What Is a Prepaid Business Credit Card?

A prepaid card refers to a prepaid voucher issued by a card issuer through a specific carrier and form for the purpose of profit, which can be purchased at a specific institution. According to whether the identity information of the cardholder is recorded, it is divided into registered prepaid cards and anonymous bearer cards; according to the information carrier, it is divided into magnetic stripe cards and chip (IC) cards.

Prepaid card

A prepaid card refers to a prepaid voucher issued by a card issuer through a specific carrier and form for the purpose of profit, which can be purchased at a specific institution. According to whether the identity information of the cardholder is recorded, it is divided into registered prepaid cards and anonymous bearer cards; according to the information carrier, it is divided into magnetic stripe cards and chip (IC) cards.

Chinese name

Prepaid card

Foreign name

prepaid card

Time of origin

1983

Nature

For profit

Form

Card, password, etc.

Alias

Gift Cards, Consumer Cards, Shopping Cards, Gift Cards

A new way of transacting has emerged overseas, and that is shopping with prepaid cards.

The prepaid card is actually an auxiliary currency. Its English translation is Paid Card, so it is referred to as P card in Taiwan. This kind of card is usually a plastic thin card printed with a delicate pattern, so it is also called plastic currency.

The use of the prepaid card is: consumers pay a limited amount of cash in advance in a system-wide store, get this card, and can use these cards to make one or more direct purchases within the prepaid amount without cash .

Locking consumption: As a marketing tool, prepaid cards are very significant for locking consumption. Cardholders can only spend at companies or merchants designated by the card issuer.

Deposited funds: The card issuer removes the funds that need to be deposited, and the rest can be used for main business investment

Residual value income: Some gift cards cannot be used up completely, about 1% -4% residual value income

Transaction commission: card issuers can charge different percentages of handling fees according to industry when using other merchants' prepaid cards

Other value-added services: intermediate profits from services such as discounts and general points

The prepaid card industry is still in the process of bottoming out and stabilizing

The Single-use Commercial Prepaid Card Industry Report (2016) released at the summit shows that the retail sales of prepaid cards in 2015 were RMB 737.021 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5.39%. The industry is still in the process of bottoming out. The prepaid card consumption scale was approximately RMB 73.281 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 8.49%.

Prepaid card personal market picks up

2015 was a year of explosive growth in the prepaid card personal market. In this year, the scale of including shelf-type gift cards and virtual cards achieved explosive growth. According to statistics, in 2015, personal prepaid cards for shelf display sales have achieved good growth in first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities. The sales volume of shelf-type gift cards in first-tier cities increased by 80.69%, the scale of shelf-type gift cards in second-tier cities increased by 100.82%, and the scale of shelf-type gift cards in third-tier cities and below increased by 192.61%.

Mobile card coupon applications make prepaid cards appear in marketing

During the implementation of the membership policy of traditional brick-and-mortar retail enterprises, various problems will be encountered during the implementation process, which will affect the members' visits to the store and the consumer experience. The virtualization of prepaid cards may enrich the marketing methods of card issuers to members. The marketing tool attributes of cash value have achieved good results in the marketing work of some card issuers. According to preliminary estimates, the scale of virtual card sales in 2015 increased by 965.21% compared with 2014, and the number of virtual card sales accounts increased by 268.4% compared with the same period in 2014.

The realization of this function will help to expand the base of card issuers' marketing customers, realize the introduction of new customers, and then help to formulate hierarchical marketing strategies based on consumer behavior.

The marketing battle for prepaid cards is getting fiercer

With the further intensification of commercial competition, more and more card issuers are considering strengthening the marketing of prepaid cards, and planning and sorting out from the organizational structure level, or the localization of marketing strategies, or reducing the approval process to provide guarantee for the marketing of prepaid cards. . From the perspective of marketing itself, card issuers use various marketing methods (such as shake, red envelopes, sharing, and member rebates) to market and promote prepaid cards; from the aspect of channel cooperation, the cooperation between physical stores and e-commerce has expanded the prepaid card. Sales channels and scope.

Card issuers build payment systems based on prepaid cards

In addition to re-establishing the business capabilities of their products, the customer's business capabilities, and the supply chain's business capabilities, card-issuing companies have become an important part of building core competitiveness based on the pre-paid card payment system. In combination with various resource inputs of the traffic introduction platform, mobile terminal, and promotion platform, customers are brought in and stayed, and then customers are turned into their loyal customers through various service means.

Prepaid card account security issues highlighted

With the further development of the scale of the electronic payment industry, prepaid cards are used by criminals due to anonymity or insufficient customer attention, and some card issuers have loopholes in the security management of prepaid card accounts. Cases of illegally invading accounts and transferring funds occur from time to time, and account security issues of prepaid cards are prominent.

According to incomplete statistics, the account payment system of several well-known domestic e-commerce platforms was exploded by the media in 2015 due to account security issues. The virtualization of prepaid cards cannot be separated from the protection of account security. The establishment of a security mechanism for prepaid card Internet transactions requires extensive attention and attention, and it must be eliminated and prevented through practical measures. ^[4]