpaid customers can avail this service.
1011 Your total bill amount to pay is 0. Payment cannot be accepted.
1014 Dear Customer, the minimum amount to pay is BD .
1015 Dear Customer, the max amount to pay is BD .