New gas prepayment service now available throughout UK

UK householders who prefer to purchase gas by prepayment now have a choice of systems, thanks to an agreement between Landis+Gyr and PayPoint.  The agreement has created the first new gas prepayment service in the UK since the launch of the Quantum system in 1992 and the two companies expect gas suppliers to quickly offer it to their customers.

The system is based on Landis+Gyr’s Libra100 gas prepayment meter and a simple and low cost memory smart card through which customers can buy gas units at any of the 11,000 retail agencies operated by PayPoint throughout the UK.

The system is a pay-as-you-go method and complements rather than competes with the UK’s existing Quantum gas prepayment system. Quantum is effective in helping customers to repay debt and  allows  gas suppliers to set individual credit arrangements.  Landis+Gyr and PayPoint expect the new system to attract gas customers who, whilst not in debt, want complete control over their use of gas and find prepayment a helpful way to budget. Landis+Gyr also expects the Libra100 meter to be widely installed in properties used for short-term lets. In all, it believes there is a potential market in the UK of around 1 million customers, many of whom will be completely new to prepayment but will choose this method because of its flexibility.

Phoenix Natural Gas has already run a successful trial of the new system in central Belfast with 400 subscribing customers and is now managing a full roll out in the Greater Belfast area.  It plans to install 6,000 additional Libra100 meters in homes in the area during 2004 and a further 7,000 in 2005. Phoenix has branded the system PayEasy and other gas suppliers will be able to create an individual brand offer for their own customers.

PayPoint operates a popular and accessible network of over 11,000 point-of-sale terminals located in convenient local retailers throughout the UK, which offer customers free of charge cash payment for a wide range of services including utilities, telecoms, cable, mobile top ups and local authority council taxes and rents. Buying gas by charging the new meter will follow the same popular approach.

Gas cards are meter-specific which is a useful safeguard if they are lost or stolen.

“We are delighted that our arrangement with PayPoint introduces a new method of gas purchase to the UK,” says Landis+Gyr’s UK Chief Executive, Chris Beadsworth. “Prepayment is already the way that over 2 million people in the UK buy gas and we are pleased to offer a complementary, but simpler pay-as-you-go alternative,” he added.

PayPoint’s managing director, Dominic Taylor, said, “It is fitting that as the UK’s leading payments network, PayPoint was chosen by Landis+Gyr to provide the retail solution for the most significant new development in gas pre-payment over the last ten years. The new scheme is an ideal complement to the already wide range of household and other payments that can be made at PayPoint outlets.”

PayPoint Ltd
PayPoint is the UK’s leading branded network for cash payments, collecting payments for the congestion charge, most utilities and a quarter of all mobile phone electronic top-up payments in the UK.

PayPoint now handles more than four million transactions each week at over 11,000 stores in the UK, handling a total of more than £2 billion each year. The service is free to customers. 17% of the UK adult population do not have a current account, combining this statistic with the number of young prepay mobile users who do not use a current bank account, signals a surge in future transactions through PayPoint.

For further information, contact:
Peter Binns, Marketing Manager, PayPoint Network Limited
tel: (01707) 600324
www.paypoint.co.uk