Financial services company and prepaid card solutions provider nFinanSe said it has launched the industry’s lowest-cost reloadable prepaid debit card, the Discover Network Reloadable Prepaid Card.
The product offers low fees and rich features such as the ability for immediate use, text-messaging notification of transactions and balances and free customer service.
The card provides a lower-cost electronic payment option for the 73 million unbanked and under-banked consumers in the country, nFinanSe said.
With credit cards no longer an option for millions of Americans who are maxed out on their current cards or for consumers who live day-to-day on a cash basis without a banking service, the nFinanSe Reloadable Card fills the void, or what the industry calls the “plastic gap,” nFinanSe said.
“Banks are now slashing the number of new credit cards, reducing credit limits, decreasing services and limiting options for average, hard-working Americans. While they continue to charge high fees and are even raising them during these difficult economic times, we offer the low cost solution,” said Jerry Welch, chairman and CEO of nFinanSe.
“Consumers can find and reload the nFinanSe Discover Network Reloadable Prepaid Card in one of more than 9,000 Dollar General locations and Winn-Dixie grocery stores throughout the nation,” Welch said. “The company also has commitments for its revolutionary Reloadable Card in an additional 10,000 retail locations during the first half of 2009. The company estimates its new prepaid card could save Americans over $500 million annually if consumers switched to the nFinanSe Reloadable Prepaid Card from competing cards in the marketplace.”
While other prepaid providers charge as much as $9.95 to $14.95 for the purchase of a reloadable prepaid card – as well as $4.95 in monthly maintenance fees, $4.95 to reload cards and as much as $2 for a customer service call – nFinanSe said its Reloadable Prepaid Card costs are dramatically lower.
The nFinanSe Reloadable Prepaid Card costs $5.95, carries a monthly maintenance fee of $2.95, can be reloaded for $2.95 and offers free customer service.
“We’ve grown accustomed to paying with cards in stores and online,” Welch said. “The fact is that consumers cannot even buy merchandise and services online without some type of payment card. In a country accustomed to plastic and other forms of electronic payments, reloadable cards are the key for Americans to continue buying goods and services in stores and online. Our Reloadable Card empowers consumers to get the most for their money in the worst economic slump in modern times.”