Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Signs up First Housing Association for Housingcard Payments

HousingCard has been designed for smaller housing associations ? those that process less than 50,000 transactions annually or have fewer than 1,000 tenants. About half of Ferguslie Park?s 800 tenants are being supplied with cards that enable them to make payments at their local Post Office. (The remaining 400 are benefit claimants who will continue to have their rents paid directly by Renfrewshire Council.) Key features of HousingCard include: - Automated collection service with no set-up costs (card and wallet supplied free) - Costs only 75p per payment transaction - No annual fees or charges - Replacement cards only 85p plus VAT - Housing association branding on payment cards Convenient for tenants ? payments can be made at any of the 17,000-strong Post Office network Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank is the market leader in revenue collection and processing, dealing with 220 million transactions in 2002 alone. It already handles card and internet-based payments for over 800 housing associations. Formerly known as Girobank, it was renamed Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank in July this year.