PayPoint plc is a British business offering a system for paying bills in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

History

The PayPoint network was set up in 1996 with the aim of enabling customers to load gas and electricity onto their pre-paid energy meters in cash at their local convenience store. Prepayment meters are intended to help customers to manage energy use, thereby helping the environment, and control their spending, thereby enabling to live within their limited means. Typically about 40% of customers use prepayment meters for their electricity and gas: this percentage has remained roughly constant over the last five years. First tested in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, the system was expanded to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1997 and in 1998,

British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Servi ...

prepayment meter customers were able to charge their Quantum smart cards at PayPoint retailers. Following continued growth and public listing, in 2006, the company became the exclusive cash payment network for the BBC's TV Licence fee. In November 2006 and February 2007, PayPoint acquired online payment service providers Metacharge and SECPay respectively. In September 2010, PayPoint completed the acquisition of Verrus, a pay-by-phone parking payment provider and re-branded in North America and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

under the brand name, PayByPhone. In May 2014, PayPoint.net and PayByPhone were merged under a single identity, PayPoint Mobile and Online. In February 2011, Collect+ a parcel sending and collection service, was launched as a joint venture between PayPoint and

Yodel Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from th ...

. This service is available through almost 6,000 of the PayPoint retail network in the

and allows customers to collect and send packages at their local convenience store. On 6 April 2020, PayPoint announced an agreement with Yodel to take full ownership of Collect+.

Operations

PayPoint allows cash payments at any one of 28,200

PayPoint outlets, 500 in

and 9,000 in

. It also provides multi-channel payment for retailers – desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile, mPOS. In most cases, PayPoint's fees are usually paid by the payee organisation rather than by the payer, the notable exception being deposits into

Monzo Monzo Bank Ltd () is an neobank, online bank based in the United Kingdom. Monzo was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK. Originally operating through a mobile app and a prepaid debit card, in April 2017 ...

bank accounts, for which Monzo deducts a £1 fee from the deposited amount.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Financial services companies of the United Kingdom Payment service providers Companies based in Welwyn Hatfield Financial services companies established in 1996 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1996 Payment systems British companies established in 1996