Overview

Overview

Use Charge to Bill to allow your customers to pay for content using their Vodacom account.

The Vodacom Charge To Bill API creates value for content partners and Vodacom customers alike. Using Charge To Bill as a payment method allows for Vodacom customers to purchase premium content using their Vodacom account.

This opens a wider audience to content partners looking to provide services across all customer segments without the barrier of requiring access to a credit card or concerns over the safety and security of sharing banking details to third party sites.

Content partners looking to make use of the Charge To Bill API simply need to register on the Vodacom API Pulse portal and begin the proposal process. If your proposal is accepted, you can start the onboarding process, where after you will be able to consume the Charge To Bill API.

What is it?

What is it

Charge to Bill provides you with the capability to offer a customer the option of using their Vodacom account as a payment option for premium content services.

It has a secured acquisition flow with a network initiated (NI) OPT IN page and anti-fraud solution, ensuring that acquisition traffic on the platform is verified.

Why use it?


Why use it
  • Simplified integration and faster time to market. Charge to Bill on API Pulse provides you with a simple, efficient way of integrating your content on Vodacom’s billing platform. API Pulse automates the integration process and enables you to have access to your proposal status, contract status and integration progress on the API Pulse portal dashboard.
  • Straightforward, secure billing for end users. Charge to Bill enables a billing channel that does not require customers to use their credit card or enter personal information to purchase or subscribe to your content.
  • Decreasing billing administration for business partners. Charge to Bill offers the flexibility to charge for in-app once off purchases or for subscription services. Payments are fully managed by Vodacom, therefore decreasing billing administration for business partners.
  • Fraud prevention. Charge to Bill protects end users from fraud by offering a network initiated (NI) OPT IN page and anti-fraud solution on the your payment page. This offers end users a secure payment environment, and in turn peace of mind, which allows for higher service uptake, as fraud can be a barrier to consumption. Further to this, these security measures decrease customer complaints that affect business partner reputation and Vodacom manages the security of the acquisition flow.

How does it work?

How does it work

The Charge to Bill API is a simple way to integrate your content onto the Vodacom billing platform.

It allows any application or program type (web, desktop and mobile) to integrate with us via the Internet.

The APIs are invisible to the end user and provides a simple solution allowing you to set everything up from one place.


The Charge to Bill API is implemented in three easy steps:

Step 1

Submit your
proposal

Submit a Charge to Bill proposal to Vodacom and begin the onboarding process

Step 2

Set up your
application

Implement the Charge to Bill API within your app.

Step 3

Receive once off and
subscription payments

Allow your customers to pay for your content on a once off subscription basis

Try it out

Check out the methods to test this API by clicking on the “Documentation” tab to get started.
To begin using our APIs in your app, create a free API Pulse account by clicking Register below.

Test API Operations in Postman

View the steps required to test the API operations in Postman using the Postman Collections

Download Postman Collection
  1. Download the Postman Collection
  2. Open the file in Postman
  3. Generate an Access Token
  4. Enable Authorisation in Postman
  5. Start Testing the APIs

1. Download the Postman Collection

Click the Download Postman button at the top of the Documentation page of the relevant product to download the Postman Collection.

A zipped JSON file will be downloaded on to your computer that contains the Postman Collection. Unzip the file and save the contents in a convenient location.

2. Open the file in Postman

Open Postman on your computer and import the JSON file by following these steps:

  1. In Postman, click File > Import
  2. Remaining in the File tab, click Upload Files
  3. Navigate to where you saved the Postman Collection. Select the file and click Open
  4. You will now see a new Collection has been created in your left menu. Click the dropdown arrow to view all the available operations. The Headers, Body and URL will be prepopulated with the required information.

    3. Generate an Access Token

    OAuth 2.0 is an open standard for authorisation and it is used to provide your applications with secure delegated access. OAuth 2.0 works over HTTP and authorises devices, APIs, servers and applications with access tokens rather than credentials.

    Before testing the API you will need to set the authorisation by following these steps:

    1. In Postman, select the OAuth method in the left panel
    2. All necessary fields should be populated for you
    3. Click Send and you should receive a 200 success response
    4. You will see your access token in the access_token key of the JSON object received in the response, as seen in the image below
    5. Copy the access token to authorise your requests

    Please note, the access tokens in the sandbox environments are valid for 24 hours, after which you will have to generate a new access token below to continue testing.

    4. Enable Authorisation in Postman

    You can now use the access token to authorise your requests by following these steps:

    1. In Postman, select the API method you want to test in the left panel
    2. Click the Authorization tab
    3. Paste the copied access token you generated in step 3 in the Token field
    4. Your request will now be authorised

    5. Start Testing the APIs

    You are now ready to begin testing the API methods.

    View the response error details below to understand potential reasons why your request may be failing.

    HTTP Code Description
    401 Invalid or Expired Excess Token
    404 Unauthorized, Failed to Resolve the Request
    429 Rate Limit has been exhausted
    500 Failed to establish the backend connectivity