PayPoint plc is a British business offering a system for multichannel payments and retail services 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index, also called the FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 250, or, informally, the "Footsie 250" , is a stock market index that consists of the 101st to the 350th mid-cap blue chip companies listed on the London Stock ...

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 ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, the system was expanded to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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. Serving ...

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 An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...

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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

under the brand name, PayByPhone. In May 2014, PayPoint.net and PayByPhone were merged under a single identity, PayPoint Mobile and Online. In March 2024, PayPoint partnered with Lloyds Bank. It was announced that Lloyds Bank would be the main card acquiring partner for PayPoint.

Operations

PayPoint provides multi-channel payment for clients – Open Banking, direct debit, cards and cash. 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 bank accounts, for which Monzo deducts a £1 fee from the deposited amount.

Collect+

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 t ...

. 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+. In February 2024, PayPoint partnered with

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

and its Collect+ service.

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 Companies in the FTSE 250 Index 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1996 Payment systems British companies established in 1996