Bill Payment Services

Supplier

The Co-operative Bank

Contract period

February 2011 - January 2014

The Agreement was set to run for an initial period of three years with the option of an additional 12 month extension.

Summary and benefits

PfH's Bill Payment Services Agreement with The Co-operative Bank not only creates significant savings but also addresses the key issue of cost transparency.

The Co-operative Bank submitted an outstanding offer through the EU compliant tender process and was the only major supplier to offer totally transparent fixed pricing - an essential factor in developing robust and sustainable policies for PfH Members. After a rigorous benchmarking exercise, the Agreement also demonstrated average savings of over 12%.

With The Co-operative Bank handling all the transactions, PfH's Members can now collect rent, and other payments from their residents who do not have bank accounts, or who prefer to pay by cash. Residents can choose to pay their bills through the Post Office, Payzone and PayPoint networks.

Not only does the Agreement benefit PfH Members by offering fixed transaction pricing, payment transaction limits and clearance timescales, it also gives residents access to over 52,000 Post Office, Payzone and PayPoint outlets. The methods of payment available through the system are extremely flexible and convenient - residents can pay bills at any time of day or night from any shop with a Payzone or PayPoint facility. The Co-operative Bank is the only supplier able to offer their customers access to all three national payment networks.

Since the commencement of our contract with The Co-operative Bank their proposition to PfH Members has been enhanced still further by the following innovations;

The Co-operative Bank has teamed up with Direct Debit, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bottomline Technologies plc, to provide PfH Members access to a state of the art, paperless and AUDDIS compliant Direct Debiting service.

This offers the following key features:

  • use of your own Service User Number (SUN) meaning it is the HA’s name not that of the supplier that appears on your tenant’s bank statement;

  • same day debit / credit (no waiting for cleared funds)

  • fixed transaction pricing;

  • detailed Management Information reports at the click of a mouse. Direct Debit are also acknowledged to be the country's number one BACS Accredited Direct Debit Scheme Trainer.


 The availability of Internet / Telephone payments through PayPoint.net. This offers the following key features:

  • use of your own Merchant I/D meaning it is the HA’s name not that of the supplier that appears on your tenant’s bank statement;

  • anytime on-line payments without the spend associated with developing in-house merchant acquiring systems. (PayPoint.net are fully PCI compliant)

  • telephone payments via a ‘virtual terminal’ whereby your call centre staff use a specialised on-screen payment page to process telephone card payments.

  • fixed transaction pricing;

  • unrivalled Management Information reports at the click of a mouse;

  • own branded secure payment page creating more transparency for tenants.

Members can view more information on this agreement by logging in.

Forgotten your password?

To obtain the username and password for your organisation, click here.

Want to become a PfH member?

To sign up to PfH, click here.