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Visa Expands Availability of Visa TravelMoney
Safeway stores and financial institutions nationwide to offer Visa TravelMoney cards for consumers seeking convenience, security and unique travel benefits
San Francisco, August 23, 2006
Visa USA today announced that Visa TravelMoney cards will now be available in more than 1,550 Safeway store locations nationwide, including participating Safeway, Carrs, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pak ’n Save, Pavilions, Randalls, Vons, and Tom Thumb stores. NetSpend will market the reloadable prepaid travel cards and process transactions for Inter National Bank (Member FDIC), the issuer. The expanded distribution will make it even easier for consumers to obtain Visa TravelMoney, which offers the security of travelers checks with the unsurpassed convenience of a Visa card.
“Consumers are opting for the convenience and flexibility of cards over travelers checks,” said Todd Brockman, Senior Vice President, Prepaid products, Visa USA. “Visa is helping to better meet consumer preference by developing innovative products like Visa TravelMoney, which provides travel-specific benefits that checks simply can’t offer. We’re working with our member and merchant partners to continue to expand distribution of Visa TravelMoney to make this payment option more readily available to travelers.”
Effective immediately, Visa TravelMoney is available at participating Safeway and affiliate stores. Shoppers can pick up a Visa TravelMoney card while they shop, purchase the card and load funds onto the card at the check-out counter. Once purchased, the card can be reloaded online at www.allaccesstravelmoney.com, by calling 1-86-NETSPEND or in store.
“We are pleased to lend our expertise, knowledge and leadership in the prepaid segment to expand the retail availability of Visa TravelMoney,” said Bertrand Sosa, Co-founder and Vice President of Advertising and Brand Development of NetSpend. “Visa TravelMoney is the latest in a series of Visa card products offered through NetSpend’s partnership with Visa members that help meet consumer and retailers’ needs.”
Visa TravelMoney is currently available through AAA and National City Bank, as well as 1,200 community banks that are members of the Independent Community Bankers of America, the American Bankers Association and participating credit unions through CUNA Strategic Services, Inc. Later this year, Visa TravelMoney will be offered in thousands of additional locations nationwide, including BankFirst, MetaBank, U.S. Bank, and West Suburban Bank, as well as select Travelex foreign exchange locations. To provide a safe and secure way for students to access money while traveling, Visa TravelMoney will also be offered on college campuses through Ecount’s Trip Plus program.
Card Benefits
Visa TravelMoney is a prepaid, reloadable card that offers cardholders a better alternative to travelers checks and cash. Travelers can load funds onto the card in person, by phone or online, using cash, through a checking account, credit card or debit card. Key benefits include:
• Convenience. Visa TravelMoney can be used to make purchases at millions of merchant locations worldwide — anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. Visa TravelMoney cards can also be used to withdraw local currency at more than 1 million Visa/PLUS ATMs worldwide.
• Safety and security. Like all Visa consumer credit and debit cards, Visa TravelMoney cards are protected from fraudulent or unauthorized transactions by Visa’s Zero Liability policy in the event the card is lost or stolen.
• Travel and Emergency Assistance services and Purchase Security are available in the event a cardholder’s purchase is lost or damaged by theft, fire or weather.
• Lost luggage reimbursement. Visa TravelMoney is the first prepaid travel card to offer lost luggage reimbursement; unique to Visa TravelMoney, consumers are covered under the policy simply by being a registered Visa TravelMoney cardholder, with an activated and eligible card.
Additional information on fees, qualifying terms and conditions is available from financial institutions, associations and merchants who issue and distribute Visa TravelMoney or by visiting www.visa.com/travelmoney. Consumers can use the “TravelMoney Card Locator” on the site to find convenient locations to purchase a Visa TravelMoney card. Additional information about NetSpend can be found at www.netspend.com.
About Visa USA
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs. Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payment system — members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 13,432 member financial institutions, more than 510 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United States. Last year, U.S.-based financial institutions relied on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.6 trillion in transactions with unparalleled reliability.
Worldwide, cardholders in more than 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.
Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources — anytime, anywhere, anyway.
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