How Rebtel revolutionised international calling with Adyen

As one of the first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions in the market, Rebtel grew fast. And as smartphones became increasingly mainstream, they adapted. In 2009, Rebtel began to focus on delivering a mobile-first approach and released an app. 
 
But their payment providers weren’t up to the challenge. It was a struggle to adapt the web-based checkout at a time when responsive design was yet to have its breakthrough.
 
“On top of the technical challenges we had some real issues with downtime. This affected our users. And the last piece that pushed us to look for a new provider was pricing,” says Johan Persson.

Rebtel wanted a payments partner that could support their 'mobile-first' direction globally. 

“Global migration is a 21st-century reality. For us, it’s important to offer a calling solution that lets people stay in touch no matter where they are from.” says Johan. Users can upload credit onto the app and make calls over 3G/4G, wifi, or local phone lines – meaning no internet connection is necessary. 

Partnering with Adyen gave Rebtel an all-in-one solution for continued expansion. Being able to offer key payment methods such as Giropay in Germany, iDEAL in the Netherlands, and UnionPay opened Rebtel up to more traffic in local markets. 
 
“Our main markets, such as the US, are predominantly card-based. Recurring payments such as subscriptions and automatic refills are crucial for our business model. In Europe though, the payment landscape is different. Local payment methods are often preferred. Out-of-the-box support for these methods, and more, is a huge benefit with Adyen.”

“We have built our product around a transparent pricing system. We pride ourselves in a lack of hidden fees. But as a customer, we kept getting stuck in constant negotiations regarding price point for the blend price – too high for European payments and too low for US – but never right.  So when we looked for a new provider, transparent pricing was high on our wishlist." 

Adyen’s uses Interchange++ pricing, which offers a clear and consistent model. Based on where the transaction takes place, the payment method that’s used, and a small markup, it’s easy to calculate the cost. 

“Adyen was the first provider to offer Interchange++ pricing to us and it was clearly what we were looking for. For payments made through Visa and Mastercard, Interchange++ offers more transparency by showing a more detailed breakdown of costs,” says Johan. 

One of the main conversion challenges Rebtel face is getting users to download the app. Once a user has downloaded the app and entered their payment method, Adyen tokenises the information. This allows for one-click payments and a seamless experience. This enables subscriptions, payments over Interactive Voice Response, and automatic refills. 

“The solution for encrypting sensitive card data in our app and web to skip redirects and styling issues is great, but this is only the front end of the solution. The data returned after a payment has high resolution too. Adyen has introduced several innovative ways of working with conversion optimisation,” says Johan. 
 
One of the ways this benefits Rebtel is conversion hacking. Rebtel’s sales representatives – or  ‘activists’ as they’re called – find potential users at key locations. They then help them to download the app and to set up their payment methods. The rest is simple. The next time they use the service or top up their account online, their card is saved and payment is only a click away.

Rebtel uses Adyen's risk management solution. 

“It is a better tool than what we had before. It provides easy-to-configure rules and great visualisations. Currently, we’re working together with Adyen’s risk team to optimise our conversions with the help of their machine learning engine. In this context, I’d also like to mention the TC40s, a fraud indicator sent by the issuers and forwarded to us by Adyen – this offers a way to act before disputes and chargebacks arrive – highly recommended!”

Our risk management solution works by letting each company design a framework which looks out for the type of fraud they’re most often subjected to. It requires minimal manual intervention. This way, companies like Rebtel can focus on what they do best – sell their products and services – knowing that they will be alerted if something is out of the ordinary.

Rebtel use Adyen as a payment gateway, acquirer, and risk management system globally. And with 17 local offices around the globe, we can support Rebtel with their business in all of their key markets. 
 
“After being a customer of Adyen for more than four years, what really stands out is the close relationship with the key account and technical teams. We also appreciate the meetups with other businesses and the general updates about what’s happening in the payments world.”