Angry Birds Launch Into Prepaid — Again

Mobile financial services company Paymobile has partnered Rovio Entertainment to provide an Angry Birds prepaid Visa card for Canadians.

Paymobile's card is the latest of many payments products tied to the massively popular mobile-phone game. The prepaid card marketer Kaiku offers a U.S.-issued Angry Birds prepaid card featuring either the heroic Angry Birds or their rivals, the Bad Piggies. Rovio also developed an in-game payment system called Bad Piggy Bank, which bills purchases to the user's wireless bill.

Paymobile's Angry Birds Visa card will be available Sept. 16. The card account will provide text message notifications for purchases, online account access, money management tools and education, adjustable spending caps, smartphone account access and Visa's zero liability protection.

"Angry Birds is a household brand, with more than 1.7 billion apps downloaded worldwide," said Jukka Koivu, Head of Global Sales for Rovio Entertainment, in Aug. 27 press release. "As we extend the Angry Birds brand beyond gaming, we want to ensure we provide our fans with products that have added value and which promote important issues, such as responsible spending. Our strategic partnership with Paymobile to empower our Angry Birds personalized prepaid card ensures flawless technical execution on their world-class platform."

The cartoon cast of Angry Birds joins a roster of numerous real and fictional celebrities that have endorsed prepaid cards over the years. Such endorsements are controversial practices with mixed results —the Justin Beiber-endorsed SpendSmart card promotes itself as educational,  whereas the Kardashian Kard vanished abruptly following allegations that its pricing was predatory.

Other celebrities, such as music mogul Russell Simmons and finance guru Suze Orman, endorse prepaid cards, but also take on a more active management role. And many other prepaid cards feature the images of fictional heroes such as Star Trek's Captain Kirk.