AmEx To Sell Prepaid Gift Cards At Post Offices

American Express Co. will sell gift cards in more than 1,800 post offices starting in June under a pilot with the U.S. Postal Service.

Postal offices wiill sell AmEx-branded cards in fixed amounts of $25 and $50 and in variable amounts ranging from $25 to $100. They will cost $3.95 to $5.95 to activate but will have no other fees, the New York-based card issuer said in a May 9 press release.

The U.S. Postal Service announced plans in January to pilot the sale of gift cards in its branches to generate additional revenue, with plans to retain a percentage of the card sales (see story).  The agency said at the time that it might expand the cards’ availability to an additional 3,000 locations this year.

There is “a nexus between the use of gift cards for gifting purposes and the use of the mails for sending that gift,” the agency said at the time in a notice filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service.

For AmEx, the pilot is the latest effort to expand beyond the traditional credit and charge products it has historically focused on.

Earlier this month, the company said it had begun selling cobranded prepaid cards at Target Corp. retail stores in February under a test with the Minneapolis-based retailer (see story).  In April, AmEx announced a so-called digital wallet service called Serve, which allows customers to pay for online and point of sale purchases using an account funded with other payment cards (see story).  

“As the company looks to move beyond traditional chare and credit products, expanding our distribution network to new and innovative locations like Post Offices is key to accelerating the company’s growth in new payments and digital platforms,” Alpesh Chokshi, AmEx president of global payment options, said in the press release.