allpay bolsters cash collection offering after announcing a partnership with Payzone
By Joy Dumasia
allpay announced a partnership with Payzone adding an additional 12,500 stores across the UK where customers can now pay their bills using cash. The Herefordshire based payment company were already able to offer cash collection via both Post Office and PayPoint networks. By adding Payzone, their cash offering is now available to 99% of residents in urban areas and 95% of residents in rural areas.
With its existing partnerships with large retailers such as Tesco Express, Londis, Nisa, Premier Stores and Costcutter, and over 30 years of experience in the bill payment sector, the Payzone network is going from strength to strength, and the demand for cash payments remains strong. In its recent annual consumer survey, allpay revealed that cash continues to be the preferred method of payment by a significant number of payees, representing an average of 11% for each bill payment.
Luke Jones, Senior Market Intelligence and Strategy Analyst at allpay, explained: “Earlier this year, we surveyed 1,000 people from across the UK, with varying household status. The results found that fewer social renters were fully confident in managing money and paying their household bills. With many businesses moving towards a cashless society, the reliance on cash by many demonstrates its value in the social renter space”.
The survey went on to reveal that 12.8% of social rent payments in the last 12 months were made using cash, with 50% of these made at business offices; often cited as a cost-intensive source for organisations to maintain.
The addition of Payzone to the allpay cash network builds on allpay’s commitment to financial inclusion, aimed at building the most flexible proposition to social renters and beyond, eliminating the need for internal cash office functions.
allpay Chief Executive and Owner Tony Killeen said: “Our relationship with Post office has grown from strength to strength over the last 25 years. With the addition of Payzone, we continue to build for the future, delivering on the needs of our clients and their customers wanting to utilise the flexibility of cash as a payment option. It was the reason I built allpay and to be able to partner with like-minded organisations who have customers at the heart of what they do makes this a perfect fit for us as we continue to move forward at pace. We see the impact of cash and how it will underpin social inclusion for the foreseeable future, and as a result, this is strategically seen as a progressive step for allpay and our clients.”
Simon Lambert, Commercial Director for Payzone, said: “As we know, we’re living in an exceptionally challenging time for families, individuals, and vulnerable people across the country as energy prices continue to climb and private rent in Britain is rising at the fastest rate on record. Many households are left feeling the cost-of-living strain. To help support those customers, I’m delighted to announce this new partnership between allpay and Payzone, and it comes at the perfect time for those consumers, providing them with an additional 12,000 convenient Payzone locations to pay a wide variety of utility and housing bills across allpay’s 500 strong client base.”
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