Ukash’s partnership with 3V Transaction Services Ltd. to enable consumers to purchase event tickets for the London 2012 Olympics using a Visa-branded virtual prepaid card is part of a company initiative to become a prepaid debit card reload network in Europe, according to CEO David Hunter.
“We have an aspiration to be an ubiquitous cash-load [network] for all the prepaid card programs in Europe,” Hunter tells PaymentsSource. “That role becomes even more important when you have a virtual card program.”
Visa, which is the exclusive payment partner for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, has a partnership with 3V that enables consumers to purchase a voucher they can convert into a Visa-branded prepaid card.
United Kingdom-based Ukash’s partnership with Ireland-based 3V, announced April 20, enables users to convert their vouchers into Visa virtual cards to purchase Olympics tickets.
Ukash vouchers have unique 19-digit codes consumers enter when initiating purchases on merchant websites. Ukash sells the vouchers to consumers who prefer not to use payment cards for online purchases or who cannot use cards. More than 420,000 merchants worldwide accept the vouchers as payment.
Ukash does not add any fees beyond its vouchers’ initial value, but 3V applies a surcharge that depends on the amount loaded into the prepaid account. Fees range between £2 and £5 (US$3.31 and 2.27 euros). Consumers may load no more than £150 into the Visa prepaid account.
Consumers receive a 3V voucher by e-mail that features an activation code and PIN needed to access the virtual Visa card’s information, which includes an account number, customer card identification number and expiration date. The card expires three months from the purchase date, but customers may transfer funds to another virtual Visa card or bank account.
United Kingdom-based Raphaels Bank PLC issues the cards.
Ukash has seen a “reasonable” number of transactions since the partnership was announced, but Hunter declined to reveal exact figures. UK consumers have until April 26 to purchase tickets to the London 2012 Olympics.
Ukash’s Olympics’ initiative helps give the company more exposure as it strives to become a prepaid card-load network, Nicole Sturgill, a research director at TowerGroup in Needham, Mass., tells PaymentsSource.
“They are helping out a lot of consumers with this,” Sturgill says. “[Ukash] has put its name out there as the way to buy Olympics tickets if you don’t have a Visa card.”
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