PayPoint
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| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | LSE: PAY |
| Industry | Payment systems |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Welwyn Garden City, UK |
| Key people | David Newlands, (Chairman) Dominic Taylor, (CEO) |
| Revenue | £193.2 million (2010) |
| Operating income | £36.1 million (2010) |
| Net income | £23.9 million (2010) |
| Employees | 549 |
| Website | www.paypoint.com |
PayPoint plc is a British business offering a system for paying bills in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a former constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
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[edit] History
The PayPoint network was set up in 1996 providing a convenient place for customers to pay towards a limited range of utility companies' payment schemes: it was first tested in Northern Ireland[1] The Company launched its system to the media in 1997.[1] In 1998 the system was first offered to British Gas plc customers wanting to pay their bills; in 2000 it was also offered to Vodafone customers and in 2001 it was extended to Scottish Power, Manweb and Orange customers.[1] The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2004.[2] The system was first extended to TV Licences in 2006.[1]
In November 2006 and February 2007 PayPoint acquired internet payment service providers Metacharge[3] and SECPay,[4] respectively. These ventures were merged and rebranded as PayPoint.net, providing a secure debit and credit card payment system for web-merchants, in July 2008.[5]
[edit] Operations
The Company provides the following services:[6]
- It allows customers to make cash payments at any one of its 20,750 PayPoint outlets (in the UK) to settle their gas, electricity or water bills, or to pay for their TV licence, Council Tax or London congestion charge or to top-up pay-as-you-go mobile phones.
- Shop Direct is one of the mail order companies that use the system to allow nominated convenience shops to scan-in goods for return to them by courier at the mail order company's expense, using a posted or emailed label with a PayPoint bar code. The scheme is managed by Collect+ who also allow the public to buy bar-code labels for courier delivery of parcels between network shops.
- It allows customers to make cash payments to re-charge their gas or electricity keys and then use those keys in place of coin-based electricity meters
- It operates in-store ATMs connected to the LINK network
- It operates in-store credit/debit card processing facilities with Chip and PIN compliance.
[edit] Competitors
Rivals to PayPoint include the Post Office Ltd (in the UK), Payzone and An Post's PostPoint network (in Ireland) all of which offer similar services.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d PayPoint: History
- ^ PayPoint IPO fits the bill Investors Chronicle, September 2004
- ^ "Paypoint buys internet payment provider Metacharge for 8.4 mln stg". Forbes.com. 1 November 2006. http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/11/01/afx3136105.html. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
- ^ "PayPoint acquires SECPay Limited". 24dash.com. 26 February 2007. http://www.24dash.com/news/Central_Government/2007-02-26-PayPoint-acquires-SECPay-Limited. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
- ^ Customers benefit from Comodo PayPoint.net Agreement Hostplus, 31 December 2008
- ^ PayPoint: What can I pay?
