sQuid in the news



"sQuid’s in, in Dundee"
2 May, 2008 - Dundee Evening Telegraph

A pilot scheme for the introduction of an ‘electronic purse’, which would reduce the need for people to carry cash, even for relatively small transactions, is to be undertaken in Dundee, (writes Brian Allison, local government reporter).

The e-purse would form part of the National Entitlement Card, a project aimed at making it easier for people to access public services.

Dundee City Council was asked by the Scottish Government to be the lead authority and HQ for the NEC, which is eventually to be rolled out to all 32 of the country’s councils.

Chief executive Alex Stephen, in a report said an e-purse would allow people to place money on to the card and spend it at participating outlets. 

He said the idea was similar to ‘tap and go’ systems operated by major banks and other smartcard schemes like the Oyster card used on the London underground, which are generally targeted at low value payments.

“The NEC programme office has been working with a company to introduce such a system in Scotland and selected Dundee as the ideal first city to deploy it on a trial basis before rolling it out to other local authority areas that have expressed an interest.”  Mr Stephen said.

The company the NEC is working with is called sQuid, which has an open payment network configured using the same smartcard technology as the NEC.

“As with the NEC, sQuid is socially inclusive and cardholders do not require a bank account to qualify for a sQuid purse on their smartcard,” Mr Stephen said.

“Without any large overheads, sQuid is able to offer the lowest transaction fees in the prepaid payment industry.  This makes it attractive to smaller retail outlets and operations that in the main have low transaction values (e.g. bus ticket, coffee shop, taxi).”

Limit Cost

Mr Stephen said the NEC programme office had negotiated a deal with sQuid that would significantly limit the cost to each participating local authority to around £5000 a year.

He said sQuid would be appointing a sales team to communicate with retailers in Dundee and would install the required terminals in participating retail outlets.

It is intended to start the pilot scheme in Dundee in September.

 

 

sQuid alternative payment network is protected