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Visa rewards: Visa USA today announced the introduction
of Visa Extras, a new payment card rewards program that could
help Visa member financial institutions deliver rewards opportunities
to more consumer and small business cardholders than any other
existing rewards program. The Visa rewards program is specifically
designed to reward cardholders when they use their enrolled
Visa payment cards for everyday expenditures, such as travel,
office supplies, groceries, gas, bills, clothing, dining and
entertainment. Visa Extras offers a broad range of both big
and small rewards to meet individual cardholder preferences
from many major national brand Visa rewards partners.
"Increasingly, today's consumers and small business
owners are turning to Visa payment cards because of the overall
value they provide versus paying with cash or checks, which
don't provide any additional benefit," said Elizabeth
Buse, executive vice president Visa USA. "You don't need
to be a big spender to benefit from Visa Extras as the program
is specifically designed to reward cardholders for the personal
and business expenditures they make every day at the places
where they like to use their Visa cards."
With Visa Extras, Visa card issuers can extend rewards opportunities
to cardholders who may not currently be participating in a
rewards program. Through Visa Extras, millions of new cardholders
will have the potential to join a rewards program and earn
points toward rewards and receive even greater value when
using their enrolled Visa card for qualifying purchases instead
of paying with cash or checks. Cardholders may also be able
to combine points earned from multiple Visa payment cards
within the same financial institution, making it easier and
more convenient to earn points toward larger rewards for their
purchases. Visa issuers can tailor Visa Extras to meet the
specific needs of their cardholders through customized earning
and rewards redemption opportunities, which may vary by institution.
"With Visa Extras, Visa has created a compelling program
for both its card-issuing members and their cardholders,"
says John Gould, director of consumer lending and bankcard
for Tower Group. "The ability to link cards to accrue
points across both small business commercial cards and personal
cards will enable members to deepen their relationships with
customers. The program not only affords a cost-effective loyalty
initiative for issuers that currently do not have co-branded
or affinity programs, but also enables them to readily customize
the program for their market segments."
Cardholders may redeem Visa Extras points for more than 100
rewards available from a variety of top rewards partners including:
Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, BP Amoco, GAP, Marriott, Ruth's
Chris Steakhouse, Staples and Starbucks. Cardholders can redeem
points frequently for everyday-type rewards, such as a $5
certificate at a Visa Extras rewards partner merchant, or
save their points to redeem less frequently for higher value
rewards to be used to acquire fine merchandise or a hotel
stay. Visa Extras also showcases Visa's premiere alliances
and offers rewards such as tickets to NFL games, NASCAR races
or trial events for the upcoming Olympics.
With Visa Extras, cardholders earn points at millions of
merchant locations worldwide where their Visa cards are accepted
by simply signing the sales draft for qualifying purchases
made with an enrolled Visa payment card. Internet purchases,
phone or mail orders, and bill payment transactions can also
qualify. Visa Extras rewards points are not awarded for transactions
when a personal identification number (PIN) is used to make
a purchase because the program is available only for Visa
transactions, and not transactions processed by PIN-based
networks. Certain other restrictions also apply.
"Our research shows that what cardholders really like
is that they don't have to change their spending behavior
to benefit from Visa Extras," Buse added. "Simply
by using an enrolled Visa payment card in place of cash or
checks and signing the sales draft for their purchase, Visa
cardholders can begin immediately to accumulate points toward
rewards."
While Visa member financial institutions can offer Visa Extras
to both consumer and small business cardholders, the program
launch is first being supported by a national advertising
campaign focused on small business cardholders. As one of
the fastest growing segments of today's economy, small business
owners are demanding greater value and business benefits from
their payment cards and Visa is responding to this need with
the introduction of Visa Extras to small business cardholders.
Visa research indicates that 76 percent of small business
owners are interested in earning rewards when paying for their
business expenses with a credit or debit card.
Visa research further reveals that nearly 70 percent of
small business owners say payment cards would be a lot more
valuable if they received rewards for the everyday expenditures
associated with running their business, such as supplies,
vehicle expenses or bill payment. More than two-thirds of
these same small business owners say the problem with current
small business rewards programs is waiting a long time and
spending a lot to earn rewards. Most small business owners
would also like the ability to combine points from their business
and personal cards within a single rewards program. Visa Extras
was designed to help address these needs of small business
owners in both earning points and redeeming their points for
meaningful rewards.
With Visa Extras, small business cardholders can earn points
for qualifying purchases made with both their enrolled Visa
Business credit and Visa Business check cards for their ordinary
business expenses such as office supplies, travel, fuel, vehicle
maintenance, vendor services and bill payment. Visa has designed
the rewards offerings with small businesses in mind. Major
partners such as BP Amoco, Franklin Covey, Marriott or Staples
provide value to Visa Business cardholders when redeeming
Visa Extras points. Visa issuers can offer the option of linking
multiple payment cards issued within a Visa member financial
institution so points may be "pooled" between Visa
card accounts, further enhancing points earning and redemption
opportunities. Small business owners may also see a positive
impact to their bottom line as they can redeem points for
rewards to help offset business expenses or give rewards to
their employees as work-related bonuses, benefits or incentives.
Visa Extras provides small businesses and consumers with
a compelling reason to select a Visa payment card over cash
and checks resulting in benefits to Visa issuers from a potential
lift in purchase volume among enrolled cardholders. Additionally,
issuers have the opportunity to differentiate their program
and can choose to potentially increase their revenue by cross-selling
multiple cards – personal and business. Through this
level of flexibility and rewarding cardholders for their everyday
spending, Visa expects that cardholders will maintain greater
loyalty to the issuer and their Visa card.
Visa Extras can deliver cost savings to issuers through
economies of scale on the program infrastructure, centrally
managed cardholder customer service, centralized negotiation
of baseline rewards and creation of a national platform that
includes several national brand rewards partners. The result
is a more cost effective and attractive offering than a single
institution might offer individually. Visa Extras is also
supported with turnkey issuer marketing programs, national
cardholder promotions and national advertising.
Merchants representing more than 50 major national brands
are participating in Visa Extras spanning a variety of merchant
categories including retail, office supplies, restaurants,
travel, lodging and entertainment. These participating merchant
partners benefit from the loyalty of participating Visa cardholders
and their customer relationships can be strengthened through
customized cardholder rewards promoting key merchant brands
and products. Participating merchant partners also benefit
from increased visibility offered through Visa Extras advertising,
the program website and rewards catalog. All merchants that
accept Visa cards could benefit from the increased usage by
enrolled cardholders expected to result from the introduction
of Visa Extras.
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