Many European prepaid card users are more affluent than are those who commonly use prepaid cards in the U.S., the results of a First Data Corp. survey recently revealed, but at least one card brand has discussed a way to change that.
“We’ve had discussions with various issuers on potential products that might be of interest to [the affluent] population,” Neil Dugan, head of U.S. prepaid for MasterCard Worldwide, tells PaymentsSource.
MasterCard has developed credit and debit card products that cater to affluent U.S. consumers. The brand’s most recent effort came in March when it announced the World Debit PayPass contactless card. MasterCard designed the card for consumers who spend $7,500 or more annually with their debit cards (
Dugan, however, is unsure whether issuers generally are focused on developing prepaid products for affluent U.S. consumers because of the depth of financial services already used by and offered to that segment. But there are other ways to boost prepaid’s use among the affluent, he contends.
“There could be a situation where a parent is loading a prepaid card for a teen in college,” Dugan says. In that situation, a prepaid card could come into play, such as Mobile MasterCard MoneySend, he adds. The service enables consumers to transfer funds between accounts.
If the sender and receiver both bank at enrolled financial institutions, they can move funds directly between their MasterCard credit, debit or prepaid accounts (
Many affluent consumers also use prepaid transit debit cards, Dugan notes. “With transit, you have an example of everyday use if the affluent are using cards as part of transportation costs.”
