May 25, 2012 05:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time
LONDON--()--The Cashplus® Prepaid Card Account, offered by Advanced Payment Solutions (APS), has won ‘Best New Prepaid Product’ at the Card and Payments Trailblazer Awards 2012 in Barcelona where it was recognised by the judges as a ‘major innovation.’
“APS has stepped prepaid up a gear with the Cashplus Card. The issuer became an agency bank in order to enable Direct Debit payments from the prepaid card. Judges considered this a major innovation.”
The prestigious awards run by Cards and Payments Europe, in association with Cards International and Electronic Payments International, are for banks, retailers, vendors and technology providers from the whole of Europe. Cashplus beat competition from Citi, PayPal and Royal Sun Alliance.
The Judges are respected experts from across the payments industry and said of Cashplus; “APS has stepped prepaid up a gear with the Cashplus Card. The issuer became an agency bank in order to enable Direct Debit payments from the prepaid card. Judges considered this a major innovation.”
APS introduced Cashplus to solve a number of payment issues including:
- Consumers pay very high penalties when Direct Debits are refused by other banks. With Cashplus there are no penalties; instead there is help to ensure that there is money in the account when it’s needed.
- Large organisations often have difficulty managing and controlling staff expenses. Cashplus makes expense management transparent and easy to manage.
- Small businesses, particularly start-ups, can find it difficult to open bank accounts because they have no credit history. The Cashplus account is guaranteed for UK registered companies.
- Local authorities find managing payments expensive and cumbersome. Cashplus reduces the risk of fraud and provides an effective solution for claimants without bank accounts.
Richard Wagner, CEO of APS, explained; "We spoke to organisations and individuals about the payment issues they had. We then tried to solve them with Cashplus. One of the major ones was the limitations and penalties of Direct Debit and we’re very proud of the way we’ve solved that. We’re delighted that the payment industry has recognised our innovation and we’re very proud of winning this Award.”
The Award recognises APS as a market leader across the whole of Europe.
