[IMGCAP(1)]
While reloadable prepaid cards continue to gain popularity with consumers, reload networks are experiencing different rates of growth that typically depend on their alliances.
Atlanta-based InComm Inc. leads with 150,000 reload locations as of the end of June, according to the 2010 edition of the ATM&Debit News EFT Data Book.
But that total represents only a 3% increase compared with 145,000 locations in 2007, according to Gwenn Bézard, research director at Boston-based consulting firm Aite Group LLC. "The numbers suggest [InComm] may have hit a ceiling," he says.
Aite's 2007 data are from various surveys and reports.
Most InComm reload sites are located in retail environments such as supermarkets, which offer high penetration into the market. But only so many such locations exist, Bézard says.
Check-cashing locations such as those operated by The Community Currency Exchange Association of Illinois offer a growing value channel for marketing and selling reloadable prepaid debit cards, Bézard says.
In May, NetSpend announced a partnership with MoneyGram International, a leading funds-transfers company, to drive more volume to its prepaid card-reloading network.
The agreement enables NetSpend prepaid debit cardholders to load value into their card accounts immediately at any of MoneyGram's 40,000 U.S. locations.
NetSpend's 90,000 reload locations gave it the second most behind InComm as of June 30.
That total is almost double the 17,000 locations the Austin, Texas-based company had in 2007, according to Bézard. NetSpend had 8,000 locations in 2005.
"That growth is a testament to the channel they decided to pursue," Bézard says.
NFinanSe Inc., which has made a number of announcements over the past two months designed to help it gain a larger share of the reload market, is behind NetSpend with 70,000 reload locations, according to the data book.
In August, the Tampa, Fla.-based prepaid card provider announced a distribution deal with Coinstar Inc. in which Coinstar during the fourth quarter will make nFinanSe's products available at its network of 30,000 retail locations.
The provider has a similar deal with InComm.
Blackhawk Network sits behind nFinaSe with 60,000 reload locations, followed by GreenDot Corp. with 50,000.
Blackhawk in March added 1,550 locations when it signed a distribution deal with Plastic Cash Internatio-nal LLC, the developer and marketer of the Visa-branded Myplash prepaid card, to sell and reload the cards at Safeway Inc.-owned stores in the United States.
Blackhawk faces the same growth problem as InComm because most of its locations are found in retail environments, Bézard says.
Rounding out the top 10 reload providers are MasterCard rePower and Visa ReadyLink with 50,000 locations each, Western Union Financial Services with 44,000 locations, MoneyGram International Inc. with 40,000 locations, and Euronet ePay with 36,000 locations. ATM
