Exclusive UK consumer research uncovers 3 opportunities for telcos in modern A2A

No industry fights harder to win new customers than telecos. Yet manual onboarding and direct debit registration failures are quietly killing acquisition—turning costly wins into lost subscribers before the first bill is even paid.

Trustly, in partnership with Appinio, surveyed UK consumers to understand how they want to pay recurring bills and where the current process goes wrong. The findings reveal a stark truth: outdated onboarding and legacy direct debit flows are quietly undermining customer acquisition, loyalty, and revenue. The findings reveal just how much friction exists in the current process:

• 21% of UK consumers have failed a direct debit setup due to data entry mistakes. Younger users, who are more likely to sign up on mobile, are especially vulnerable.
  
  
• More than half of consumers admit to abandoning a signup entirely due to complexity—an issue that increases with income level, where affluent users are least patient.
  
  
• Sign-up is widely perceived as too slow. Consumers are used to one-click e-commerce checkouts taking under a minute, but telco onboarding often drags on with multiple steps and re-entries of data.
  
  
• 19% of UK consumers believe they’ve been incorrectly failed by affordability checks, with younger applicants disproportionately affected.
  
  

For telcos, every one of these frictions comes at a cost:

• Failed direct debits mean the relationship never begins, despite heavy marketing spend and sales effort already sunk.
  
  
• Abandoned sign-ups mean customers who should have been won instead choose a competitor.
  
  
• Slow and fragmented onboarding drives drop-offs at the final hurdle, eroding growth before contracts even start.
  
  
• Fraudulent accounts don’t just erode revenue; they trigger chargebacks, cause device losses, and damage reputation when genuine customers are wrongly declined.

As one consumer put it:

“It is probably the setting up of the direct debit. If this could be automated in some way, then it would speed up the process and remove the risk of the applicant entering incorrect information.”

This is the moment where telcos either secure a new lifetime relationship—or lose it.

Why modern A2A is the game-changer

Traditional direct debit was built for a paper-first era. Today’s digital-first telco landscape demands something faster, simpler, and smarter.

Modern account-to-account (A2A) payments, powered by Open Banking data, reset the model:

• Pre-filled payment authorisations eliminate manual entry, reducing one of the primary causes of setup failure.
  
  
• Seamless, single flows that unify recurring payment setup and payment acceptance, reducing drop-off caused by fragmented steps.
  
  
• Real-time account intelligence that verifies account ownership, funds availability, and affordability—at the exact moment of onboarding.
  
  

For telcos, that translates into three concrete wins:

• Higher conversion
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• Lower fraud
  

• Happier customers
  

Opportunity 1: Increase conversion with seamless onboarding

Direct debit registration is still one of the biggest conversion killers. Too many sign-ups fail because customers are forced to manually enter bank details—a process that’s slow, error-prone, and especially unforgiving on mobile devices.

In telecos, every failed setup isn’t just a lost payment method—it’s a lost subscriber, a wasted acquisition cost, and often a customer won by a competitor instead.

Modern A2A enables pre-filled payment authorisations, pulling bank details securely and instantly from the customer’s account. Instead of typing in sort codes and account numbers, customers simply confirm.

Outcome: Higher signup completion rates, stronger customer acquisition, and a smooth first impression that makes new subscribers less likely to churn.

Opportunity 2: Streamline setup and build loyalty

Telco onboarding often splits payment acceptance and recurring setup into multiple steps, slowing the process and creating frustration. Consumers notice the drag: sign-up is widely seen as taking far too long compared to the one-minute standard of e-commerce, and 59% say they’d be more likely to complete sign-up if data entry were automated. For affluent customers—the least loyal segment—these inefficiencies are deal-breakers.

The cost isn’t just lost signups. Fragmented flows increase errors, trigger more failed registrations, and drive support calls that inflate operational costs.

Modern A2A integrates payment and setup into a single, cohesive flow. Customers authorise their recurring payments and confirm their first transaction in one seamless step.

Outcome: Faster onboarding, fewer abandoned signups, lower support costs, and a user experience aligned with what consumers already expect from digital-first brands.

Opportunity 3: Reduce fraud and protect revenue

Fraudulent signups—particularly on high-value smartphone contracts—drain revenues and erode trust. Traditional credit checks are blunt tools: 19% of UK consumers believe they’ve been incorrectly failed by affordability checks, with younger applicants disproportionately affected.

The result? Lost revenue, unnecessary false declines, reputational damage, and additional costs from chargebacks, lost devices, and compliance exposure.

Modern A2A embeds real-time account verification and affordability checks into the payment flow. This allows telcos to instantly confirm account ownership and eligibility—letting genuine customers through while blocking fraud at the source.

Outcome: Lower fraud losses, stronger account security, fewer false declines, and the confidence to onboard more legitimate customers without additional barriers.

The future of telco payments—will you lead?

Direct Debit still dominates UK bill payments—63% of consumers call it their top choice, and 64% use it for recurring bills. But consumer expectations are shifting fast.

• 58% say they’d be open to using Pay by Bank for their first handset purchase.
  
  
• Younger audiences actively demand automation and convenience, and affluent segments—the least loyal—say they’re far more likely to switch providers if onboarding were simpler and automated.
  
  

Modern A2A closes this gap. It makes onboarding fast, secure, and seamless—turning what has long been telcos’ weakest point into a powerful driver of growth and loyalty.

The question is no longer whether the opportunity exists. It’s whether your telco will seize it—or let your competitors do it first.

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