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H&R Block has started testing mobile-banking services for its Emerald MasterCard, the company announced yesterday. Cardholders can use the service to check balances and receive account-reload alerts on their mobile phones, the company says. H&R Block plans to conduct a test through the summer and then provide the service to all its Emerald Card customers throughout the summer, says Kevin Morrison, assistant vice president of products for H&R Block. Metavante Mobile Financial Services, a division of Milwaukee-based Metavante Corp., and Monitise Americas, a joint venture of Metavante and London-based Monitise plc, is providing the service to H&R Block. Metavante provides the processing for Emerald Card transactions and Monitise provides the connection between Metavante and the telecommunications companies, says John Focht, division president of Metavante's issuing solutions group. H&R Block distributed 2.6 million cards this tax season, up from 2 million cards last tax season, Morrison says. Customers use the cards to receive tax refunds and can sign up to have payroll checks deposited to the cards, connect them to lines of credit and savings accounts, and link to funds-transfer services. H&R Block has 13,500 offices across the United States where consumers can sign up for an Emerald card, the company says.
May 28 -
Prepaid card provider Krores Ltd. Tuesday launched a pair of remittance Visa and MasterCard prepaid cards designed for Middle East-based migrant workers who want to transfer funds to their families in India and the Philippines. Holders of the prepaid cards can use them to withdraw transferred funds at ATMs or to purchase goods at stores or online, Vineet Katial, Krores chairman and managing director, tells CardLine. Transfer fees will be lower than with traditional wire services, Katial says. He says the cards eliminate the need for funds recipients to visit a funds-transfer business to obtain remittances. "You have the availability of the money any time, anywhere," Katial says. The company has signed agreements with Ireland-based Exchange House Travellers Service partners in the Middle East and is seeking other partnerships, a statement says. Krores will launch the service in the United States in "about a month or so," Katial says. "In the U.S., [the service] will predominantly be used online," he says. "You can transfer money from a bank account onto a card that can be used in India." Katial attributes the concept for the service to his own troubles wiring funds to his family in India. "We started talking to various governments about [funds-transfer] regulations and found there was a way around the usual way of wiring money," he says. Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Krores also has offices in Ireland, India and Germany and plans to open one in Dubai to cover the Middle East.
May 28 -
Consumers bought an average of 0.54 network-branded gift cards per person during the 2007 holiday season and plan to buy 1.28 cards per person during the corresponding period this year, according to the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association.
May 22 -
Security remains "top of mind" for cardholders, Dave Schneider, president of Pulse, the Houston-based electronic funds transfer network owned by Discover Financial Services, said last month at the 2008 Pulse Conference in Las Vegas.
May 15 -
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