PayPoint is delighted to announce an exclusive partnership with the Argos Christmas Club, which will give customers a convenient, safe and secure way to save for the 2007 festive period.

The new scheme will launch in 100 Argos stores across Greater Manchester, the North West and North East of England on 28th March 2007. Customers can pick up a registration leaflet from any of these stores and send the completed form to Argos. Each customer will then receive a Christmas Club card with which savings payments can be made at any participating PayPoint outlets in convenience stores, newsagents, supermarkets and petrol stations across the country.

The first savings payment of £5 or over earns the customer a one-off £1 bonus. Thereafter, if a customer makes savings payments of £25 or more with their card each calendar month, they earn a £1 bonus, and if £250 has been saved by the closing date (31st October 2007), £5 will be added to their Christmas Club card. Maximum bonus is £13.

Once their savings are complete, customers can make their purchases at any Argos store across the UK, using their Christmas Club card, from 11 November 2007.

PayPoint agents will earn 1% uncapped commission on the value of savings payments made.

Mike Igoe, PayPoint’s Retail Director commented: “PayPoint is delighted to be an exclusive partner with the Argos Christmas Club and on a wider scale, part of a scheme that offers consumers a trustworthy option for Christmas saving. It also has the possibility to be a success story for the PayPoint retailer, as it’s a much-needed service that could help drive footfall in stores.”

Sara Weller, managing director at Argos, said: “As the number one gift retailer for Christmas and the number one redeemer of existing multi-retail vouchers, Argos is by far the most obvious retailer to offer customers the best Christmas savings club on the market. Working with PayPoint offers customers the most convenient way to pay in their savings and, as Argos is one of the high street’s most trusted retailers, we are ideally placed to ensure maximum security of our customer’s savings.” 

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Enquiries:
PayPoint Press Office
Helen Crossley and Kate Simpson
020 7553 4111
Helen.crossley@mischiefpr.com / kate.simpson@mischiefpr.com

Notes to Editor:
PayPoint is the UK’s and Ireland’s leading cash and internet payments company, handling over £4 billion in over 360 million payments annually for over 5,000 clients and merchants. The company operates with several significant payment streams:

• The PayPoint branded retail network numbers over 17,500 terminals located in local shops (including Co-ops, Spar, Costcutter, NISA-Today’s, Londis and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Terminals handle cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, London Congestion Charges, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for all of the leading utilities, telecoms suppliers and many consumer service companies. This network is used by consumers, free of charge, over 7 million times a week. The network has 97.3% population cover on a 1 mile urban or 5 miles rural measure;
• Additional multiple retailer connections into the electronic till systems (EPoS) of 3,000 outlets including BP, Somerfield and Superdrug for mobile top ups and selected payments from the PayPoint range;
• The PayPoint ATM network has 1850 ‘LINK’-branded machines across the UK, also typically in convenience stores. These machines levy a small convenience fee for each withdrawal; and
• PayPoint Internet Payment Services, trading as Metacharge and SECPay, provides secure credit and debit card payments for over 4,000 web merchants linking into all the major UK acquiring banks.

PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 and was the Financial Times ‘New Company of the Year’.  The company has a market capitalisation of c. £375 million. In year ended March 2006, revenue was £120 million with profit before tax of £20 million. PayPoint has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.

About Argos
Argos is a unique catalogue retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It sells general merchandise and products for the home from 680 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the telephone. In the last financial year, Argos sales topped £3.8 billion. Argos serves over 130 million customers a year through its stores and takes four million customer orders either online or over the phone. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time.  Argos expects to add around 30 stores per annum with the chain expected to exceed 800 over time. Its internet site, www.argos.co.uk, is the second most visited internet retail site in the UK.  Argos is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.