The study highlighted the fact that 95 percent of Romanian consumers pay their electricity, gas, fixed and mobile telephone, internet and TV cable bills in cash, and spend an inordinate amount of time doing so.
“Romania met all the requirements for expansion: it is a country with 22 million inhabitants, or some 8 million households, and most utility bills are paid in cash,” according to a declaration for Business Standard by Dominic Taylor, CEO of the British company. He went on to say that the Romanian market has a potential for 600 million transactions [Ed. n. bill payment and electronic phone card charging], higher than the transactions processed by PayPoint in the United Kingdom in the past fiscal year, which ended on 30 March 2008. In 2007, PayPoint paid the RTC group some €16 mln for PayStore, Romanian mobile telephone prepaid service leader. PayStore administered a network of 4,000 electronic card charging points, of which the new investor has chosen 1,000 points nationwide where Romanians will be able to initially pay their Distrigaz Sud (gas supplier), UPC (cable TV), Romtelecom (fixed telephone), and Zapp (mobile telephone) bills, in addition to recharging their mobile phone cards, regardless of the operator. PayPoint’s services will allow Romanian consumers to pay all their utility bills at a single point, at no additional cost.
