Small Businesses Can Save with Visa Discount Program

November 2, 2011 at 8:02 AM EDT
Visa SavingsEdge delivers automatic savings for small businesses at leading retailers

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 02, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced the expansion of Visa SavingsEdge, a program that provides automatic discounts on qualifying small business expenses. The program now includes more than 1,600 financial institutions and 39 participating merchants and is now available to 24 million eligible small business account holders in the U.S. Participation in the program is free for Visa small business account holders.

"Visa SavingsEdge now provides a much wider range of brands and offers -and connects more merchants to more cardholders than ever before," said Janet Zablock, head of global small business for Visa Inc. "It's one of the ways Visa is extending the utility of its network to deliver more value and efficiency to small businesses, clients and merchants."

Harnessing the analytics and processing capabilities of Visa's network, Visa SavingsEdge automatically processes discounts on small businesses' qualifying purchases in the form of a statement credit, and provides program performance reporting for merchants. Visa's network does all the heavy lifting, saving businesses valuable time. In addition, the program provides financial institutions and participating merchants an opportunity to create stronger relationships with their customers.

Visa small business account holders only need to enroll once, at visasavingsedge.com, to access all of the program discounts. Once enrolled, account holders get instant access to discount offers at participating merchants specializing in products and services for small businesses. Products range from electronics to business services and office supplies. Some participating merchants include: Advance Auto Parts, Barnes & Noble, Health Advocate, HyperOffice, iContact, La Quinta Inns & Suites, Red Robin, Sears PartsDirect, and Support.com.

"Our research indicates that small business owners show strong interest in the availability of merchant offers1. And with a base of 24 million eligible small business account holders, we expect to continue adding merchants looking for ways to grow their business." Zablock said.

For additional information about all the merchant offers please visit: www.visasavingsedge.com/offers

1Visa Small Business Privileges Research, C&R Research Services, February 2010

About Visa Inc.:

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks--VisaNet--that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

SOURCE: Visa Inc.

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Matthew Flegal, +1-415-932-2564
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