News

Convenient Cards wins national award for prepaid card program

January 18, 2011

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS – Convenient Cards, a company which markets and manages prepaid card electronic payment programs, has received a Paybefore Award from Paybefore.com, the leading worldwide provider of information about the prepaid card industry.

Convenient Cards’ Tour Operator Program was named a 2011 winner of the Paybefore Award in the “Most Effective Prepaid Solution” category. The Award was made by a panel of five industry experts. Once again, competition for the Award came from a record number of entries from around the world.

“In each of its five years, Paybefore Awards has attracted a wider and more diverse group of nominations,” said Marilyn Bochicchio, Paybefore’s CEO. “This year’s entries showed exceptional creativity and thoughtfulness in using prepaid to solve real-world payment issues and provide outstanding convenience, safety and control for individuals who are the ultimate users of these products.”

The award-winning program from Convenient Cards dramatically cuts costs and speeds payments for tour guides, independent contractors stationed around the globe who need funds to pay tour expenses. Advancing funds to tour guides by wire is expensive, by check is slow, and administering and accounting for both is time consuming. Travel tour operators can use Convenient Cards’ Visa® prepaid cards to load funds for immediate use by their tour guides. There’s no currency exchange to manage, and administrative and accounting costs are reduced by 50 percent.

"We're honored to receive this prestigious Paybefore award," said Convenient Cards CEO, Greg Caldicott. "And we're pleased that the judges recognized the value our Visa prepaid card program brings to travel tour operators, a $3.6 billion global industry."

“It is particularly significant to receive this recognition in a highly competitive category recognizing prepaid's unique ability to improve processes that have been reliant on inefficient paper-based processes," said Kate Sullivan, a former executive vice president of Citigroup International who is a member of the Convenient Cards board of directors.

About Convenient Cards: Based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Convenient Cards markets and manages prepaid card programs on a business-to-business basis. Its customers benefit from lower costs of payment remittances, increased customer satisfaction, generation of incremental revenue and enhanced fraud protections and cash control. Cardholders benefit from the convenience of carrying a Visa prepaid card, the elimination of check cashing fees and the flexibility of making purchases anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, including at merchants, online and over the phone and getting cash at banks and ATMs. Convenient Cards offers a broad array of prepaid card program solutions including workers' compensation and disability payment programs for insurers, payroll programs for employers and direct sales organizations, corporate disbursement programs for tour operators, prepaid card programs for check cashers, and consumer gift, and travel money programs for banks and credit unions. All cards bear the Visa Brand Mark, allowing cardholders to make purchases at any of 25 million merchants worldwide that accept Visa Debit cards, and to obtain local currency at more than one million Visa ATMs around the globe. Visit us at www.convenientcards.com

About Paybefore: Paybefore is the leading information provider to prepaid and stored value industry professionals, offering the latest news, commentary and analysis. Paybefore’s family of industry publications include: Paybefore.com™, a searchable online news and information portal; Paybefore News™, daily news briefs delivered electronically; Paybefore News International™, a weekly compilation of prepaid news and events from outside the United States; Paybefore Update™, a downloadable e-newsletter delivered 20 times a year; Paybefore Legal™, a downloadable e-newsletter covering the legislative, regulatory and judicial developments in prepaid, as well as feature articles by leading attorneys in the field; Paybefore Magazine™, a biannual print publication featuring in-depth articles on the opportunities, challenges and trends in the global prepaid and stored value industry; and the only industry directory, Paybefore Buyer’s Guide™, available online and in print. Visit us at www.paybefore.com.

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