Standard expands cashless payment system

by Isabella Piasecka Media Week 12-Dec-07, 15:55

LONDON - The Evening Standard is rolling out phase two of its Eros cashless payment card scheme, which will see pre-paid Eros cards on sale in the capital from Friday.

From December 14, pre-paid Eros cards loaded with either £10 or £20 worth of credit will be on sale from a number of vendors across some of London’s peak sales points.

The new cards will work in exactly the same way as the existing Eros cards, which allow customers to pay for copies of the Evening Standard via an Eros Card reader.

Standard readers will need to register the prepaid cards online to benefit from the Eros card reward programmes or to top up credit.

The card readers can also take purchases from contactless credit and debit cards, although the technology will not be in place until spring 2008. Price discounts and added value rewards will only be available to Eros cardholders.

The Evening Standard, owned by Associated Newspapers, launched the Eros card in October as part of an £8m refresh of the newspaper and a relaunch of its newspaper vending operation, aimed at boosting sales amid competition from London Lite and thelondonpaper.

Since the launch of Eros, 165 Eros readers have been installed at vendor sites across London, increasing to 200 by Christmas, covering most of Zone 1 and Docklands. Eventually, the number of readers will expand to 500.