MasterCard Offers Branded Gift Card

PERHAPS MORE NOVEL THAN A gift check, now any business can create a co-branded credit card to be given as a holiday gift or incentive under a new program launched by MasterCard Worldwide.

Business owners or managers can log on to the mastercardgiftcards.com Web site and personalize prepaid gift cards in denominations ranging from $10 to $500 with their company's logo and a personal message such as "congratulations," "happy holidays" or "thank you" to the recipient.

The Purchase, N.Y. credit card issuer launched the co-branded prepaid gift card program in conjunction with KeyBank, and is now analyzing how to advise other bank customers on how to market the product.

Citing the growing popularity of prepaid cards as gifts, Bruno Perreault, group head of global small business and mid-sized enterprises at MasterCard Worldwide, said the opportunity to co-brand with the credit card issuer is a draw to some businesses. "We've even had some very large companies find us through a search engine and buy hundreds of cards," he said.

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