Visa Rolls Out New Small Business Automatic Discounts Program

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 22, 2008 -- Visa Inc., a global leader in payments, today announced the launch of Visa SavingsEdge, a new program designed to help small business owners save money with automatic discounts at top-tier business merchants. Visa SavingsEdge provides Visa Business cardholders with automatic discounts on qualifying purchases made with a Visa Business card at select merchants . By enrolling their Visa Business credit or check card at www.visasavingsedge.com, cardholders automatically receive statement credits for the purchase of qualifying purchases at participating merchants.

"Small business owners are looking for simple ways to cut costs and extend their purchasing power," said Raghav Lal, Head of Global Small Business, Visa Inc. "Visa SavingsEdge is the latest addition to Visa's assortment of discount programs that can give businesses easy access to savings on products and services that are important to the daily function of their business."

The Visa SavingsEdge program is currently available to Visa Business cardholders with cards issued by Chase, Bank of America, PNC Bank, Wachovia and Wells Fargo. Visa plans to continue to add merchant and financial institution partners throughout 2008 and 2009.

Merchants currently enrolled in the Visa SavingsEdge program range from travel to rental cars to shipping companies and include UPS, Alamo Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, and SYX Services, an affiliate and management services provider to TigerDirect and CompUSA. With Visa SavingsEdge, merchants can streamline their discount programs, access new customers and enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction.

"Visa SavingsEdge makes it easy for our small business customers to receive discounts when they make purchases at TigerDirect and CompUSA," said Gilbert Fiorentino, CEO at SYX Services. "This added level of convenience and value is critical in our mission to serve this important segment."

Visa SavingsEdge is the latest addition to the suite of Visa Business value-based programs and services tailored to provide small business owners with discounts and rewards for everyday business purchases. Also included in the suite are Visa direct marketing offers, Visa global merchant offers and the Visa Business Network on Facebook.

"Regardless of the economic environment, savings will always be important to small business owners. Therefore Visa will continue to work with our merchant and financial institution partners to create innovative offerings to address the needs of this unique segment," added Lal.

Direct Marketing Offers

Visa recently expanded Visa direct marketing offers to include Visa Business cardholders. Direct marketing offers allow banks and merchants to target and deliver compelling offers, such as discounts or special promotions, to match a business's needs on a cardholder-by-cardholder basis. Visa has partnered with top merchants in categories important to small businesses -- such as office supplies, computers and electronics, and airlines -- to help them deliver discounts that are relevant to their business customers.

By allowing this level of tailoring, direct marketing offers help merchants get the most out of their marketing dollars. In fact, a participating office supply vendor has recently experienced a 26 percent incremental lift in Visa spend. The direct marketing offers program comes at no additional cost to Visa Business cardholders and can be accessed through participating financial institutions.

Global Merchant Offers

Visa has expanded its merchant offers program for small businesses globally. Visa Business cardholders now can access more than 150 discounts and other offers, including country-specific, regional and global offers. Discounts are currently available on products and services in 17 merchant categories, including car service/rental, computer/electronics, entertainment and telecommunications.

Offers are conveniently presented in 13 local languages and are available at www.visa.com/visabusinessoffers.

"Small business owners have always been an important audience for National Car Rental," said Steve Short, Vice President at National. "The Visa Business direct marketing and merchant offers programs enable us to provide great service to our business customers, helping to strengthen our relationships and better meet their needs."

Visa Business Network

Visa also recently launched the Visa Business Network (www.visabusinessnetwork.com), the first-ever application dedicated to connecting small businesses on Facebook. Using the Facebook Platform, business owners can tap into a global network of peers to help them grow their customer base, manage their business more efficiently and connect with and learn from other business owners and trusted advisers.

Visa has partnered with leading content providers such as The Wall Street Journal marketing, Entrepreneur and Forbes.com to provide business owners with exclusive access to tools and resources to help them grow their business. Since its launch in June, the Visa Business Network has exceeded expectations in terms of business sign-ups and user participation. As the community flourishes, Visa will continue to add content partners and functionality to meet small businesses' needs.

For more information on Visa Business products and services, visit www.visa.com/smallbusiness.

About Visa

Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world, and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

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