Cash points to offer mobile top-ups

Abbey National has become the first high street bank to make mobile phone top-ups available across its UK cash machine network.

From today the service will be available to the bank's 15 million customers at 3,000 locations.

The launch follows a pilot with mobile operator Orange earlier this year at five machines at the bank's head office site.

Following successful feedback from the trial, Abbey National will make mobile top-ups available to any customers with Orange pay-as-you-go phones.

The top-up option will be displayed on the cash machine screen along with the usual cash dispensing services.

Customers can choose a value from £10 to £50 and then enter their mobile phone number. The credit is transferred to the phone almost instantaneously.

Bill Gibbons, director of group technology services at Abbey National, said that the service will be more convenient for customers, but added that it would probably be some time before additional functionality, such as bill payment or buying tickets, would be available from cash machines.

"It needs consumer trials to ensure that there is acceptance," he said. "There would be nothing worse than standing at an ATM behind someone who is paying bills for the next 30 minutes."