Fund-raisers and generous shoppers up and down the country will be able to make donations in cash to BBC Children in Need at more than 22,000 local neighbourhood stores with PayPoint, the UK’s leading branded payments network, right up the 10.00pm or even 11.00pm on the night of the Appeal Show on 19 November.

Peter Brooker, Head of Corporate Affairs at PayPoint, said: “Although donations can be made online, on the phone and at banks, post offices and building societies, this initiative doubles the number of places people can donate in cash.

“It also makes it much easier and more convenient for people to donate funds raised on events during the day or just because they want to. Many people decide they want to make a donation on the night of the Appeal Show and they can now do so in cash until late in the evening at their local PayPoint outlet. This is because PayPoint shops have such long opening hours and are very often much closer to where they live – their local neighbourhood store.

“Hopefully, this will mean that even more money will be raised for BBC Children in Need this year.”

Donations can be made at any PayPoint outlet. There is no charge for making any payments or donations at PayPoints or to BBC Children in Need for the facility. The BBC Children in Need Appeal Show takes place on Friday, 19 November.

The PayPoint network is located in thousands of independent retailers as well as the Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Nisa and Londis chains throughout the UK, and can be identified by the distinctive yellow and purple sign. Anyone looking for their nearest PayPoint outlet can find it at http://www.paypoint.co.uk/locator.aspx.

– Ends –

Enquiries:
PayPoint Press Office
Robin Granger / Katie Buckett
Brands2Life
020 7592 1200 / 07940 422 931 / 07832 286400
PayPoint@Brands2Life.com

Peter Brooker
Head of Corporate Affairs
PayPoint
01707 600356 / 07900 418960
peterbrooker@paypoint.co.uk

ABOUT PAYPOINT

PayPoint is a leading specialist payments company with operations in the UK, Ireland, Romania, France, USA and Canada. It handles over £9.5 billion from over 550 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants.

PayPoint processes consumer payments across a wide variety of markets (energy pre and post-payment, telecoms, housing, water, transport, e-commerce, parking and gaming) through its retail networks, internet and mobile phone channels:

Retail networks
The PayPoint branded retail network in the UK numbers over 22,000 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents). Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel, formerly Home Delivery Network Limited, provides a parcel collection and drop off service at more than 3,400 PayPoint retailers. Its ATM network numbers
more than 2,300 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, mainly in the same sites as PayPoint terminals.

In Romania, the branded retail network numbers over 4,800 terminals located in local shops, processing cash bill payments for utilities and mobile phone top-ups. In Ireland, over 500 outlets in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.

Internet
PayPoint.net is an internet payment service provider linking into all major UK acquiring banks to deliver secure online credit and debit card payments for over 5,600 web merchants. It offers a comprehensive set of products ranging from a transaction gateway through to a bureau service and FraudGuard, an advanced service to mitigate the risk of fraud.

PayByPhone
PayByPhone is a leading international provider of services to parking authorities allowing consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for their parking by credit or debit card. It has contracts in the UK, France, Canada and the USA.

PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004. It is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.