Portsmouth, N.H.-based Service Credit Union has announced it nowis offering, at no cost to members, PopMoney,the person-to-person payment service from Fiserv.

An advantage of the PopMoney p2p, said Lori Holmes, a ServiceCredit Union executive, is that members can make payments withoutknowing the account information of the recipient. Instead, only acell phone number or an email address is required.

As for why it is offering the service free, Holmes said, “wewanted a service that is easy, secure and free. That is what webelieve our members want.”

Gordon Simmons, president/CEO of the $2 billion Service CreditUnion, which serves members of the US military as well as residentsof N.H. and Cape Cod, said in a statement, “Popmoney providesstate-of-the-art online functionality to move money from a ServiceCredit Union account to accounts here or at other financialinstitutions.”

In an interview, Holmes explained that the credit union had nousage data yet as the program was just launched on July 10. Sheadded that promotion thus far has been minimal but Service CreditUnion plans to begin advertising it more aggressively.

“Many people no longer want to write a check,” saidHolmes. “We believe this will be a very popular service.”