Smart Bits: SunTrust Hires Firm For Sales to Collectors

SunTrust Bank Central Florida said it has signed KARS Unlimited of Ormond Beach, Fla., to be the official distributor of Visa Cash cards to collectors.

The SunTrust Banks Inc. subsidiary and Visa, which had been testing the smart cards in SunTrust Center in Orlando, have just officially introduced them in the Walt Disney Co. town of Celebration, Fla. The cards are supplied by Giesecke & Devrient America.

"Because of the burgeoning demand by collectors for stored value cards, SunTrust deemed it necessary to name a distributor, and KARS Unlimited fit the bill," said Cathleen H. Nash, senior vice president and director of marketing for SunTrust. "KARS Unlimited is local and has lots of experience in the industry. We are very excited about working with them."

KARS, a leading dealer of prepaid and stored value card, was sole distributor of the Visa Cash cards issued in conjunction with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

SunTrust Visa Cash cards come in both disposable and reloadable versions. The disposable denominations are $5, $10, $20, and $50. They depict various scenes of Celebration including homes, downtown, and the SunTrust branch. The bank opened the office in 1996 and decided to offer "a technologically significant advancement" in the form of chip cards, Ms. Nash said.