With Christmas rapidly approaching, most of us are understandably preoccupied with last minute preparations, but thankfully, there is one less thing to worry about, should you run short of energy at the crucial moment. The majority of PayPoint shops will be open during the festive period, allowing people up and down the country to top up their gas and electricity prepayment meters.

“No heating and a raw turkey are a sure-fire way to ruin your Christmas celebrations,” says Seamus Smith of PayPoint. “However, if you run out of gas or electricity, the big day doesn’t have to end in disaster. You’ll still be able to top up at many of the 23,500 PayPoint retailers in local newsagents, corner shops and convenience stores over Christmas and New Year when most other shops will be closed.

“Last year, there were 4.3 million gas and electricity meter top-ups at PayPoint over the Christmas and New Year Holidays, and 154,000 of those were on Christmas Day itself. The stores were particularly busy because Christmas fell over a weekend and other stores were closed.”

The majority of the 23,500 local neighbourhood shops in the PayPoint network around the country will be open over the bank holidays, with almost half open on Christmas Day. So people will still be able to top up with gas and electricity, load up their mobile phones and spend their Christmas money online using prepaid cards and e-money vouchers by going to their local PayPoint.

In addition, because, PayPoints are mostly in local convenience stores, including garage forecourts and newsagents, they are usually open from early morning until late evening.

“With our nationwide network, almost everyone has a handy PayPoint which will be open when other places they might usually use will be closed. PayPoint retailers are at the heart of their communities, providing a local service to their customers when no-one else is there for them,” adds Seamus Smith.

PayPoint outlets are identified by the distinctive yellow and blue PayPoint logo outside the shops – you can use any of them to make your payments – and if the shop you usually use is closed, you can find another close by at http://www.paypoint.com/locator.aspx.

Ends….
Enquiries:
PayPoint Press Office
01707 600356
peterbrooker@paypoint.co.uk

Robin Granger / Katie Buckett
Brands2Life
020 7592 1200 / 07940 422 931 / 07832 286400
PayPoint2@Brands2Life.com

ABOUT PAYPOINT
PayPoint is a leading international provider of convenient payments and value added services to major consumer service organisations in the utility, housing, water, telecoms, media, financial services, transport, retail, e-commerce and public sectors.

PayPoint handles over £11 billion from over 600 million transactions annually. Its retail network in the UK numbers over 23,000 local shops, including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents.

PayPoint’s joint venture with Yodel, Collect+, provides a highly convenient parcel collection and drop off service at more than 4,500 PayPoint retailers, and it operates an ATM network of more than 2,500 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, mainly in the same sites as PayPoint terminals.