- Better Local Living campaign shows that cash is king for payments and budgeting -

Cash is booming! That’s the message from the Better Local Living campaign, which reveals today that cash payments are proving more popular than ever in Britain as consumers handle the tough economic climate. In community stores up and down the country, 86% of transactions are in cash¹, up from 56% only one year ago. The Better Local Living campaign is backed by PayPoint, the leading cash and internet payments company, which operates in over  22,000 convenience and community stores in Britain.

The Better Local Living campaign research has also uncovered the following about our cash payment habits:

• 69% of respondents are using cash to make budgeting easier – because they are worried about debt and want to know where they stand on a day-to-day basis
• 12% of people in Britain don’t budget for their household requirements – they just spend as and when
• Although one-third (34%) of 16-24 year olds don’t budget, three-quarters (75%) of those who do rely on cash to help them budget
• The debt message is getting through to young people: one-fifth of 16-24 year olds use cash because they want to avoid getting into debt – more than any other age group
• 1 in 5 25-34 year olds are using cash more than ever before
• 15% more women than men are using cash as part of the way they budget in 2009
• Older people (55+) appear to be the least worried about getting into debt – just 13%

In addition, more than 81% of British consumers think that convenience stores are important in creating community spirit. As a result, the Better Local Living campaign is encouraging people in Britain to make more use of their local community stores.

Other effects of the recession on our behaviour identified by the campaign include:

• Over a quarter (26%) of British shoppers are cooking from scratch at home
• Inviting friends over, instead of going out for meal, has risen by 13%
• Instead of visiting pubs or bars, 16% more British consumers are drinking at home

Peter Brooker, head of corporate affairs at PayPoint, said: “When times are tough, people rely on cash more and need it to help manage their day-to-day spending. At PayPoint, we are firm believers in ‘little and often’ and local community stores are ideal for people to manage their finances in the same way. It’s surprising how many things you can pay ‘little and often’, such as topping up your gas and electricity meters, spreading the costs of your TV licence, mail order purchases and insurance products, saving for Christmas or buying your weekly bus ticket. By enabling the broadest range of payments to be made at your local community store, we hope we can make peoples’ lives that bit easier.”

PayPoint offers a much broader range of cash payment services than ever before, from pre-pay energy meters, utility bill payments, mobile top-up, cash savings plans, prepaid ‘credit’ cards, bus tickets, TV licence, council tax and rent and even school meals through to money transfer and paying for online purchases, giving everyone much greater flexibility over their lifestyle choices, how they opt to use their leisure time and when they do their shopping.

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¹ Source: HIM! Convenience Tracking Programme 2009

Media enquiries:
Tom Nutt/Charlotte Pusey
The Communication Group plc
020 7630 1411/07775 686 706
Tnutt@thecommunicationgroup.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

About the Better Local Living campaign

The Better Local Living Campaign, backed by PayPoint, was launched in July 2009 to encourage consumers to make greater use of their local community store. The campaign has gained support from politicians, charities and consumer organisations who believe that community stores are
fundamental to delivering better communities in Britian.

About PayPoint plc

PayPoint is the leading cash and internet payments company in the UK with operations also in Ireland and Romania. It handles nearly £9 billion from over 540 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants. The company operates several payment networks:

• The PayPoint branded retail network numbers nearly 22,000 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Its terminals process gas and electricity meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, London Congestion Charges, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for most leading utilities, telecommunications suppliers and many consumer service companies

• An ATM network which has over 2,000 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, typically in convenience stores;

• PayPoint.net, an internet payment service provider, delivers secure online credit and debit card payments for over 5,000 web merchants linking into all major UK acquiring banks; and

• Pay Store SRL, trading as PayPoint Romania, a mobile top-up operator with over 5,700 outlets equipped with electronic terminals. A bill payment service has been added to increase the breadth of PayPoint’s offering in Romania, emulating the UK branded retail network.

• Collect+ a joint venture with Home Delivery Network Limited to provide a parcel collection and drop off service at its retailers.

PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 and the company’s market capitalisation at 13 August 2009 was £362 million. PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.