Visa USA Helps Issuers Extend Reward Opportunities to Millions of Cardholders Through New Incentive

The program is specifically designed to reward cardholders when they use their enrolled Visa payment cards for everyday expenditures, such as travel, office supplies, groceries, gas, bills, clothing, dining and entertainment. Visa Extras offers a broad range of both big and small rewards to meet individual cardholder preferences from many major national brand rewards partners. With Visa Extras, Visa card issuers can extend rewards opportunities to cardholders who may not currently be participating in a rewards program. Through Visa Extras, millions of new cardholders will have the potential to join a rewards program and earn points toward rewards and receive even greater value when using their enrolled Visa card for qualifying purchases instead of paying with cash or checks. Cardholders may also be able to combine points earned from multiple Visa payment cards within the same financial institution, making it easier and more convenient to earn points toward larger rewards for their purchases. Visa issuers can tailor Visa Extras to meet the specific needs of their cardholders through customized earning and rewards redemption opportunities, which may vary by institution. Cardholders may redeem Visa Extras points for more than 100 rewards available from a variety of top rewards partners including: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, BP Amoco, GAP, Marriott, Ruths Chris Steakhouse, Staples and Starbucks. Cardholders can redeem points frequently for everyday-type rewards, such as a $5 certificate at a Visa Extras rewards partner merchant, or save their points to redeem less frequently for higher value rewards to be used to acquire fine merchandise or a hotel stay. Visa Extras also showcases Visas premiere alliances and offers rewards such as tickets to NFL games, NASCAR races or trial events for the upcoming Olympics. With Visa Extras, cardholders earn points at millions of merchant locations worldwide where their Visa cards are accepted by simply signing the sales draft for qualifying purchases made with an enrolled Visa payment card. Internet purchases, phone or mail orders, and bill payment transactions can also qualify. Visa Extras rewards points are not awarded for transactions when a personal identification number (PIN) is used to make a purchase because the program is available only for Visa transactions, and not transactions processed by PIN-based networks. Certain other restrictions also apply. Visa Extras Rewards Small Businesses While Visa member financial institutions can offer Visa Extras to both consumer and small business cardholders, the program launch is first being supported by a national advertising campaign focused on small business cardholders. As one of the fastest growing segments of todays economy, small business owners are demanding greater value and business benefits from their payment cards and Visa is responding to this need with the introduction of Visa Extras to small business cardholders. Visa research indicates that 76 percent of small business owners are interested in earning rewards when paying for their business expenses with a credit or debit card. Visa research further reveals that nearly 70 percent of small business owners say payment cards would be a lot more valuable if they received rewards for the everyday expenditures associated with running their business, such as supplies, vehicle expenses or bill payment. More than two-thirds of these same small business owners say the problem with current small business rewards programs is waiting a long time and spending a lot to earn rewards. Most small business owners would also like the ability to combine points from their business and personal cards within a single rewards program. Visa Extras was designed to help address these needs of small business owners in both earning points and redeeming their points for meaningful rewards. With Visa Extras, small business