The first terminals to accept the new breed of mobile phone electronic top-up swipe cards from Vodafone have entered service. A number of Spar, Londis and Alldays stores in East Anglia now offer a service crediting phones with airtime without buying vouchers. About 500 stores already have PAYzone terminals. This would rise to 10,000 by the end of the year said Julian Pringle, md of De La Rue which provides the terminals. Spar's Chris Davies said the partnership with De La Rue offered shoppers "the benefit of a single multifunctional terminal to process EFT transactions, mobile top-ups and bill payment services". The PAYzone service will be rolled out to Spars nationwide in the next few weeks. Bells retail services director Mike Walker said the chain was talking to a number of companies with a decision likely by the end of August. Costcutter senior trading director Robin Hemingway said he was holding fire until other networks introduced swipe cards later this year. {{NEWS }}

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