The contract, which was awarded to allpay following competitive tender, allows Origin’s 6,000 residents across London and Hertfordshire to pay bills in cash at any PayPoint or Post Office or with their debit/credit card via allpay’s Mobile Payment App, text, automated phone or online payments.
It will also allow Origin to continue to offer paperless Direct Debit collections on any date of the month, allowing residents to choose the most convenient collection date and frequency for them.
On award of the contract, Tina Mercer, Head of Income Management at Origin, said that allpay was the only bidder that could provide SMS and Mobile App payments and that a wide range of payment options was needed by housing providers to support residents through Universal Credit.
In particular, mobile payments now represent more than 1.5% of the value of payments allpay processes for Origin – indicating that more and more residents are getting used to paying their bills via their smartphones.
Tina Mercer, Head of Income Management said:
"allpay has an innovative approach to payment collection and a clear development programme to support housing providers through Universal Credit. They also have unrivalled experience in the market place, processing rental income for some of the UK’s biggest councils and housing associations. They also provide a very flexible service and a high level of customer service to us and our residents."