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UK bill issuers will continue to have access to the largest retail network as part of the suite of digital payment solutions offered by payment specialist allpay Limited, following the group’s contract extension with PayPoint.
allpay has signed a new five-year contract with the retail network and multichannel payments provider building on its 20-year relationship, and as such, it will remain at the heart of allpay’s over-the-counter bill payments offering to more than 800 public and private sector clients.
allpay has become the network’s biggest reseller and in the last year has signed more than 40 new local authority and housing associations – providing citizens with access to nearly 30,000 outlets to pay their bills.
Cash payments now represent just under half of the £6 billion allpay collects for clients annually from more than 60 million transactions.
allpay’s managing director Tony Killeen, said that while the UK’s payment habits were changing, large cross sections of society still prefer to budget and pay bills in cash. In housing and local government, welfare reforms such as Universal Credit and the localisation of council tax benefit has required some people to pay a bill for the first time – with a large proportion in the sector preferring to budget and pay their bills in cash.
Killeen continued: “PayPoint continues to play a key part in our payments offering and with nearly 30,000 UK outlets, provides both choice and convenience to UK bill payers, with most open long hours and seven days a week. As such, the business case for local authorities and housing associations utilising the network through our solution remains a cost-effective way of reducing income collection costs.
“The launch of its new platform, PayPoint One, – which is being rolled out across the country – is a great example of the investment it is making to provide a fast in-store customer experience that meets the demands of modern day consumers.
“We are looking forward to continuing our relationship and continuing to cater for the needs of all bill payers – and our ability to provide access to the PayPoint network is a key part of that.”
Lewis Alcraft, commercial director at PayPoint said: “We’re pleased to be extending our relationship with allpay who remain a key strategic partner for us. We look forward to working with them over the course of the new contract.”
-ENDS-
About allpay Limited
Collecting more than £6bn a year from more than 60 million transactions, allpay Limited is the UK’s leading payment services specialist, offering the widest range of payment collection services. The business is part of allpay Limited, established in 1994, and headquartered in Hereford, with offices in London and Cheltenham.
allpay Limited works with central government departments, social housing, education, credit unions and debt collection agencies, to facilitate the collection and receipt of revenues. It works with 75 per cent of the top 400 housing associations and a third of all local authorities in the UK. The company works with each of its clients to save them money through creating modern payment and card systems that are both cost effective, and convenient for the end consumer. In addition to bill collection, allpay Limited also operates prepaid cards and cashless technologies for a range of sectors.
allpay Limited prepaid solutions
Since conception in 2009, allpay Limited has provided prepaid solutions to a wide number of local authorities, housing associations, charities and financial institutions, working with a number of high profile local authorities across the UK. The firm offers products that meet the needs of clients, from emergency payments to schemes that require an extensive range of functionality and payment solutions, utilising its ‘banking lite’ platform with ID capability. Over the last year, it has issued over 40,000 cards, loaded in excess of £10 million, enabled over 400,000 Point of Sale transactions and provided back to local authorities in recouped funds of £264,000. allpay will continue to provide innovative solutions and expand its presence having successfully gained its e-money license, which will enable it to provide a range of services across the globe.
About allpay Limited Card Services
Since launching in 2008, allpay Card Services has become one of the fastest growing and most trusted brands in plastic card manufacturing, built on a reputation for delivering a bespoke and high-quality service to clients, no matter how small or large the requirement.
Certified by MasterCard® and Visa, allpay Limited produces everything from credit and debit cards for banks and building societies to prepaid, transit and ID cards for a range of industry sectors all over the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
Being one of only two UK based scheme approved card manufacturers, allpay Limited has complete control of the process in-house – from design through to distribution – allowing the firm to respond rapidly to clients’ needs and deliver card programs faster than any other manufacturer.
For more detailed information visit www.allpay.net
About PayPoint
We support market leading national networks across 39,000 convenience stores in the UK and Romania so that our customers are always close to a PayPoint store. In thousands of locations, as well as at home or on the move, people use us to better control their household finances, essential payments and in-store services, like parcels. Our UK network contains more branches than all banks, supermarkets and Post Offices together, putting us at the heart of communities for over 10 million regular weekly customers.
We have a proven track record of decades of tech-led innovation, providing retailers with tools that attract customers into their shops. Our industry-leading payments systems give first class service to the customers of over 1,500 clients – utility companies, retailers, transport firms and mobile phone providers, government and more.
We are on and offline; providing for payments by cash, card including contactless; retail, phone and digital; at home, work and whilst out and about from Land’s End to the highlands and islands – helping to keep modern life moving.
Multichannel payments
We offer clients streamlined consumer payment processing and transaction routing in one, seamlessly integrated solution, through MultiPay. This gives customers the flexibility to pay in the way that best suits them; including mobile app, online, text, phone/IVR and cash in-store.
MultiPay is live with Utilita, a fast growing challenger energy supplier. We have signed several other energy companies, a framework agreement with Procurement for Housing and, significantly, Scottish and Southern Energy, our first Big 6 energy client
Retail networks
In the UK, our network includes over 29,000 local shops including Co-op, Spar, Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express and thousands of independent outlets. These outlets are quick and convenient places to make energy meter prepayments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, TV licences, cash withdrawals and more.
Our Romanian network continues to grow profitably. We have more than 10,200 local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. Our clients include all the major utilities and telcos and many other consumer service companies.
In the UK, our Collect+ network offers parcel collection and return services in nearly 6,000 convenient outlets. Customers use Collect+ for their parcels from major retailers including Amazon, eBay, ASOS, New Look, John Lewis, House of Fraser, M&S and Very. The Collect+ brand is jointly owned with Yodel.
The UK network also includes over 4,200 LINK branded ATMs, and 10,000 of our terminals enable retailers to accept debit, credit and contactless payments, including Apple Pay.
We operate over 3,000 Western Union agencies in the UK and Romania for international and domestic money transfers.