Travelex France
TRAVELEX PRESS RELEASE
Travelex Visa TravelMoney® Named Overall Category Winner of
“Best Consumer Card Program” at Industry Gala
Date: March 12, 2008
Louisville, KY - The Travelex Visa TravelMoney® prepaid card was named the category winner for “Best Consumer Card Program” on March 4, 2008 at the Paybefore Awards Gala held during the Prepaid Card Expo in Las Vegas. The Travelex Visa TravelMoney card is used extensively by leisure travelers and has begun to be adopted by businesses as a tool to fund overseas staff expenses.
"I am pleased to see the Travelex Visa TravelMoney card receive this industry honor," said Dan Clancy, senior vice president of services for the Independent Community Bankers of America. "Travelex has been an ICBA Preferred Service Provider since 1982 and its array of travel money products has been a longstanding and valuable component of our members' portfolio of offerings."
The Travelex research also showed that of those who travelled abroad in the last 12 months, women are marginally more fearful of foreign card fraud, with 64% citing it as a cause for holiday concern. This figure was 56% for men. The research also shows that fear of fraud increases steadily the older one gets, with the 55+ age group most concerned about it (66%).
“Travelex has worked closely with many industry-leading organizations to deliver the best product in the market and we see this award not just for those that work at Travelex, but also in praise of all of our equally hard-working partners in making this card the success it is today,” said Christopher Russell, Travelex’s executive vice president of outsourcing, Americas.
In markets, such as the United Kingdom, product adoption has been supported by a high rate of recommendation, with 90%1 of users likely to recommend the product to a friend or colleague. Purchased by the majority of respondents for use on multiple trips abroad, it was the PIN and signature security of the product alongside the budgeting element of prepaid that attracted most users.
“It is an honor to know that the Travelex Visa TravelMoney card was cited by the judges as having unrivalled global support and outstanding customer service,” said David Sear, divisional managing director, outsourcing. “From a global perspective, we support a range of currencies across multiple geographies and our worldwide Cash Passport™ business success is driven by our bank and travel agent partners around the world that count on Travelex to have an unbeatable global service network.”
The Travelex Visa TravelMoney card was launched in 2004 in the United States and more than 160,000 Travelex cards were purchased in 2007 totaling more than $150million USD. The cards can be reloaded with cash as many times as desired and Travelex expects to issue 500,000 cards in 2008. The added value of the convenience and safety of a prepaid card that is not tied to the traveler’s personal bank account and is replaceable overnight has driven steady adoption of this product. The card is available for sale at financial institutions and travel companies across North America.
About Travelex
Travelex is the world's foreign exchange and business payments specialist, operating through subsidiaries and branches in these regions: the Americas, United Kingdom; Europe, Asia Pacific; and Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
As one of the world's leading providers of outsourced travel money to banks, travel
agencies and other retailers it provides products including its prepaid travel card to
over three million channel customers annually. Through its world-leading automation
Travelex offers consumers a full range of delivery channel options including
telephone and web-based ordering. For more information visit
www.travelex.com/us/
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America, the nation’s voice for community banks, represents nearly 5,000 community banks of all sizes and charter types throughout the United States and is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and the communities and customers we serve. For more information, visit www.icba.org.
1 UK Cardholder Customer Service Research, December 2007
- Ends -
For a full copy of this research or further information on the Travelex Cash Passport, please contact: Ana Ansell, Head of Marketing, Outsourcing, Travelex on 0208 415 4325 or by email ana.ansell@travelex.com
Notes to Editors:
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2012 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken on 12th – 14th February 2008. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
Cash Passport – product overview:
Cash Passport is a prepaid card available in three currencies in the UK: EUR, GBP and USD. Other currencies are available relevant to local market and frequent destinations e.g. In Australia the AUD and NZD are available alongside the EUR, USD and GBP.
Travelex is the largest distributor of prepaid cards in the world. Its Cash Passport product is available from Thomas Cook, Co-op Travel, Sainsburys, Tescos, independent travel agents and directly from Travelex shops in over 700 branches worldwide.
Cash Passport is aimed at people who:
Want peace of mind over the safety of their holiday spending money:
- Cash Passport is secure and is not linked to a bank account.
- With free Global Emergency Assistance if the card is lost or stolen, which can include a replacement of the balance.
- The card is PIN and signature protected.
Are looking for a holiday money ‘savings plan’:
- Customers can add money to the card as a saving plan before they leave.
- There is no overdraft facility on the card.
- Euro and US Dollar rates are locked in when a card is loaded to avoid currency fluctuations
Are looking for a more convenient option than just travellers cheques or cash cards:
- The reloadable Cash Passport offers 24 hour access to cash via more than 1 million Visa ATMs without opening hour restrictions.
- There is no requirement for passports or other identification to obtain funds while abroad.
- Exchange rates are set at loading so customers don’t have to worry about currency fluctuations or unpredictable charges and they know exactly how much they have to spend.
- Free Global Emergency Assistance is available (includes emergency cash up to the balance of the card made available at any Western Union across the world within 20 minutes/24hours in remote destinations).
Unlike other prepaid currency cards, Travelex’s Cash Passport has no application fee. Simply load any value between £30 and £5,000 and you can access funds from over 1 million ATM’s (withdrawal fee of £2.50 per withdrawal) and via 18 million Visa Electron merchants worldwide.
Cash Passport is valid for three years with no restrictions on the number of reloads during that time including easy online payments.
Travelex:
Travelex is the world's foreign exchange and business payments specialist. Operating through subsidiaries and branches in four regions: the United Kingdom; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Americas and Asia Pacific.
As one of the world's leading providers of outsourced travel money to banks, travel agencies and other retailers it provides products including its prepaid travel card Cash Passport to over three million channel customers annually. Through its world-leading automation Travelex offers consumers a full range of delivery channel options including telephone and web-based ordering..
For more information please visit: www.travelex.com | www.cashpassport.com