For the moment, only taxes and local utility bills can be paid in partner tobacconists. The scheme will be extended in the summer.
The possibility of paying taxes or other in a tobacco press seems to have found its audience. Some two milliondaily billswere thus settled in a tobacco shop, a year and a half after the generalization of this service of collection of public treasuries among tobacconists in the territory, announces their confederation. Faced with this success, the system will be extended this summer to all daily bills: gas, electricity, water, telephony, landlords, motorway… reveals The Parisian .
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A way to fight against the digital divide, when many French people find it difficult to use the internet, in the first place the elderly or socially excluded. In the 12,400 tobacconists approved at the end of December 2021, distributed in 6,500 municipalities, these people can find a specific terminal installed by the FDJ. All they have to do is scan a QR code available directly on the invoice.
A 100% free operation for the user, explains The Parisian. The charge is borne by the operators who pay a commission to the tobacconist and the FDJ for each transaction.
Get out of tobacco addiction
Tobacconists are increasingly seeking to diversify their sources of income, three quarters of which come from tobacco. They achieve 40 billion euros in sales per year, including 21.8 billion from tobacco products, on which they receive a commission of 8.1%. Volume declines will not be compensated in the long term by price increases.
But these merchants also make a living from a myriad of other services: sale of games from the Française des jeux, taking bets from the PMU, bar and restaurant, sale of newspapers, snacks, vaping products, management of Nickel bank accounts and postal parcels, sale of SNCF tickets.
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For Philippe Coy, president of the Confederation of tobacconists, the latter prove to be “local utility merchants, who are also state employees», thanks to these new payment services. For his part, Stéphane Pallez, CEO of La Française des jeux, estimated that the results of this “generalization of the local payment service is very positive“by contributing to”simplifying the daily life of public service users“.