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Though reloadable prepaid cards continue to gain popularity with consumers, reload networks are experiencing different growth rates that typically depend on their alliances. Atlanta-based InComm Inc. leads with 150,000 reload locations as of the end of June, according to the 2010 edition of the ATM&Debit News EFT Data Book, a CardLine sister publication that publishes Thursday. But that total represents only a 3% increase from 145,000 locations in 2007, according to Gwenn Bézard, research director at Boston-based consulting firm Aite Group LLC. "The numbers suggest [InComm] may have hit a ceiling," he says. Aite collected its 2007 figures from various surveys and reports. Most InComm reload sites are located in retail environments such as supermarkets, which offer high penetration into the market. But only so many such locations exist, Bézard says. Check-cashing locations such as those operated by The Community Currency Exchange Association of Illinois offer a growing value channel for marketing and selling reloadable prepaid debit cards, Bézard says. NetSpend Corp. is making deals to move in that direction. In May, the company announced a partnership with MoneyGram International, a leading funds-transfers company, to drive more volume to its prepaid card reloading network. The agreement enables NetSpend prepaid debit cardholders to load value into their card accounts immediately at any of MoneyGram's 40,000 U.S. locations. NetSpend's 90,000 reload locations gave it the second most behind InComm. That total is almost double the 17,000 locations the Austin, Texas-based company had in 2007, according to Bézard. NetSpend had 8,000 locations in 2005. "That growth is a testament to the channel they decided to pursue," Bézard says.
