Employee Benefits News: Prepaid Rewards – What’s the story?

Do you know how a prepaid card can be used in your reward strategy or do you need a helping hand?

We know it can be baffling, so we caught up with Debbie Rose, a veteran in the space. After spending 14 years with P&MM Debbie joined Mando, marking a year’s service by launching the Universal Card, building from experience in launching the first ever corporate gift card within the employee bene ts sector.

Can you tell us about prepaid cards for reward – why are they so popular?

The idea for using prepaid in this industry is driven from the need to give a brandable reward o ering choice to audiences that reminds them of where their reward came from. A voucher isn’t brandable and is restricted and a cheque or BACS payment is lost into a bank account balance.

Prepaid cards are all about getting a client’s brand directly into their audience’s hands, offering maximum exposure to the brand, delivered efficiently, whilst providing ultimate choice to the end user. It cements relationships with audiences using our alternative payment solution with a strong focus on a positive cardholder journey and the ability to analyse usage to help tailor future programmes.

Prepaid products provide flexible solutions where vouchers, cash, or BACS style payments are not the answer.

The digital world is creating many new applications for this technology, where people want to use cashless payments in a way that is controlled and separated from the rest of their nances. Increasing online fraud is a good example of a change driver as consumers want the flexibility of being able to buy over the Internet, but have an increasing awareness and fear of financial details being hacked or misused. The collection and storing of bank account details for payments can be an admin heavy process, not to mention the data protection issues. Prepaid eliminates these issues.

You know the reward market well. What are the problems people come up against with other reward models?

The reward market is proliferated with many options which is great for choice. Giving audiences a choice makes them feel like they’re in control and calling the shots. But too much choice can sometimes be overwhelming and even lead to them not making a decision at all, otherwise known as ‘choice fatigue’. In my opinion, its becoming increasingly important to support audiences with their choices.

Paper vouchers are dated and soon will be no more. They are the poor relation to other reward choices often causing the recipient issues on redemption, which quite frankly, in an environment where speed and efficiency are key, paper can be disengaging for all. Gift cards are quicker but offer ‘compacted choice’ in that they can only be spent in that one shop. Both these options require either building and maintaining relationships with retailers or using a third party to negotiate rates on your behalf. Reward points are con ned to the desk top which isn’t supporting how the new generations want to work with technology or agile enough for today’s pace of life.