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Visa Inc. is partnering with MoneyGram International, a major competitor in funds transfers, to drive more volume to its prepaid debit card-reloading network, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. The two companies announced today that MoneyGram has agreed to enable consumers to use its 40,000 U.S. sites to reload their Visa prepaid debit cards on the Visa ReadyLink reloading network. The agreement, which is to take effect this summer, quintuples the number of sites where cardholders can access the ReadyLink network. It now is available in 7-Eleven Inc. stores and grocery stores that offer prepaid cards from Safeway Inc.'s Blackhawk Network unit, among other sites. The partnership "gives us a national footprint of locations across the country," says Nizam Antoo, Visa senior business leader for underserved products. "It provides really an excellent value proposition for all the participants." MoneyGram, which offers its own reloading service for a variety of individual prepaid providers and processors, says the deal will enable it reach more prepaid card providers and their customers. Greg Waltz, MoneyGram vice president and general manager of payment products, says he also expects the deal to increase volume–and revenues–for both companies. "Especially from a Visa perspective, it's difficult to say, 'Go find a participating location.' If you can say, 'Go find a MoneyGram location, any MoneyGram location accepts it,' that helps a great deal," Waltz says. "For us, on the other side of that, it helps to be able to say, reload any Visa ReadyLink-enabled card at any MoneyGram location." As with its own reloading service, MoneyGram will make money from the fees it charges consumers to reload their cards; Waltz would not disclose the exact fees it plans to charge but says MoneyGram generally charges $3.95 to $4.95 per reload. Visa, not MoneyGram, will process the reloading transactions, and it potentially will benefit from increased transaction volumes as more cardholders reload and reuse their prepaid cards.
