Visa International named 'World's Leading Credit Card' for ninth consecutive year at World Travel Awards

For the ninth consecutive year, the World Travel Awards, a prestigious awards ceremony that acknowledges significant achievements in all areas of the travel and tourism industry, has named Visa International the 'World's Leading Credit Card.

The awards take into account the views of travel agents and professionals worldwide. Over two million votes were cast during a five-month independent survey period and the fact that no-one has been able to knock Visa International off the top spot for nearly a decade, is testament that it has a credit card offering that is unbeatable. This achievement is attributed to Visa International's continued focus, its commitment to excellence, the value-added services it provides for travelers, and its innovative online travel portal.

Visa International is a strategic partner with many of the leading global corporations and merchants. It creates retail and T&E promotions that deliver extraordinary values to its cardholders worldwide. Its extensive merchant relationships and marketing partnerships, as well as its unsurpassed acceptance around the world, are driving for its growth in the retail and T&E arenas.

Commenting on this achievement, Tom Shepard the Executive Vice President for Global Marketing Partnerships and Sponsorships at Visa International said, 'Visa International is delighted to receive this award on behalf of our member banks. The firm continues to grow with the travel industry. It achieves its success by providing merchants with access to millions of Visa cardholders as well as by providing cardholders with unsurpassed acceptance worldwide along with travel and entertainment programs linked to Visa payment cards. Cardholders receive added value that goes beyond the convenience and confidence that Visa International provides. We are honored to receive this accolade from one of the industry's most important awards programs.'

From his end, Mr. Naser Abu Ghazaleh, Visa International's General Manager for the Levant said, 'We at Visa International are very proud to be the recipients of this prestigious award. This achievement shows that Visa International is viewed by most as the world's most convenient and most widely-accepted method of payment. I hope that we continue to see the spread of Visa International grow.

'As always, Visa International sees itself as a key player in bringing about further development for all the countries it operates within. In Jordan, we have contributed significantly to the local tourism sector as our cards are widely accepted in a multitude of outlets across this area. As for our contributions to the banking sector, Visa International is always proud to bring citizens from all sectors in the communities it operates within to the electronic payment scene and to introduce them to new and more lucrative means to go about their day to day spending.'

Visa International has also created an innovative, interactive, online travel portal, 'Visa Destinations,' which provides its cardholders with exclusive offers and values from a select group of global travel, retail and entertainment merchants. Featuring a wide range of valuable offers and information, this user-friendly travel planning website can be accessed at www.visadestinations.com. The site contains retail, travel and entertainment offers from hundreds of merchants in key destination markets or by designated category around the world.

The World Travel Awards association held its 13th annual World Travel Awards Ceremony on September 20th 2006. During the ceremony the association honored leading travel-related organizations in worldwide and regional categories. The categories range from airlines, hotels, beaches and cruise lines to credit cards, car rental companies and hotel reservation services.

The online voting took place throughout the year 2006 at www.worldtravelawards.com. This website enabled travel agents and professionals in over 200 countries worldwide to let the world know who they thought was the best in the travel industry.

Singapore jails credit card theft gang

Six Sri Lankans were jailed for using forged cards at bank machines in Singapore to steal from British bank accounts, the second such case in two months, news reports said Friday.

They were nabbed on the fourth day of their crime spree with more than 350,000 Singapore dollars (224,000 US), according to The Straits Times.

The sentences imposed on Thursday ranged between four years and six months to 10 years and six months, with the longest going to ex-bank manager Arampramoorthy Ramanan, the 26-year-old "tech guy" of the gang.

The court heard how the men, all British residents, entered the city-state as tourists in May, carrying with them blank white cards with magnetic strips and a laptop holding encrypted data of British bank account holders.

Holed up in a hotel, they planned to embark on a cash withdrawal spree and leave Singapore within the 14 days allowed by their social visit pass, the report said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Paul Chia described how the six systematically raided the United Overseas Bank (UOB) ATMs at shopping centres and Changi Airport.

The game was up when one of them was spotted by an ATM technician retrieving the white card.

Because banks have payment systems allowing inter-bank transfers, money they withdrew from UOB would be reimbursed by the account holders' bank in Britain, he said.

It was the second time that such an operation was employed in Singapore. A Sri Lankan-born man based in London used forged cards in September to make similar ATM withdrawals. Navaseelan Balasingam was sentenced to seven years, six months in jail.

The six pleaded guilty earlier this month to conspiracy to steal and access a computer.

Unemployed Nishanthan Ramachandran, 29, and storekeeper Amirthyalingam Pukalenthy, 28, described as core members along with Ramanan, were each jailed for nine and a-half years.

Nishanthan's younger brother, Nimalan, 25, was jailed for four and a half years.

Cab driver Paarthipan Nadarajah was jailed for six years and three months, while sales assistant Prathees Kumar Ratnaval, 26, was sentenced to seven and a-half years.

More about Reward Credit Cards

You earn points every time you buy something using Reward credit cards. The points that you earn can be later used for goods and services. Cards offering reward points are most eye-catching to those who have a tendency not to carry a monthly balance. If you pay off all or most of your balance each month, a low interest rate will be of little consequence, making reward cards the perfect solution for reaping some extra benefits out of your spending dollars.

There are many cards in this category that give special rewards as incentives to shop at specific retailers. Check the terms of each card to find the one that will best suit your needs.

S. Korean credit card company to host celebrity tennis match

Hyundai Card Co., one of the major credit card companies in South Korea, said Wednesday it will host an exhibition tennis match pitting Maria Sharapova against Lindsay Davenport in Incheon, west of Seoul, on the first day of 2007.

"After a series of successfully hosted big matches, Hyundai has decided to host another women's duel for South Korean tennis fans," said organizer Lee Seung-whan, president of Sema Sports Marketing Inc.

Credit-card giants facing court

New Zealand's two largest credit card companies and 11 banks and finance companies are being taken to court for alleged price fixing of a fee on credit card payments which is passed on to all consumers in price increases.

The Commerce Commission has filed High Court proceedings against MasterCard and Visa, as well as the financial institutions which are their customers, claiming the companies were anti-competitive in setting interchange fees of up to 1.8 per cent on each transaction.

The retailer is charged the fee, but cannot recover it directly from cardholders so is left to raise prices across the board to recoup the costs, leaving customers who paid by cash or eftpos to subsidise credit card users.

The action follows similar investigations into the size of the fee in Australia, Britain and the United States.

The court proceedings are against Visa International and MasterCard International, as well as Cards NZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac NZ, ANZ, TSB, Kiwibank, HSBC, NZ Post, The Warehouse Financial Services and GE Finance and Insurance.

Visa and MasterCard, whose card transactions totalled $19 billion in 2004, said they would contest the charges.

John Albertson, chief executive of the Retailers Association, welcomed action against the fees, which he estimated cost business $350 million to $400 million a year, which meant higher prices for consumers.

He said Australia's fees were now less than half those in New Zealand, after the Australia Reserve Bank regulated for the fees to drop from 0.95 per cent to 0.5 per cent of the transaction.

"[New Zealand] fees are substantially higher than they should be in a competitive market. Intervention is well and truly due."

Retailers pay the fee but are not allowed to charge customers extra to pay by credit cards, so the cost was passed on in price increases to all customers, including those who paid by cash or eftpos.

MasterCard Australasia said the action did not reflect the vigorous competition that existed between different payment systems in New Zealand. It said MasterCard operated in the best interests of its cardholders and merchants. Visa also said its payment system benefited cardholders.

Massey University director of banking studies David Tripe was not surprised the commission had followed international trends but queried whether legal action was the answer.

"I'm not sure [the commission] has taken the right approach. What there may be a good case for is to say the fee is too high."

He said customer loyalty reward programmes could be a casualty of any clamp-down on the fee.

A spokesman for American Express said it used a different fee structure which did not include interchange fees.

Penalties for price fixing in the Commerce Act are up to $10 million per breach or 10 per cent of the company's turnover.

How the fee works

* A customer buys a meal from a restaurant by credit card.

* The restaurant's bank, Bank A, sends it to the bank which issued the card, Bank B.

* Bank B pays Bank A the price of the meal, less an interchange fee.

* Bank A pays the restaurant the price of the meal, minus a service fee.

* Bank B takes the price of the meal alone out of the customer's account.

* The restaurant has paid the interchange fee but is not allowed to recover it by adding it to the bill, so has increased all meal prices to average out the cost of the fee.

* When another customer pays cash, he or she is helping to pay for the credit card fee.

Author • More by Claire Trevett • Email Claire Trevett