Carrefour Romania Adds Prepaid MasterCard to Financial Services
Romanians can now find the Carrefour MasterCard Prepaid Card in the cash lanes of all 23 Carrefour hypermarkets in the country through a partnership between the retailer – Europe's largest – and Rev Worldwide, an Austin, Texas-based company that provides financial services in hard-to-reach markets.
The move makes Carrefour the first retailer in Romania to sell and reload prepaid cards. The newest offering in the retailer's broad range of financial products and services, the Carrefour MasterCard Prepaid Card brings Romanian was launched to provide its shoppers the freedom and security of spending with plastic and the ability to send money domestically or check balances with a simple text message, no bank account or credit check required.
"Carrefour brings customers 'everything under one roof' and that approach extends to making it easy for our customers to manage their money," said Andreea Mihai, marketing director, Carrefour Romania. "With the Carrefour prepaid card, we're giving our customers a convenient and widely available cash alternative while gaining a simple platform for extending card-based privileges and special offers to more of our customers."
Carrefour prepaid cardholders can make purchases in locations or withdraw cash from ATMs anywhere in the world displaying the MasterCard logo, which includes over 30 million outlets worldwide, including Carrefour hypermarkets and other retailers, restaurants, drugstores, online merchants, and gas stations. Because the card is prepaid, it carries no risk of overspending, and cardholders can manage their accounts around the clock online at www.carrefourprepaid.ro and contact customer service any time toll-free at 0800 080 333.
In Romania, Carrefour operates 23 hypermarkets and 29 supermarkets. Financial products and services available in Carrefour hypermarkets include the Carrefour MasterCard Credit card; consumer loans; MoneyGram money transfer; bill pay; mobile top-ups for operators including Orange, Vodafone, Cosmote and Zapp; and home, travel and other insurance products from Otto Broker.
Rev Worldwide developed, promotes and provides the distribution and processing platform for the Carrefour MasterCard Prepaid Card. Through a global agreement with MPOWER Mobile, a sister company, Rev Worldwide powers the card's mobile capabilities.
"Broad retail availability of cash alternatives is critical to meeting the growing demand for financial services in places like Romania with large cash-based populations, and Carrefour is the ultimate retail outlet," said John Mitchell, CEO of Rev Worldwide, Europe. "The Carrefour prepaid card gives consumers in Romania, no matter their banking or credit history, the freedom to manage their money whenever and wherever is most convenient for them."
Carrefour customers can buy and load cash on the Carrefour MasterCard Prepaid Card directly from the cash registers in all Carrefour hypermarkets. Upon purchasing a new card, customers pick up a temporary card from the customer service center in minutes and receive a personalized card by mail in 7 to 10 days.