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"Introducing the smart way to pay for the little things in life."
1 September 2010

Residents of Aberdeen will soon be able to buy small value items using a smart money electronic purse added to their Accord Card.

sQuid is a secure e-purse that lets cardholders pay for items electronically at participating retail outlets and council locations.  Money is pre-loaded on to the card either online or at a secure terminal located in the city.  The cashless transactions are fast, efficient and safe.

This new service has been added onto Aberdeen City Council’s Accord Card and is ideal for buying small items such as newspapers, a coffee or snack.  sQuid also lets cardholders’ access public services including hiring DVDs from the library or paying admission prices at Sport Aberdeen facilities.

sQuid is free to get and free to use. It’s added to the Accord Card and this is available to every resident in the city; and you don’t even need to have a bank account to use the sQuid purse on your Accord Card.

Citizens can apply for a sQuid enabled Accord card at any Customer Access Point during office hours.  A passport sized photograph and proof of your Aberdeen City address (for example a utilities or council tax bill) are all that is required.

Leader of Aberdeen City Council John Stewart said: “sQuid is the latest valuable service offered to Accord Card holders.  It can be used to pay for those everyday things such as going to the gym at the Beach Leisure Centre, coffee or lunch at the Art Gallery or borrowing a DVD from the Central Library.  This is just the start. We expect sQuid to become part of everyday life in Aberdeen as retailers start to accept it”.

At the launch Baillie Neil Cooney said: “This new function on the Accord Card will be very useful for many people; older people who can use their concessionary travel card to get into town won’t have to carry cash to buy small items of shopping. For young people, they will be able to use it to buy a snack, or their lunch.  sQuid really is a great idea.”

Bede Feltham, Marketing Director at sQuid said: "The addition of sQuid eMoney on Aberdeen City Council's Accord card, is a great step forward by offering citizens another means of accessing useful services across the City. This is another great extension of sQuid's roll out across Scotland as Aberdeen joins Dundee, Dumfries and Galloway, and North Lanarkshire.

We look forward to more Scottish councils adding sQuid to their smart cards enabling their citizens to make small value payments using sQuid across the country."

To let people know more about the sQuid e-purse in Aberdeen a specially branded Smart Car will be seen out and about across the city over the next few weeks providing information and support to residents to encourage them to use sQuid.

There are already 60,000 Accord card holders across the city, including all secondary schools pupils and senior citizens. 

The sQuid e-purse is just one of many services that are available on Aberdeen City Council’s Accord Card.  These include library membership, a concessionary travel pass for older citizens; the Access to Leisure pass and school children and students can also use the card as proof of age and for buying school lunches.  

Anyone signing up for a new Accord Card will now automatically have the sQuid e-purse added to their card.  Existing card holders will be able to have sQuid added at the any of the Council’s Customer Access Points.

 

Press release first published by Aberdeen City Council