March 29, 2011
Launched in 2009, this is the third edition of the fast growing annual Prepaid365 Consumer Awards with over 128 prepaid cards entries across 22 categories being voted for by over 37,000 consumer respondents and Prepaid365 subject matter experts in the business categories.
Divya Sharma, Marketing and PR director at Prepaid365 commented "The prepaid industry continues to grow and so do the Prepaid365 Awards. We had 22 award categories as opposed to 14 from last year and the consumer response has been absolutely astounding. We have always maintained that raising consumer awareness is key to increasing the adoption of prepaid credit cards as a payment mechanism in the UK and the Prepaid365 Awards are all about providing prepaid industry stakeholders a platform for that consumer recognition. Whether it is prepaid MasterCard, Visa or Maestro prepaid cards, Prepaid365 remains the consumers first resource to review and compare prepaid cards. "
Winners on the night included
Best Prepaid Card - Neteller Prepaid MasterCard Best Newcomer Prepaid Card 2010-2011 - Kalixa Prepaid MasterCard Best General Spend Prepaid Card - Cashplus Prepaid MasterCard Best Travel Prepaid Card - Caxton FX Prepaid Card Best Unbanked Prepaid Card - Secure Trust Bank Prepaid Card Best Payroll Prepaid Card - Freedom Eagle Prepaid Card Best Privacy Prepaid Card - Splash Plastic Prepaid Card Best Incentives/Rewards Prepaid Card - Virgin Money Prepaid PAYG Card Best Gaming Prepaid Card - Neteller Prepaid MasterCard Best Youth Prepaid Card - Splash Plastic Prepaid Card Basic Back Account with Prepaid Card - Think Banking Prepaid MasterCard Best Online Shopping Prepaid Card - BaBeeCard Prepaid Card Best Free Prepaid Card - O2 Cash Manager Prepaid Card Best Gifting Prepaid Card - Starbucks Prepaid Card Best Moneyshare Prepaid Card - Payzone Worldwide Money Prepaid Card Best International Prepaid Card - PCS Prepaid Card Best Prepaid Card Innovation - Neteller Virtual Prepaid Card Best Prepaid Marketing Campaign - Travelex Prepaid Marketing Campaign Best Prepaid Card Website - Escape Travel Prepaid Card Best Prepaid Card Design - BaBeeCard Prepaid Card Best Programme Manager - Small Programmes - Prepaid Financial Services Best Programme Manager - Large Programmes - Payment Card Technologies Mark Horgan, Director at Travelex said: &39;As the global currency specialist with over 34 years experience, Travelex prides itself on being an industry leader. The prepaid market has become increasingly competitive, especially here in the UK, so this is a great honour and tribute to our market leading Cash Passport product. To be acknowledged by consumers at the Prepaid365 Awards for our work in educating consumers on the benefits of prepaid cards is testament to the hard work the team put into this campaign. Further, the fact that this award was voted by the public is a wonderful commendation, so thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.&39;
Dan Starr, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Optimal Payments (NETELLER) said: "We are delighted to win yet more consumer awards at the Prepaid365 Awards for the NETELLER Net+ card. Prepaid365 provide the industry with comprehensive information on the prepaid market and are helping raise consumer awareness of prepaid cards; a mandatory site bookmark for all prepaid stakeholders."
Amit Sharma, CEO at prepaid marketing consultancy Emotion Associates and founder of the Prepaid365 Awards commented that "The great thing about consumer awards is that the endorsements actually mean something for prepaid industry stakeholders - you are getting things right. From the originators like Splash and Cashplus to the innovators like Neteller and Kalixa, the Prepaid Card industry is in excellent health and continues to grow. As with all maturing markets, as the market grows, so does the competition and the innovation and the incentives and that means better value for consumers and that can only be a good thing."
Prepaid365 is the UK&39;s leading prepaid card portal online to review, compare and buy prepaid credit cards representing an encyclopaedia of information on prepaid cards, providers and all things prepaid including prepaid MasterCard, visa prepaid cards and free prepaid cards. To review and compare prepaid cards for Money Transfer, Travel, Gaming, Shopping, Payroll and Expense management, Privacy, Gifting and Business, visit the Prepaid365 prepaid portal.
What the Winners Said
Dan Starr, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Optimal Payments (NETELLER) said: "We are delighted to win yet more consumer awards at the Prepaid365 Awards for the NETELLER Net+ card. Prepaid365 provide the industry with comprehensive information on the prepaid market and are helping raise consumer awareness of prepaid cards; a mandatory site bookmark for all prepaid stakeholders." Rupert Kainzbauer, Head of Issuing at Vincento Payment Solutions, says: "On behalf of the Kalixa team, I&39;m delighted that consumers voted for us as the Best Newcomer Prepaid Card at the Prepaid365 Awards. It means a lot to us because these awards are about consumer choice, and we&39;re grateful to all the hard work put in by Prepaid365 educating the consumer and championing the prepaid industry as a whole." Rich Wagner, Chief Executive Officer, APS was delighted with the award wins and commented that "APS is honoured to be recognised as the Best General Purpose Card category for the 3rd year in a row. As with Prepaid365, APS never rests on its success. In 2011 we are further improving our Cashplus product with the introduction of faster payments, an integrated bank account, and the rollout of the highly anticipated and desired Direct Debit functionality. We believe this award and those won over the past 2 years with Prepaid365 show the immense credibility we have built as the primary payment&39;s innovator in the prepaid industry today." Andrew Swailes, Head of Communications, Caxton FX: "The Caxton FX card was the first of its kind, and ever since then we have strived to continue to offer a unique product in what is now an immensely competitive field. I am delighted that Caxton FX has been recognised as the market leader. We have always tried to put the customer first and make their life as easy as possible - since the day we started the greatest percentage of card sign-ups has come through clients recommending our card." Philippe Hardy, Sales Director of White Eagle (Europe) Plc, commented "I am pleased to accept this award on behalf of the team at White Eagle. We are passionate about delivering an exceptional service and to be recognised in this way increases our determination to produce and deliver quality products to meet the needs of our customer." Gilles Coccoli, Managing Director at PrePay Solutions, comments: "The Splash card has a well established heritage, being the first of its kind to be launched in the market. We&39;re delighted by these wins and the consumer recognition at the Prepaid365 Awards." Grant Bather, spokesperson at Virgin Money commented "We are delighted to have won the Prepaid365 Best Incentives/Rewards Prepaid Card. Prepaid cards can help users to budget as well as providing a host of uses, including as an alternative to pocket, or travel money. We anticipate that the market for prepaid cards will continue to grow in the coming years and we look forward to continuing to innovate in this sector." Steve Muirhead, Head of Service at Thinkbanking said: "We are delighted, and very grateful, that so many of our customers voted for us at the Prepaid365 Awards- evidence, perhaps, of how we make their lives easier. Thinkbanking is more than just a prepaid card or basic banking facility; it is in fact a current account like no other. Our unique budgeting service enables customers to ring fence the money they need to pay their bills, which gives them peace of mind. Thinkbanking isn&39;t just aimed at the more than 1.4 million people in the UK paying more than &163;500 a year in bank charges or the 6 million plus Brits who struggle to keep to budget each month, but also at those that just want somebody else to manage their finances so they don&39;t have to." Gemma Johnson, founder and CEO at BaBeeCard, commented that "we are delighted to have won consumer recognition at Prepaid365 Awards for a third year running. BaBeecard continues to flourish and looks forward to new and exciting developments in 2011. Our premise has always been to deliver exceptional value to our customers and the awards are recognition for those efforts over the last 12 months. BaBeecard&39;s aim to help families save money, remains one we are passionate about, with the recession having left many families struggling not least due to inflation which continues to rise. Despite the recent March budget specifically claiming to &39;raise the standards of families&39; with some helpful concessions, families will actually be hit harder than single earners over the next two years, due to the tapering away of tax credits for incomes of more than &163;40, 000 and the imminent removal of child benefit from higher-rate taxpayers. Financial saving for Families has never been so important." Philip A&239;m, CEO of Creacard expressed his delighted with the result stating "we are extremely proud to have launched the first prepaid card in France, but much more proud to receive this consumer award at the Prepaid365 Awards, which for us is primarily the recognition of a successful project that&39;s both secure and reliable. We hope that the French market for prepaid will grow successfully for PCS products and that our customers will find in this product an alternative to traditional means of payment, with additional services that will enrich the offer in the coming weeks." July 19, 2004
GPhone.net announces the release of its new World Passport dual mode callback phone card and worldwide toll free access calling card in one. Regardless of country, the World Passport allows callers using mobile phones and regular phones the ability to bypass expensive local phone London, UK February 11, 2010
KDS, an international leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) travel and expense management, is today announcing an enhanced billing module for the company’s ‘KDS Corporatesolution.
The new module enables the reconciliation of supplier invoices and traveller expenses, adding control, saving and simplicity to travel and expense management.
The new KDS billing module meets a vital need of procurement executives: to gain visibility over the total cost of a trip. The end-to-end solution allows organisations to reduce the time and effort needed to reconcile actual spend.
Why the need A true story...
Jo books and immediately invoices a trip to New York next month. As often happens, however, the meeting has to be rescheduled and she cancels the booking. The airline refunds Jo but, as a busy executive, she forgets to pass the refund back to her company. Finance departments don’t like it when that happens!
With the KDS Corporate billing module in operation, Jo’s company would have been alerted about the trip cancellation.
Travel services are paid via credit cards (both personal and corporate), lodge cards (corporate account) and cash. The job of the finance and procurement departments is to understand who spent what money on which services. However, working through and reconciling an extensive list of claims from multiple travellers on a single supplier invoice whether covering airfares, hotel stays, car rentals or any other travel service has until now been a long and painful task.
Yves Weisselberger, chief executive officer of KDS, says: “Without our new billing module, most of our clients had to wait for their travel management company’s report and spend hours analysing the data to match every booking against the invoice.
“Knowing the real, total cost of a trip has long been a goal of the travel procurement process. With KDS, that goal can now be achieved by every organisation.
Billing for lodge cards
Lodge cards (or a travel account) are payment tools that centralise payment for the procurement of travel services. Although lodge cards considerably improve many aspects of the travel and expense process, the reconciliation of lodge card invoices with traveller bookings is nonetheless much improved with the new KDS billing module. Organisations can now better monitor their supplier contracts, their travel policy compliance and any savings that are being missed.
Not all travel services are paid for via credit cards or lodge cards. Organisations have direct contracts with suppliers for the procurement of services such as hotel rooms, car rentals and railway travel. These negotiated contracts provide organisations with lower prices and administrative overheads, and with simpler procurement processes. However, breaking down the invoices for each traveller can be a time-consuming process. The new KDS billing module simplifies that process of reconciling traveller expenses with invoices.
KDS Corporate closes the loop on travel procurement from trip planning and booking to payment and reimbursement. Travellers manage their bookings and expenses in a quick and streamlined manner, while the procurement and finance departments stay on top of travel spend, controlling and reconciling every booking.
About KDS:
KDS (http://www.kds.com) is a leading international provider of Travel&Expense (T&E) management systems for private and public sector organisations. KDS’s unified Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based technology addresses the full range of T&E requirements, from travel policy definition and enforcement, and the online self-booking of travel, through to automated travel expense processing and invoice reconciliation. With each stage handled seamlessly by KDS’s fully-integrated technology, clients achieve significant efficiencies and cost-savings. KDS offers the industry’s most extensive back-end connectivity to financial service and travel providers (airline, car, rail and hotel), ensuring optimised pricing and up-to-the-minute inventory control.
company and hotel long distance and international calling rates. The new offering works in any country in the world and is available by instant online signup using a credit card and offers simple monthly credit card billing. For a limited time new customers also receive 30 minutes of free calls when they sign up.
The new World Passport offering is ideal for regular phone users, mobile/cellular phone users and users that travel and need to place calls from any available touchtone phone.
For further details, please visit http://www.gphone.net .
Paul Smith, managing director, EZPay Ltd, the operator of the Escape Travel Money Prepaid Card, commented: "Winning one of the top awards in the prepaid business within 12 months of the Escape Travel Money Card and website launching is fantastic news. We&39;re really proud to have overtaken traditional players in the prepaid sector so quickly, and thrilled that our efforts to offer the best option for consumers looking to save money and enjoy simple and fee-free spending abroad have been recognised. The Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards win is a significant signal that our customers, and our industry, are enjoying our no-nonsense approach to business as much as we are." Mark Horgan, Director at Travelex said: &39;As the global currency specialist with over 34 years experience, Travelex prides itself on being an industry leader. The prepaid market has become increasingly competitive, especially here in the UK, so this is a great honour and tribute to our market leading Cash Passport product. To be acknowledged by consumers at the Prepaid365 Awards for our work in educating consumers on the benefits of prepaid cards is testament to the hard work the team put into this campaign. Further, the fact that this award was voted by the public is a wonderful commendation, so thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.&39; Noel Moran, CEO of Prepaid Financial Services Ltd expressed his delight with the results commenting, "We are delighted to have been recognised with these two awards. We are particularly proud that we have been recognised in two fields which have been our key focus from day one. Since its inception PFS has strived to offer corporate clients flexible low cost entry into the prepaid market. Our purpose built prepaid software platform is constantly tailored to improve our offering and meet the requirements of our clients." Ian Clowes, Managing Director of PCT commented that "the award recognises the amazing efforts of our highly knowledgeable and dedicated team who help to turn clients&39; often complex visions into successful prepaid solutions. Award wins such as this reinforce the premise that we are providing our clients with expert programme management from concept to delivery."
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