A bill payment solution, based on JSE-listed Prism Holdings` EasyPay technology, has gone live in Portugal to give consumers there the convenience of paying their EDP electricity and PT telephone bills at select retail outlets. EDP and PT are Portugal`s largest electricity and telephone companies, serving millions of households.
A range of other household bills is being lined-up to join this fast-expanding bill payment service. This follows Prism`s establishment of a joint venture with UK-based PayShop International last year. With Prism as its selected technology partner, PayShop is rolling out the payment service under its own brand in Portugal. And plans are under consideration for similar roll-outs in countries such as Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Poland, India and Hong Kong.
To date, Prism has modified and shipped over 1 200 PayShop-branded financial point-of-sale (POS) terminals and barcode scanners from SA to Portugal. These will become operational at major retailers including Alisuper, Intermarche and Total ElfFina. The major Portuguese company, Sonae, plus Shell, are also conducting live pilots of the PayShop service.
The terminals have been integrated into a Prism-designed and developed payment switch which collects the transaction, routes it to the appropriate bill issuer and handles the financial settlement between the parties.
According to Brian Mollegrean, director, new business development at Prism Holdings, demand for over-the-counter payment solutions is huge. "It`s estimated that even in developed countries like Portugal, more than 50% of all regular household bill payment transactions are made by cash and cheque, over-the-counter. However, the cost of collecting these payments is very expensive for the bill issuer. Post offices and banks charge fees, queues are not uncommon and opening hours are very restrictive.
"In addition, shops or payment offices owned by the utilities themselves are more expensive to facilitate bill payment options. The PayShop service offers a cost-effective solution for bill issuers, while simultaneously enabling them to improve their service to customers," Mollegrean adds.
With the roll-out of PayShop in Portugal, bill-issuers will continue to send their cash or cheque paying customers a bar-coded bill. The customer takes the bill to an accredited retailer displaying the PayShop branding who scans it through the PayShop terminal to capture the customer account details. The payment amount is keyed in and the customer hands the cash or cheque to the retailer and receives a receipt as proof of payment. The transactions are collected in a central computer during the day and transmitted to the respective bill issuer. Each night the retailer is electronically debited for the amounts received. The appropriate funds are then transferred to the utility/service company within the normal bank clearing system.
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