Prepaid Cards: Understanding The Strategic Opportunity

By Lorena Harris, VP Corporate Marketing, Vantiv

As part of her role as VP Marketing for Vantiv, Lorena directs the Vantiv Insights research on consumer experience with payments.  Working with Mercator, she leads the design and development of all the research-based educational materials provided on Vantiv.com/research.

Prepaid cards are of increasing interest to consumers, but banks may be missing the opportunities this trend presents.

High levels of consumer interest are clearly evident in recent research conducted by Vantiv and Mercator Advisory Group. In a survey of some 1,200 consumers, 6 out of 10 said that they had purchased some type of prepaid card over the past year. A similar number said that they expect to buy cards in the coming year—and 43 percent of those consumers said they expect to buy more than they have in the past. The research found that consumers like the inherent spending discipline of having a set amount of funds loaded on a card, that they see prepaid as the most secure form of in-store payment, and that they consider prepaid to be a useful method for making online purchases.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.