Cards payment terminals' numbers grow

The number of shops and service points where card payment is posiible is growing rapidly. The fourth quarter of last year saw a dramatic growth of the number of terminals. According to NBP (Polish National Bank) in IV quarter of last year 13,5 thousand of points acquired terminals. It is more than from January to September 2007 and in the whole of 2006.Now you may pay by card in almost 130 thousand of businesses that have 170,4 thousand of terminals. Tha rate of installing of new terminals is still high.“At present, in Poland there is a potential for 250-300 thousand of terminals to function”- claims Janusz Diemko, president of First Data Poland (previously Polcard), a company which deals with in clearing settlements.According to first calculations, this year a network of terminals can be increased by 30 thousands. Experts admit that the dynamic increase of terminals is caused by the development of cell phones and mass bills settlements, for example for energy, gas. Clearing transactions also favor the technology. More common GPRS connections, which are used to card payment authorizations, decreased costs of operations and shortened time of connections.It is quite possible that in near future charges will decrease to zero (of course there will be still commissions of issuer of the card, which is 1-2% of transaction value, moreover settlement agent). It is an effect of the competition between companies which treat with charging for cell phones.