RFID Helps Promote Healthy Pregnancies

In December, the Dundee City Council and sQuidcard Ltd. plan to launch a pilot known as sQuid eMoney. During this pilot, 180,000 cards will be eligible to be used as prepaid cards from north of Aberdeen to Edinburgh.

The payment system can be utilized for such low-cost items as coffee, a newspaper or a sandwich, says sQuidcard spokesman Lloyd Mullenger. "It makes paying for things extremely easy and convenient," he states, "and saves you from fiddling about with coins, helping you to keep an eye on your money and where it's going."

Dundee City Council and NEC are providing sQuid eMoney functionality to existing NEC cardholders in that city, to pay for low-value items. Cardholders can add the sQuid features to their card at sQuid point-of-sale locations in participating stores, then employ the cards to pay for goods and services at health clubs, libraries and stores—or they can order new NEC cards with sQuid functionality added.

A prepaid balance can be loaded on the cards at stores and service providers participating in the sQuid program, or online. Payment data is stored in the sQuid back-end database, linked to the card's unique ID number. Participants can load up to £100 ($152) in this account. Participating sQuid merchants are equipped with RFID interrogators that can read a card's ID number.

The system is expected to go live in Dundee at the end of this year. This service, Bulloch says, will reduce cash handling, help card users manage their money, and make cashless payments available to a sector of citizens who otherwise may not be able to acquire a credit card or bank account.