Phone Plus Prepaid: retail news

Posted: 3/2004

retail news

Napster Offers Prepaid Tunes

In November, Napster LLC, a division of Roxio Inc., released millions of prepaid cards for the digital music service in nearly 14,000 retail outlets. The Napster Card offers 15 downloads for $14.85, and is sold at national and regional retailers including Best Buy, CompUSA, Kroger, Safeway, RiteAid, ExxonMobil, Duane Reade, Diamond Shamrock and Speedway/SuperAmerica. Featuring the familiar Napster kittyhead logo, the plastic card closely resembles a credit card. A scratch-off surface conceals a PIN recipients use to activate 15 credits for permanent downloads from the Napster service.

As always, music lovers are welcome to enjoy other Napster features free-of-charge, including: 30-second music clips, on-demand music videos, decades of interactive Billboard charts, community features and the online music magazine Fuzz.

Sprint Launches Mexico-Focused Calling Card, Donates to La Raza

Sprint Corp. has launched a prepaid calling card designed specifically for people who want to keep in touch with loved ones in Mexico. The cards have global calling capabilities and offer an 8 cents-per-minute rate throughout Mexico, with a flat connection fee of $1.69 per call. Consumers can choose from $5, $10 and $20 denominations, and the rates do not vary by denomination.

Also, there are no weekly or monthly fees, and Sprint does not limit call length or use multiple-minute rounding, it says. All information and instructions are provided in both Spanish and English.

The cards are available at participating CVS, Radio Shack and Kmart stores.

The launch of the new Sprint Prepaid PhoneCard for calling Mexico gives Sprint the opportunity to offer Hispanic consumers a simple and straightforward way to stay close to their loved ones in Mexico, says Sprints David Thomas, chief diversity officer.

In conjunction with the launch, Sprint is donating more than 250,000 minutes to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). The donation will be distributed to local not-for-profit organizations that help acclimate Mexican immigrants to the United States.

Sprint continues to be a generous supporter of NCLR, says Raul Yzaguirre, NCLRs president. Giving the minutes to local organizations that work directly with new immigrants will have the greatest impact.

For new immigrants, staying connected to their loved ones back home is vital, says Thomas. Sprint is proud to support NCLR in its efforts to help those who are new to our country.

Encompass Introduces SBC Card

Encompass Communications introduces three SBC-branded prepaid phone cards. The cards are available at 4.9 cents per minute and 6.9 cents per minute with no connect fee, and 1.9 cents per minute with a 49-cent connect fee. Available in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, the cards offer name brand recognition nationwide for distributors and retailers. These products will be sold along with Encompass line of phone cards.

BancorpSouth Debuts Prepaid MasterCard

BancorpSouth has selected PULSE Access, PULSE EFT Associations stored value card solution, to introduce the BancorpSouth Prepaid MasterCard Gift Card to the consumer market. With PULSE Access, the bank is able to offer its own gift card program, allowing customers to choose from a selection of personalized messages and designs to be embossed on the bottom of the card. BancorpSouth says it is offering the gift cards at its 250 locations and its Web site with no loading or shipping and handling fees. The card can be used anywhere MasterCard debit cards are accepted. Card balance and transaction history are tracked simply by accessing BancorpSouths Web site.