Prepaid Marketing for Online Success

08.02.2012 – Prepaid365, one of the UK’s leading and dedicated prepaid card comparison websites, announced the call for entries for the fourth edition of the Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards 2012 with an entry submission deadline of 22nd February, 2012.

Now in their 4th year, the Prepaid365 Awards continue to generate significant interest around the UK and the globe with an ever increasing number of entries from within the UK and abroad. The Prepaid365 Prepaid Awards continue to be one of the only, if not the only, awards where the results are determined solely by consumers in a majority of the categories and hence, the awards provide an excellent endorsement and genuine consumer appreciation for the efforts of prepaid card providers in launching and running these truly stellar programmes. The awards also highlight a few worthy runners ups in each category, shining the light on up and coming superstars within the prepaid industry.

Based on consumer and industry feedback, the Prepaid365 Awards team have maintained the award categories from 2011 with Awards due to be handed out in 22 different categories including 2 business categories for programme managers who have excelled in serving big business and small business.

Over the next 10 weeks, subject matter experts at Prepaid365 will work in conjunction with consumers to determine the winners across the 22 categories from votes gathered via online surveys and social media votes with the aim of researching, reviewing and collating consumer choices across prepaid cards and prepaid card providers across the UK and beyond.

Amit Sharma, CEO and Senior Consultant at Prepaid365 commented, “The response to the first 3 editions of the Prepaid365 Awards was truly exceptional. It is often seen with trade circles that it is quite easy to get providers excited about awards but the Prepaid365 Awards are truly unique as we have had enhanced consumer engagement with each edition of the awards and we expect the 4th edition to raise the bar even higher.

In fact, it is with this in mind that we have introduced an even more robust voting process this year and decided to engage providers and their existing consumer base to greater effect to make the awards even more representative of the people who really count – consumers!. I have previously stated that the awards seem to grow bigger each year and the entries fly in from further afar than before and we expect 2012 to be no different. Here’s to the biggest consumer prepaid awards night of 2012. I am extremely pleased to announce the call for entries for the fourth edition of the Prepaid365 Prepaid Awards in 2012”.

Divya Sharma, Marketing and PR Director at leading prepaid marketing consultancy Emotion Associates stated, “Prepaid365 is widely recognised as the leading prepaid card portal in the UK serving the needs of customers and the industry. 2011 was an exceptional year with the launch of the dedicated Prepaid365 Business listings which provide an excellent opportunity for prepaid stakeholders to interact with each other and find a business partner or supplier or client. Our independent care reviews are trusted by consumers and we work extremely hard to ensure that content is regularly updated and is current. In 2011, the social media competition that we ran alongside the Prepaid65 Awards was great fun and we are doing the same again but with even more jazz and pizazz than last year and consumers are going to be the big winners all through out. Leading Payment industry specialists recommended Prepaid365 as the “reference site and industry resource with prepaid” and we are well on our way to establishing the Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards as the consumers voice and consumer awards “free of commercial bias and an excellent opportunity for prepaid card providers to gauge and reference success against the one opinion that really counts – CONSUMERS”.

Previous winners at the Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards include industry leaders such as Virgin Money, Cashplus, Splash, Caxton FX, White Eagle, Neteller, O2 Money, TSYS, Payment Card Technologies, Secure Trust Bank, Think Banking, Prepaid Financial Services as well as newcomers such as Phones4u, Clearcash and Kalixa. As always, you need to be in it to WIN it!

Call for Entries for the 2012 Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards sponsored by Transact24- www.t24prepaid.com

Have you got a prepaid credit card programme that has been recently launched or has performed exceptionally well over the last 12 months? Have you submitted your entry into the Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards? Well, download the entry form and details below and submit your entry before the deadline on 22nd February, 2012.

• Word Format
• PDF Format

For further detail, please refer to the Prepaid365 Awards 2012 Call for Entries brochure here – Prepaid365 Awards 2012 Call forEntries Brochure .

Remember the entry deadline is 22.02.12 and the award winners will be announced on 31.05.12. No entries accepted beyond that deadline day. No really – we mean it this time!

If you have any questions about the 2012 Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards or would like to enquire about Sponsorship Options with the Prepaid365 Awards 2012, please email Amit Sharma at amit@prepaid365.com or call on +44(0)78347 26087

The Kalixa Prepaid MasterCard is available absolutely FREE to Prepaid365 Customers as part of Kalixa’s 3rd year anniversary celebrations. All customers applying for a Kalixa card between 1st Feb, 2012 and 14th Feb, 2012 can get the Kalixa prepaid MasterCard absolutely free when making their first deposit of £50 or more. It’s another excellent offer from the team at Kalixa following on from the Disney Promotion last Christmas.

To avail this offer, simply visit the Kalixa Prepaid Card website and apply for a Kalixa card and the usual £4.95 card fee will be waived when making an initial load of £50. With thousands of new customers signing up each week, Kalixa is well established in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and is on track to expand into Spain and the Netherlands within the next two months.

“We’re really pleased that Kalixa is becoming more and more popular every day,” says Suresh Vaghjiani, Head of Product Management at Kalixa’s issuing bank, Vincento Payment Solutions. “We’ve worked hard over the past three years to improve the features of the card, and we’ve spent a lot of time optimising our fees. The positive feedback we’re continually receiving proves we’re on the right track.”

Get your Kalixa card today – Visit the Kalixa Website.

Source: http://www.prepaid365.com/buzz/2012/02/free-kalixa-card-limited-time-only

It has been thirteen years since South African home-grown company, ATM Solutions, opened its doors with the aim to bring fully serviced, conveniently located and reliable ATMs to more areas in the country. Committed to achieving its goal of bringing banking to the people, Africa’s leading independent deployer and operator of ATMs today celebrated the opening of its 7^th branch, which has been up and running since November last year and is situated in Witbank in the Mpumalanga region.

“The area has always been serviced, but exceptional growth over the last few years highlighted the need for a dedicated branch to attend to the unique needs of our business and banking partners, clients and the ATM user community in the province.” says ATM Solutions’ Mpumalanga branch supervisor, Gerhard du Plessis, who initially joined the company as a field technician in 2007 and has over six years of experience in the field.

With client relations executives, sales representatives, and dedicated technicians spread across the region, as well as administration and dispatching staff, the branch is well-equipped with all the necessary resources and skills to effectively monitor, maintain, troubleshoot and promptly support the region’s ATMs locally.

With a national footprint of over 4000 ATMs deployed and operated on behalf of eight of southern Africa’s major banks, Wayne Abramson, CEO of ATM Solutions, notes that the new branch is currently responsible for servicing about 300 sites in the Mpumalanga region, and provides a further platform to support our goal of making banking more accessible and affordable to the South African public. “Together with our banking partners, we continue to strive to financially include as many people as possible, particularly in developing and underserviced areas where communities have the most to gain from an extended banking footprint”.

Dedicated to run the Mpumalanga branch in line with ATM Solutions’ internal ethos of “Having fun… Making money… and Doing good,” du Plessis says that the team is committed to making each client feel valued. “Personal interaction based on service excellence, complete customer satisfaction and trust will continue to be the cornerstone of our service offering,” he concludes.

The public can reach the new branch during business hours by calling (013) 692 5518.

For more information on ATM Solutions and its other branches situated across the country visit www.atmsolutions.co.za.

To find out more about Prepaid Cards and Prepaid Card providers, visit Prepaid365.

Not getting approval for a new credit card can be put down to a number of factors. The main factor amongst those suffering from a poor credit rating as a result of CCJ’s, debt’s or a poor credit score. In the western world, it is almost impossible to look beyond credit rating as mechanism of determining a persons ability to repay credit and due to this, an individual applying for credit will have a hard time applying for a new account because past records will prove that the individual is incapable of fulfilling his obligations.

Plastic is King

Not getting a credit card makes it extremely difficult for the person as it is often repeated that in this generation, plastic rules the universe and you are hamstrung if you have no access to plastic. This is an unfortunate truism of the modern world. That’s where credit credit for bad credit come in to the equation.

Banks, Prepaid Cards and Bad Credit Options

One of the good things about some banks is that they allow customers the ability to improve their credit history and amend previous bad credit reputation by allowing these individuals to access to certain types of credit cards that come with a low or limited credit limit. Through this, the bank can monitor if the account holder is being responsible when it comes to payments or not and can use this as an indicator of potential future performance of that individual in fulfilling their obligations. These credit cards for bad credit offer the customers a chance to re-establish and revamp their credit records and build a good credit history.

There are a lot banks that offer credit credit for bad credit so the account holder will be able to start to rebuild his credit standing. Banks such as HSBC and Vanquis especially cater to people with bad credit.

Visa and MasterCard also provide cards that cater to people in the same predicament. There are a number of prepaid cards providers who provide prepaid credit cards in the UK market which help cater to this segment and help them improve their credit rating using tools such as Creditbuilder, Credit booster, Budget master, etc. Prepaid cards usually come without any interest and there is no credit actually provided on the cards but the providers offer options by which they can help improve ones rating. Cashplus, First Premier, ClearCash and Kalixa are some of the prepaid options available to consumers as a prepaid MasterCard that can help improve credit history.

Dealing with Financial Crisis

There are a number of ways that should be used to prevent another financial crisis from bad credit that a consumer already finds themselves in and the most important thing is to never miss deadlines when it comes to paying debts and to make sure that the balance will all be settled within the month. Credit cards for bad credit are designed by companies to give consumers the opportunity to gain back or rebuild their good credit standing and not to give these people another chance to irresponsibly pile up unpaid debt again.

In this modern age, where money is primarily used in the form of plastic, it’s actually a good thing that people still have the chance to redeem themselves when it comes to improving their credit score and rating. With services like Experian, Equifax, etc it is now possible for individuals who are financially underserved to review their current standing with lenders and improve their creditability using bad credit credit cards and prepaid cards for the un-banked. There are even prepaid cards basic banking accounts offered by some providers.

The key undoubtedly is to ensure that individuals use the opportunity provided by these prepaid cards and adverse credit credit cards wisely and do not fall into irresponsible spending again.

Compare and review prepaid cards and anonymous prepaid cards & the benefits of prepaid cards for the unbanked and bad credit credit cards at Prepaid365.

Source: http://www.prepaid365.com/buzz/2011/11/credit-cards-for-bad-credit-overcoming-credit-rating-issues/

23.11.11 – The T24 Black Prepaid VISA card was reviewed and launched on Prepaid365 earlier today. The T24 Black prepaid card is the undoubted “Daddy” prepaid card amongst prepaid cards targeted at the affluent worldwide traveller and the discerning user. A truly mind boggling USD 50,000 load limit make this the ultimate high end credit card alternative without credit. The T24 Black prepaid credit card comes with complementary Priority Pass Membership with access to business facilities and refreshments at over 600 Airport Lounges as well as premium travel insurance, giving you ease of mind and a comfortable trip every time.

The top 5 reasons for getting the T24 Black prepaid VISA card (or “BIG DADDY” card) would be as follows

• USD 50,000 Card Balance Limit - As a frequent global traveller, it just does not get better than this. The T24 Black prepaid VISA card is for those who like to travel in style.
• Complimentary Priority Pass Access – Priority Pass Access comes as standard with the T24 Black prepaid card which provides access to 600 Airport Lounges worldwide, with business facilities, refreshments and a whole lot more..
• Complimentary Premium Worldwide Travel Insurance –Did someone say Travel insurance? This power prepaid card comes with free premium worldwide travel insurance and medical benefits as standard.
• ZERO Transaction Fees – Yup – there are no transaction fees on the T24 Dollar Prepaid Card. So use in a USD region with zero transaction fees at retail.
• No Credit Checks – Even with the enhanced card balance limit of USD 50,000, the T24 Black prepaid VISA card is a prepaid card and that means no credit checks or bank accounts are necessary and there is guaranteed acceptance subject to identity & residency checks..

Read the T24 Black Prepaid Card review and find out more about the powerful concoction that provides privilege, discretion and affluence.

You can buy the T24 Black prepaid card at https://www.t24blackcard.com/

Source: http://www.prepaid365.com/buzz/2011/11/launch-alert-t24-black-prepaid-visa-card/

The MeCard Prepaid MasterCard was reviewed and launched on Prepaid365 earlier today. The MeCard MasterCard prepaid card is perfect for families with teenagers (13-17). MeCard is safe, secure, and easy to use. Online accounts link the parent card to teen card, enabling the parent to share money in the form of pocket money or gifts, at the click of a button. Parents can view balance of teen cards and top-up money if it’s running low. Money can be loaded to parent card by BACS, DD, in post office or paypoint. Parent cards are FREE and each teen cards cost £9.99 but comes pre-loaded with £10 to spend ANYWHERE. There is currently a special offer available to Prepaid365 Customers for a limited time period as you can get the Parent Card for Free along with a FREE £10.00 load on all teen cards requested as well.

The top 5 reasons for getting a MeCard prepaid card would be as follows

• FREE, FREE, FREE – With a free Parent Card and a £10.00 free load on the teenager card – the MeCard team are effectively giving you the two card pack free along with a pretty penny on top. Did we mention FREE?
• Zero UK Transaction fees – Retail transactions in the UK and anywhere in the world are absolutely free. Foreign retail transactions to get charged an FX fee but no retail usage fee.
• Low ATM Fee – Unlike numerous other prepaid cards, the ATM withdrawal fee on the MeCard prepaid card is also quite low at £0.75. Bargain when compared with other Pay as you go prepaid cards.
• Great for Sharing – This is the cool bit about the MeCard prepaid card. You can share money between the Parent Card and the tenn/young adult card at the click of a few buttons. Transferring money from one card to the other is quick, easy and convenient as 1-2-3!
• Backed by Payment Card Technologies – The MeCard prepaid card is bought to you by the team at PCT, a multiple award winning prepaid card provider.

Read the MeCard Prepaid Card review and find out more about the benefits of this exceptional new youth prepaid card. Get the essence of youth with the snazzy and funky MeCard Prepaid Card.

You can buy the MeCard Prepaid MasterCard at http://www.mecard.co.uk

Source: http://www.prepaid365.com/buzz/2011/11/mecard-prepaid-mastercard-reviewed-on-prepaid365/

Travel Money Cards are fast becoming the most popular way of carrying holiday money safely and securely whilst providing all the benefits that one would expect from using money on a plastic card. However, even though prepaid cards are excellent for travel abroad, there are a few things that you should be aware of when using prepaid travel money cards abroad.

1. Choose the Currency Card that suits your needs – Some prepaid currency cards come with free ATM and others have a better exchange rates. Choose the currency card which suits your needs best. Free ATM is useful if you are going on a long trip but on a short trip, you may actually be better off with a travel money card which gives you a better FX rate.
2. Load your card when you get the best FX Rate – Currency rates fluctuate daily. You should load your currency card when the rate suits you best to make sure you get the maximum spend money for your travels at the best exchange rate. Read the rest of this entry »

Prepaid Euro Cards Beckon

The growing popularity of Prepaid Euro cards is unsurprising given the benefits that currency cards provide. One of the main reasons for the growing use of Euro prepaid cards is down to the increase in card theft and fraud abroad which is being driven higher with the recession across global economies which has raised fraud levels around the world and Brits on European holidays find themselves an attractive target for fraudsters. APACS figures indicate that in 2009, overseas fraud cost Brits £122.7m in card fraud losses. It is also unsurprising that with Spain and France being popular holiday destinations, they also represent destinations with high card fraud loss statistics.

Euro Prepaid Cards have various other benefits in addition to representing one of the most popular methods of minimising your exposure to fraud abroad.

What are Euro Prepaid Cards

Prepaid Euro Cards are prepaid cards on which the transactional currency is in Euros. Similar to all prepaid credit cards, these prepaid cards need to be loaded with funds prior to those funds being available for spend. The funds on the card are stored in Euro currency. This effectively means that when British consumers load their prepaid card with sterling currency, it is converted into Euros at the existing exchange rate and stored on the card in Euros and the cards have a Euro Balance. Read the rest of this entry »

As Brits grow more adventurous and travel beyond the America’s and Europe, the market for Sterling prepaid cards has also started growing in popularity as well. Sterling currency cards are prepaid currency cards on which the main transactional currency is GBP Sterling.

UK Currency cards are generally available in Euro, Dollar and Sterling although some providers now provide travel money cards in South African Rand and Australian Dollars as well. It is usually ideal to purchase a travel card in the currency of your travel destination but if you are unable to find a card that matches your travel destinations transactional currency, it is best to get a sterling prepaid currency card.

Why Get a Sterling Prepaid Card

Overseas fraud cost Brits over £122.7m in card fraud losses according to APACS figures in 2009 and hence, getting a prepaid card for overseas travel is highly recommended. However, if you are travelling outside of Euro or USD region or if you are planning to travel to a Read the rest of this entry »

The face of the money transfer market is rapidly evolving. Traditional channels are being quickly replaced by quicker, cheaper and more efficient channels which are revolutionising the way we send money elsewhere in the world today.

No longer do customers have to spend on expensive wire transfer and get short changed on currency conversions when transferring money outside the United Kingdom. This is possible with Money Transfer Cards. These money transfer cards are essentially prepaid credit cards that you can purchase and provide you with great alternatives to wire transfer and other models of money transfers. The simplicity of the entire process of sending money is so convenient for everyone who needs to send money to anyone across the globe. If you have family members travelling overseas or living overseas, using such Money Transfer cards makes it extremely easy for you to share travel money or remit money to them as additional funds for their everyday use. Read the rest of this entry »

Currency cards are fast replacing foreign currency and Travellers cheques as the preferred way of taking money on holiday abroad and these currency cards are spending money on your holiday safely and securely especially when you are abroad. In fact, research in 2010 suggested that prepaid currency cards are outselling traveller cheques by 70 to 1 and a 50% decline in the number of travellers cheques used by Brits the year before.

Mintel market research further suggests that the UK market for Traveller’s cheques has been in decline for a number of years now even though the overall market for travel has increased. There are numerous obvious reasons why prepaid currency cards are growing in popularity but some of the key benefits of these prepaid currency cards are listed below Read the rest of this entry »

The efficient management of business expenses is one of the challenges which most corporate and small businesses face in the global marketplace. Business travel is one of those business expenses which can be quite costly if not managed properly. This is even more important in the current economic climate where each expense needs to be scrutinised even more carefully whether they are the travel expenses of Members of Parliament or the business professional working on Fleet street.

This is where business prepaid cards are playing a major part as organisations turn to corporate expense cards and business travel cards with an ever growing number of organisations issuing such prepaid cards to their employees as expense cards, per diem cards and travel cards to be used in a number of situations such as making business purchases, business expense payments and managing travel costs within the UK and abroad. Read the rest of this entry »

Prepaid365, one of the UK’s leading prepaid card comparison sites and the organiser of the annual Prepaid365 prepaid awards, recently launched enhanced business listings channel for prepaid card providers and brand new prepaid supplier directory.

Established in 2008, Prepaid365 is widely regarded as the UK’s leading consumer comparison site for prepaid credit cards and provides a comprehensive FAQ section dealing with all things prepaid. The portal has been lauded by senior industry experts as “the most informative and useful website seen for our industry” and “a mandatory bookmarked site” for everyone in our industry.

Amit Sharma, CEO of Prepaid365 commented “Prepaid365 is a consumer comparison portal and will continue to stay true to its core values of providing honest, independent and unbiased prepaid card comparisons and reviews to customers who are looking to purchase prepaid credit cards – whether they are prepaid MasterCard, Visa prepaid cards or non-scheme branded prepaid cards. However, over the last 2 years, we have played a significant role in providing a platform for organisations and individuals looking to launch prepaid card programmes to meet with prepaid card providers and prepaid stakeholders and we wanted to enhance our role even further with the creation of the business listings” Read the rest of this entry »

New Prepaid MasterCard Launched: Payment Card Technologies (PCT) has today kicked off the brand new England Rugby travel card.  Designed to appeal to England Rugby fans throughout the country, this superb new card gives fans the opportunity to show their support for the game by using it to buy match tickets, flights and transport to games and for spending any time, anywhere from a pint in the local to a road trip after the games in Auckland. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since the recession triggered by the real estate and banking sector set in, there has been a growing number of consumers that have been disillusioned with their bank and that has let to a constant search for alternatives to traditional bank accounts.

Alternatives to Bank Accounts

There seems to be a desire to reinvent personal banking to a degree by switching to recently created new banks, credit union accounts and banking prepaid credit cards all emerging as viable alternatives. Prepaid credit cards are undoubtedly the most popular alternative amongst these as they are all inclusive and everyone is guaranteed a prepaid card irrespective of their poor credit history, bad credit record or the lack of a credit record altogether. However, there is some criticism of new banks and credit unions too. Read the rest of this entry »