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Prepaid credit cards: Visa U.S.A. today announced the expansion
of its prepaid credit cards product category with the Visa
Gift card. The Visa Gift card includes four primary product
applications that are now generally available for issuance
by Visa Member banks. In addition to Visa-branded consumer
gift cards, the program includes prepaid credit cards for
corporate incentive, rebate and promotional uses. This product
set will help Visa's Member banks expand their consumer and
corporate relationships while realizing new revenue opportunities.
The Visa Gift prepaid credit cards are designed as a better
alternative to a variety of traditional check and cash based
forms of personal gifts and corporate incentives. For example,
consumers may purchase a Gift card to present as a gift, employers
can use the Visa Gift card as an exciting new reward for employee
incentive programs, and corporate clients may incorporate
gift cards into their consumer rebate and promotional programs.
For all of these prepaid credit cards , the recipients are
offered greater choice in deciding how and where to spend
their gifts. They can use the Visa Gift card to buy what they
want, where they want and when they want, wherever Visa is
accepted.
"Visa saw an enormous growth opportunity within prepaid
credit cards to provide card-based payment solutions to replace
cash and checks," said Todd Brockman, vice president
of prepaid products for Visa U.S.A. "The development
of this category further broadens Visa's vision of being the
best way to pay and be paid while offering greater choice
to cardholders. With the various product offerings under the
Visa Gift card umbrella, our Member banks will be able to
offer a valuable gifting, payment and reward tool to consumers,
employers and corporate customers"
- Consumer load for consumer use:
Example: Visa Gift cards sold through bank branches, via
the Internet, or at a point of sale as an alternative to
giving gifts of merchandise, cash, checks, gift certificates
or single-merchant gift cards.
- Commercial/Corporate load for employee bonus/incentive:
Example: Visa Gift cards provided to employees for meeting
sales/performance goals, year-end bonuses, spot bonuses,
etc.
- Commercial/Corporate load for consumer rebate:
Example: Visa Gift cards used as an incentive and provided
to consumers as a reward for making a purchase.
- Commercial/Corporate load for promotional participants:
Example: Visa Gift cards provided for special events, sponsorships,
contests, grand openings or other promotions.
Visa's development of the prepaid Visa Gift card marks a
significant evolution within the payment card industry and
builds upon Visa's leadership and experience in developing
innovative non-credit card payment solutions. This new category
of products gives Visa Members a higher degree of flexibility
in customizing products to both better serve specific segments
of prospective cardholders and also to meet their corporate
client's business needs by providing significant bottom-line
cost savings through an efficient check displacement alternative.
Compared to gifts of checks, cash or merchandise, the Visa
Gift card offers significant benefits as all of Visa's consumer
security protection policies apply, including its Zero Liability
policy wherein the funds on the card are protected if the
card becomes lost or stolen. Unlike gift certificates or single-merchant
gift cards, the Visa-branded gift cards are universally accepted
at all 25 million merchant locations worldwide.
According to Visa, prepaid products are designed to serve
a large market opportunity comprised of mostly cash and check
transactions estimated to be more than $2 trillion. Visa estimates
the overall market for gift cards to be nearly $300 billion,
which corresponds to approximately $174 billion for consumer
gift cards and another $124 billion for commercial applications.
The Visa Gift card program will help Visa Member banks better
serve these markets and benefit from new revenue streams through
the introduction of innovative prepaid card payment solutions
for consumers, businesses and government agencies.
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