PayPoint has secured a 5-year contract with Go North East, part of the Go Ahead Group, to provide transport ticketing services throughout the North East region.

From the 1st of April 2007, 7 and 28 day Regionwide and Tyne and Wear Go’n’Save tickets will be available from over 450 PayPoint outlets throughout the region.

Mark Astbury PayPoint’s sales and marketing director commented: “PayPoint offers a convenient solution to people who use public transport and want to buy their tickets ahead of travel time or when they’re doing their shopping. They can also take advantage of all other services PayPoint offers while buying their ticket.”

Stephen King, pricing and ticketing manager at Go North East, added: “The PayPoint system will significantly improve our service to customers by offering more options and greater flexibility for buying tickets. Our customers can now buy their bus ticket at the same time as buying their groceries, they may even already use PayPoint’s services to pay bills or top-up mobile phones.”

As a result of this change, Go'n'Save Bus Cards will no longer be available from local Post Offices from 1st April 2007.

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

Notes to Editors:

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.

Go North East Media Enquiries

Andy Burns or Martin Harris at Go North East on 0191 422 9205 or 0191 422 9297