Scratch cards for topping up prepaid mobiles will soon become a thing of the past. The Link network of cash machines is about to announce an agreement that will enable prepaid customers to top up their phones at almost any UK cash machine.
The system, which will be rolled out from the autumn, will use software from the US-based ACI Worldwide to authorise the transfer of cash from users' bank accounts to the phone numbers they tap in at the ATM. Vodafone is expected to be the first network offering Link top-ups.
In a separate development, touch-sensitive screens at which you can add talk time to a prepaid mobile will also start appearing in supermarkets and other retail outlets later this year after a launch today by the mobile payment company Paybox and IBM.
Barry Shrier, UK sales and marketing director of Paybox, says: "With existing arrangements for adding credit to a mobile, it's still possible to be out in the early hours and run out of talk time, just when you want to call a cab."
He says the new system can be installed inside or outside shops or in pubs or hotel lobbies. Users will simply touch the screen, select their mobile network, choose the amount they want to spend and either type in their mobile number or swipe through a plastic card containing it.
Depending on the location, the screen/kiosk can be available 24 hours a day. Paybox says the system will be secure because it will phone the customer's mobile immediately to verify the transfer of, say, £20 from their bank account. A personal identification number will also have to be typed on the mobile's keypad before the transaction goes ahead.
Would-be paybox users must pre-register their bank account details on the company's website ( Paybox.co.uk ) and pay £9.99. They can also use paybox to pay for some other goods and services using just a mobile.
Even before this month's developments, mobile operators were trying to reduce their reliance on mobile scratch cards sold through newsagents and other stores. The cost of distributing them cuts into their profit margin and there is a risk of theft.
They are also fiddly to use. Purchasers scratch off an area of the card to reveal a unique number. They phone up the mobile operator and give them the number to get their phone topped up.
But in May, the mobile operator Orange announced the UK's first cash machine top-up service with Abbey National. The service is already in operation in some areas but by autumn, any of the bank's customers with Orange prepaid phones will be able to use any of its 3,000 cash machines.
In Belgium, where Orange customers have had cash machine top ups for three years, 30% of prepaid customers use this method.
Most operators also offer electronic swipe cards. For example, you can pick up a plastic Vodafone E-TopUp card in Boots the chemist and dial 2345 to link the code on it to your mobile number. Then, whenever you need to top it up, you can take it into a store that displays the green TopUp symbol, hand the cashier between £5 and £25 or a credit or debit card, and - within 10 minutes - you can make calls again.
Another option is to top up directly from the mobile phone. The internet company Network365's mzone avatar is a kind of mobile wallet that includes the customer's payment details. Mzone allows the mobile operator to send a text message to the customer reminding them their account is low and needs to be topped up. Money can then be deducted from the user's credit or debit card.
It is also possible to top up a prepaid mobile over the internet - or over the phone - using a credit card. And if you're abroad, foreign scratchcards are available.
"Scratchcards are still the most popular means of topping up for our prepaid customers," says Bryony Clow of Vodafone. "But we are hoping that in 12 months, topping-up electronically will account for more than half of all activity."
