Barclaycard Launches Prepaid Store Cards
Commercial card issuer Barclaycard Business is offering UK merchants prepaid cards. The Barclays Bank subsidiary has launched a service known as Prepaid Solutions which uses existing Barclaycard Business POS terminals for prepaid card transactions.
Barclaycard Business says its closed-loop cards do not use the Visa or MasterCard payment schemes. Instead, they carry the retailerÆs brand and are designed for use in specific merchant stores for programs such as gift, refund or rewards cards. Barclaycard Business developed Prepaid Solutions in partnership with Card Commerce, an independent provider of prepaid debit cards. Support services offered by Card Commerce include card design and customer acquisition advice. Prior to launching Prepaid Solutions, Barclaycard Business carried out a three-month prepaid card trial with Autonomy, a ladies clothes chain, which has 27 stores across the UK. The prepaid cards were a definite success with AutonomyÆs customers, says Niru Hunwicks, the retailerÆs marketing and operations manager. ôWe were looking to enter the prepaid card market for some time, but were put off by the heavy financial and administrative investment required,ö Hunwicks says. ôUsually, you have to buy third-party software which takes a while to set up, but we didnÆt need to do any of this with the Barclaycard Business solution.ö Barclaycard Business offers merchants real-time online management information for their prepaid cards. In addition, prepaid cardholders can track their transactions and outstanding balances online, the issuer says. Related Links
