The Mondex electronic purse initiative looks doomed before it starts because of the charges planned for users of the system. Swindon residents taking part in the Mondex Smart Card trials will be charged ú1.50 per month for the privilege of using their Mondex Smart Card once the initial six-month free trial is up. Retailers will also pay Mondex anything up to 75 pence per Mondex transaction, a price the company said is competitive with that charged by other UK High Street banks for handling retailers’ cash but one which could thwart widespread adoption of the system. Mondex International, which is backed by National Westminster Bank Plc, Midland Bank Plc and British Telecommunications Plc launched its first pilot in Swindon, Wiltshire yesterday. The first participant in the trial was a 72 year-old newspaper vendor who sold The Swindon Advertiser for 28p using his Mondex card reader to carry out the transaction. Mondex expects 1,000 retailers and 40,000 consumers to use the system by July 1996; it claims there are already 7,300 applicants eager to get their hands on the Mondex cards and is planning a nationwide roll-out of the system within two years. The Bank of Scotland will join the scheme once it is national in an attempt to increase its customer base over the border without having to install cash dispensers. British Telecom is adapting 150 public telephone and 150 telephones in pubs and shopping areas for users to top up their Mondex cards over British Telecom phone lines – although only 10 telephones have been adapted so far. Users will be charged standard telephone rates; electronic transactions are said to take a maximum of four seconds. British Telecomm will also install 2,000 Mondex-compatible screen phones, half of which will be for domestic use, the other half for business use. These will also be part of a free trial lasting a year.
