I an now up to my 49th issue since I started in 1990. The Newsletter focuses on Visa Cash moneycards, thematic phonecards from Japan and New Zealand phonecards. Subscriptions cost US$30 per year for airmail delivery. Sample copies US$1.
Moneycard Collectables Newsletter
PO BOX 19783
Christchurch
New Zealand
bphillip@caverock.net.nz
Would you agree that a phonecard group that had 254 messages placed in the past week was active?. How about 88 messages in the past 72 hours? ONLY 5 were dealer for-sale messages. 16 were for promotions and giveaways spotted by our members 8 were for trades among collectors The remainder (225 messages this week) were actually about collecting: the state of the hobby, magazine reviews, collector clubs & groups, a show schedule for the U.S., etc.
What a concept!
Where is this online cornucopia of moneycard/phonecard information? The same place it has been for the past five years. What have you been missing all these years? If you are an ex- subscriber who is no longer active, I invite you to come back and take a look.
Now, you can try it for free for 100 hours by using your own browser or by getting a free copy of the services own software. Either works just as well. Http://go.compuserve.com/Telecard
P.S. We are just warming up during our 5th anniversary celebration which extends through January when our parent network, CompuServe, celebrates its 20th anniversary. We are giving away THOUSANDS of moneycards, phonecards, proofs, supplies and more to ACTIVE members of the CompuServe Telecard Forum. Drop by and find out why you should join us.
1998
Aug 6-9 Nat'l Sports Collectors Conv. (Chicago/Rosemont); 800-325-1121
Sep 1-3 Telecard World '98 (NYC); Multimedia Publishing 800-717-7469
Sep 8-10 ScandiCards '98 (Stockholm); AIC Exhibitions +46(8)402-1000
Sep 24-27 Long Beach Coin&Collectibles Expo; LB Coin Club 805-962-9939
Sep 23-25 Defending Cyberspace 98 (Wash DC); CTST 800-442-2878
Oct 4-6 Credit Card Collections (Nashville); Faulkner&Gray 800-535-8403
Oct 7-9 Advanced ATM (San Diego); Faulkner&Gray 800-535-8403
Oct 25-27 Retailer Card Forum (Chicago); Faulkner&Gray 800-535-8403
Oct 27-29 Cartes 98 (Paris); CNIT +33-(0)-1-41-220-220
Nov 8-11 Credit Card Mktg Conf, (Vegas); Faulkner&Gray 800-535-8403
3100 total cards were produced, with two varieties. 50 matched sets were designated for collectors. Each card has 10 minutes, with phone time good 12 months from activation. Contact Gazelle at (206) 935-3576 or e-mail gazelletel@aol.com for further details.
Card of the Year, the highest honor of the competition, was presented for a limited edition prepaid phone card created by Quest in conjunction with BellSouth. The card, which was given by BellSouth to friends and supporters of the American Foundation for the Blind, pictures Helen Keller using manual alphabet communication with Alexander Graham Bell. The information on the card was also featured in Braille.
Quest's Student PhoneCard received the award for Domestic Retail Card of the Year. The Student PhoneCard features point-of-sale activation and popular options including voice mail, speed dialing and access to a variety of information services.
"We appreciate the opportunity to work with BellSouth in winning the Card of the Year," said Richard DeWitt, president of Quest, "and we were very pleased that our Student PhoneCard, created as a result of the feedback from our retailers, was recognized as the best Retail Card of the Year."
BellSouth is a $21 billion international communications company. It provides telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and publishing, cable and digital TV, Internet and information services to nearly 30 million customers in 20 countries worldwide.
The American Foundation for the Blind is the nation's leading resource on blindness and visual impairment. Founded in 1921, it is the organization to which Helen Keller devoted over 40 years of her life beginning in 1924.
Quest is a leading provider of prepaid phone card programs in the retail, promotional, wholesale and platform markets and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teltrust, Inc. Teltrust is one of the nation's leading telecommunications outsource service providers, offering a broad range of call placement services including: calling card services, enhanced call processing, call completion services and national directory assistance. The company operates several network-based call processing centers in Utah and state-of-the-art telephony switches located throughout the United States. For more information, visit Teltrust's web site at www.teltrust.com.
"Prepaid phone cards are an inexpensive and convenient means for making long-distance phone calls away from home or office, and they are particularly attractive to train travelers," stated Mark Bennett, SIMS' president. "We are pleased that our cards now can be purchased easily by Amtrak passengers."
Prepaid phone card revenues in the U.S. have grown from an estimated $20 million in 1990 to an estimated $3 billion in 2000 making them one of the fastest growing segments in the telecommunications industry.
SIMS Communications provides low cost, turnkey, transaction processing solutions to retailers and service organizations. These solutions include its patented, intelligent, DebitLink POS terminal, custom software and comprehensive network of financial transaction processors including most credit card and ATM networks. Also included are prepaid service offerings including prepaid phone card activations.
"We recognize that many retailers are making the strategic decision to embrace Windows NT and ActiveStore in their businesses. In reaction to that strategy, we've built ReadiMondex to make it easier than ever for systems integrators and developers to Mondex-enable their businesses," said Janet S. Crane, president and CEO of Mondex USA. Geared toward businesses with Windows-driven back-office systems, ReadiMondex is turnkey software that will help retailers and other users deploy Mondex electronic cash quickly, easily and inexpensively. ReadiMondex has two components: A Software Developers' Kit (SDK), and software for managing the back-office chip farm. Working together, these two components simplify implementation of Mondex by eliminating the need to learn the Mondex technical specifications and value transfer protocol. "Microsoft is excited to see the addition of Mondex as the first electronic cash/smart card application for the ActiveStore architecture," said Judy Dulcich, retail industry marketing manager at Microsoft. "This will enable retailers to easily deploy Mondex solutions and seamlessly integrate it into their ActiveStore environments."
The ActiveStore initiative will simplify application integration and reduce the complexity of developing retail systems. Supported by more than 500 leading retail companies, ActiveStore allows retailers to select best-of-breed components from any source, without the cost and risk associated with integrating store-level applications.
ActiveStore works to define Active X components and high-level business processes and data interfaces between major store-level applications like POS. It addresses issues such as shared data elements and business rules, systems integration and navigation.
ReadiMondex runs on the Win32 platform, consists of Active X components and is PC/SC compliant. In addition, ReadiMondex components can be used in any Active X container application that supports scripting, including Internet Explorer and Microsoft Access. The ReadiMondex SDK supports all of Mondex's core functions. It can be used in any next generation development environment such as Visual C++, Visual Basic, Visual J++, and Delphi. The initial ReadiMondex Software Developers' Kit (SDK) will be available in summer 1998 to a limited number of companies selected to participate in the ReadiMondex Early Adopter Program.
``Prepaid phone cards are growing in popularity as a convenient way to make and pay for calls,'' said John Taylor, senior vice president of Consumer Markets at Qwest. ``We are excited to work with retailers like OfficeMax to make phone cards available to consumers and businesses across the country. This agreement underlines Qwest's commitment to expanding its distribution channels to reach new customers in efficient and creative ways.''
``By working with Qwest, OfficeMax is able offer a convenient communications solution to its customers,'' said Michael Feuer, CEO of OfficeMax. ``OfficeMax Prepaid Phone Cards make it easy for small business owners and home office users to stay in touch while on the go and enjoy exceptional value on local and long-distance voice communications.''
The phone cards hit stores July 26, and are being distributed at all 753 OfficeMax stores nationwide. They will be available in six denominations, ranging from 30 to 1000 minutes. Calls made with the OfficeMax Prepaid Phone Card will be carried over Qwest's advanced nationwide fiber optic network. Currently, approximately 8,850 miles of Qwest's planned 18,499-mile fiber optic network are activated, with completion scheduled for mid-1999.
Unlike most competitors' phone cards, the OfficeMax Prepaid Phone Card will debit calls in six-second increments. Qwest is the only major provider of prepaid calling card service that calculates call length in six-second increments, rather than rounding up to the next full minute, after the initial minute of each call. ``Debiting calls in six-second increments yields more calling time -- and therefore, more value -- per card than rounding calls up to the next full minute,'' said Taylor.
According to Taylor, prepaid phone cards are ideal for people who travel, people who want to maintain control of long-distance call usage -- such as small business owners or students -- or for emergencies. Similar in size and shape to a credit card, prepaid calling cards function essentially like a traditional calling card, except that they are pre-programmed with a fixed number of minutes that can be used to place local, domestic long-distance and international calls from any touch-tone phone, even from abroad.
In addition, Sprint is making its newer $30 card, which was introduced on a limited basis six months ago, more widely available and lowering its domestic rate by nearly 20 percent.
``Many consumers have already discovered the flexibility and usefulness of prepaid phone cards and we believe these new lower rates and expanded card offering will encourage even more people to look to the Spree card for their long-distance calling needs,'' said Marlene Waltz, director of prepaid cards, Sprint.
``The new domestic and international rates represent real value in the marketplace.'' Under the new rate plan, calls to the Caribbean and 16 other countries will see rate reductions from about 13 percent to as much as 54 percent. The domestic rate for the $50 prepaid card will be cut by 17 percent while the $100 card domestic rate will be eight percent lower. Unlike some competitors in the prepaid market, the only surcharge on a Spree prepaid card is 30 cents for calls originating from pay phones.
The rate for calls to the Caribbean drops 13 percent. International calls to Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all drop by 48 percent. The percentage decreases for other countries include: Canada, 15 percent; Colombia and Venezuela, more than 18 percent; Greece, 27 percent; Japan, 32 percent; Korea, 35 percent; Malaysia, 54 percent; Peru and Philippines, 40 percent; and Turkey, 46 percent.
The Spree card is sold in nearly 35,000 retail outlets in the United States, Guam and the Caribbean. Spree prepaid foncards are currently available in $5, $10, $20, $30, $50 and $100 denominations. Retailers who carry the Spree prepaid foncards include gas stations, mass merchandisers, supermarket chains, electronics stores, convenience stores and college bookstores nationwide.
Sprint was the first long distance carrier to introduce prepaid calling cards in the U.S. market in 1993. In May 1998, Sprint placed its 200 millionth card in the market, making Sprint the first prepaid card provider to reach this milestone.
This year, for the fourth consecutive year, J.D. Power ranked Sprint No. 1 in customer satisfaction among high-volume long-distance phone users. In addition, Sprint has led the market in quality of service for the last three years, according to the Yankee Group's annual survey of long-distance customers.
Sprint is a global communications company at the forefront in integrating long distance, local and wireless communications services and one of the world's largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber optic network and is the leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $15 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 16 million business and residential customers.
The Spree prepaid foncard is being sold in more than 2,100 Kmart stores in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico and at nearly 1,100 Food Lion supermarkets in nine states in the Southeast region of the United States. In addition, 94 Kash n' Karry stores that are part of the Food Lion chain will carry the phone card.
"We welcome Kmart and Food Lion among Sprint's retail partners for the Spree prepaid foncard," said Marlene Waltz, director of prepaid cards, Sprint. "As the market leader in the prepaid card business and a name well-known to consumers as a communications provider, Sprint is delighted to be in the stores of these two leading retail chains."
Spree Instant Activation will be available at Kmart and Food Lion stores in the fall. The Instant Activation feature allows retailers to activate Spree cards easily and immediately, while simultaneously replenishing their inventory, simply by using their existing credit card authorization terminal. Instant Activation is the front end of a sophisticated order entry and inventory management system.
Food Lion stores are located in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The Kash 'n Karry stores are based in and around Tampa, Fla.
Sprint was the first long distance carrier to introduce prepaid calling cards in the U.S. market in 1993. In May 1998, Sprint placed its 200 millionth card in the market, making Sprint the first prepaid card provider to reach this milestone.
Spree prepaid foncards are currently available in $5, $10, $20, $30, $50 and $100 denominations. Retailers who carry the Spree cards include gas stations, supermarket chains, electronics stores, convenience stores and college bookstores nationwide.
This year, for the fourth consecutive year, J.D. Power ranked Sprint No. 1 in customer satisfaction among high-volume long-distance phone users. In addition, Sprint has led the market in quality of service for the last three years, according to the Yankee Group's annual survey of long-distance customers.
Sprint is a global communications company at the forefront in integrating long distance, local and wireless communications services and one of the world's largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber optic network and is the leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $15 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 16 million business and residential customers.
Showcasing George Winston's own creative artwork, the cards feature photographs of the four seasons. Card users will receive information about Winston's latest recording and hear sample tracks from the new CD.
"Cable & Wireless' customized prepaid calling cards are ideal for advertising, promotions, incentives, surveys and loyalty programs," commented Alan Stiffler, Vice President, Cable & Wireless Global Card Services. "Promotional prepaid calling cards, such as the limited edition George Winston card we developed for Windham Hill, are the ultimate flexible communications and marketing tool -- an ideal way to promote any organization."
Dancing Cat Records is one of four recording labels that comprise the Windham Hill Group. Both are units of BMG Entertainment North America which includes the music labels Arista Records and RCA Records, as well as BMG Direct, BMG Distribution, BMG Interactive, BMG Music Publishing, BMG Video, BMG Canada and Nice Man Merchandising. BMG Entertainment is a division of Bertlesmann AG, the world's third largest media company with $14.7 billion in annual revenues. More information about George Winston, Dancing Cat Records and Windham Hill Records can be found at www.windham.com.
"This innovative promotion creates a joint venture that offers consumers a great value plus a free chance to become the next Lotto millionaire," said Lori Montana, director of the Lottery. "The Ameritech-Lotto PrePaid Phone Card maximizes the use of our technology in creating a new product that should attract a new audience."
"The Illinois Lottery has done an outstanding job of making their games easily accessible to millions of Illinois residents statewide," said Doug Whitley, president of Ameritech Illinois. "Leveraging the Lottery's reach makes Ameritech better equipped to address the growing demand for prepaid phone cards. Potentially, these cards will be available to more Illinois residents than ever before."
The agreement between the Illinois Lottery and Ameritech is the first to use on-line Lottery terminals as part of a promotion. Beginning today, consumers may purchase the Ameritech-Lotto PrePaid Phone Card at participating Lottery agents statewide and receive a free computer-generated Lotto "quick pick" ticket.
The card is available in $10 and $20 denominations. Consumers who buy a $10 card will receive a free $1 Lotto "quick pick" ticket, while those who buy a $20 phone card will receive a free $2 Lotto "quick pick" ticket. Under the partnership, Ameritech purchases each Lotto ticket and passes it on to consumers at no charge.
With the Ameritech-Lotto PrePaid Phone Card consumers pay one low rate for any domestic call regardless of the time of day, day of the week or destination of the call. International rates vary.
"The Ameritech-Lotto PrePaid Phone Card is the only prepaid phone card in the nation that gives consumers a free chance to play Lotto," Whitley said. "In addition, the card can offer consumers a 50 percent savings over AT&T and MCI collect and calling card calls.
"The Illinois Lottery and Ameritech have many similar attributes and goals. They both offer quality products at competitive prices, while keeping the needs of their respective shareholders foremost in their minds," Montana said. "Through this new initiative we are providing consumers with what we think will be a popular new product and a great new way to sample our premier Lotto game."
Demand for prepaid phone cards has grown dramatically in recent years. Prepaid phone cards grew from a $12 million market in 1992 to a $1.5 billion market in 1997. Analysts project sales to top $2.5 billion by the year 2000.
"We designed the MCI PrePaid Shout! Card with families in mind," according to Charles Wiggs, executive director for MCI PrePaid Markets. "In today's busy world, many people are challenged with a balancing act between work and family. By making it easier for children to get in touch with their families and caregivers, the Shout! Card is a stress management tool for the 90's -- and it's fun for kids."
With the MCI PrePaid Shout! Calling Card, parents will no longer have to worry about whether their children have change to phone home. Shout! Cards also alleviate the need for children to use other expensive calling methods and the burden of remembering several contact numbers, including confusing telephone, cellular, and pager numbers.
MCI Speed Dial Express, a key feature of the MCI PrePaid Shout! Card, allows parents or caregivers to pre-program up to six frequently called numbers that are easily retrieved and dialed with the push of a single speed dial button. With MCI Speed Dial Express, children can quickly reach parents without having to remember multiple 10-digit phone numbers -- whether it's mom's office, grandmother's house, dad's cell phone or a guardian's pager number. Once programmed, calling is limited to those six numbers, eliminating the potential for theft, fraud or misuse. The MCI Speed Dial Express numbers can be changed or deleted anytime by using a passcode, without deducting calling time from the card. This feature also allows for easy access to customer service.
COOL IMAGES APPEAL TO KIDS
The MCI PrePaid Shout! Cards are available in four stylish keytag card holder images for children and teens. Two cards feature sports-related images with traditional team-sport motifs for younger children, and more extreme sports action motifs for teens. Two additional images feature a colorful "Free to Be Me" retro design for younger age groups and a 60's style "Flower Power" embroidered patch design for teens. Children can safely keep the prepaid cards in the holder's hidden compartment.
The prepaid card itself includes six lines on the card's front panel allowing adults to write the programmed calling destinations. The printed card holder, with an enclosed key ring that can be attached to backpacks, sports bags or purses, is included with each Shout! purchase.
The MCI PrePaid Shout! Card is available at Wal-Mart, or by calling the toll-free Shout! card line at 1-800-830-9444. Shout! Cards are also available for purchase on the web at http://www.mci.com/aboutus/products/prepaid/index.shtml.
From: Nanci Parker
http://www.oreida.com/coreBrand/Pages/offers/phoneOrder.html
Print out the form....get free 20 minute phone card from Ore Ida by sending in -3- UPC from their product. Good July thru 2/15/99
From: Gayle Geisenheimer
The MCI Prepaid card bears the Strouds logo as well as "Off to Campus" and photo of a couple students "cracking the books".
For the Strouds nearest you, call 1-800-STROUDS.
From: Jim Silva
Until Next Time,
Alan
2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: phoneline@cardmall.com
If you wish to unsubscribe from POL, you need to send a message to the following address: pol-request@ListService.net
In the Body of the Message: address, just type UNSUBCRIBE