Postbank customers can now pay their fuel bills at Shell service stations and withdraw cash as stations in Hamburg, Germany, have been converted to the new technology from Wincor Nixdorf International.
 
According to a news release, Shell plans to introduce the service in Germany at approximately 1,300 stations by the middle of 2010. The companies involved in the launch of this system are Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH, Postbank as banking partner and Wincor Nixdorf as technology partner.
 
The technology unites cash withdrawal with POS functions and security. Customers can use their savings account cards in conjunction with their PINs to withdraw cash at the Intelligent Cash Management systems that Wincor Nixdorf has developed.
 
In the startup phase, this service is available to the roughly 7.5 million holders of these Postbank accounts. The service is expected to be available to customers of other banks as well later this year.
 
The integrated-payment function is based on software and modules that count the cash, validate its authenticity and securely deposit it. Change is also dispensed automatically, allowing the cashier to concentrate entirely on the customer. The software controls transactions and provides information on current cash levels so that enough cash is available at all times.
 
"For Postbank, this offer is another milestone on our way to optimizing the supply of cash for our customers," said Michael Meyer, retail director and member of the managing board at Postbank. "This cooperation helps us to fill some remaining white spaces on the map. In addition to 7,000 CashGroup ATMs and several thousand Postbank and Deutsche Post branches, we can now offer our customers many other sources of cash."