Pre-paid card company nFinanSe adds mobile coupons to its service

nFinanSe is one of America’s beefier pre-paid card companies. Its cards can be used to withdraw cash, pay for items on-line and at (it claims) 72,000 participating retailers across the States. Today it announced that it has signed an agreement with mobile advertiser RocketBux to deliver mobile barcode coupons to card-holders at point of sale.

The service is opt-in - nFinanSe card-holders can choose to receive coupons, and set preferences for the kinds of offer to be received. After that, it’s really out of their hands. Merchants in the nFinanSe programme can choose to send coupons to card-holders phones via SMS. The texts themselves are extremely simple - they just contain a link. If the customer chooses to click it, they get sent to a standard 1d barcode, along with branding and a description of the offer. The customer then just presents that barcode at the check-out.

The service is also location-based…. in the sense that it’s triggered by the card being used in a particular location. When a card-holder uses their card to pay for something, nFinanSe can tell where that card has been used. Then, through RocketBux, it can deliver a relevant promotion which can be redeemed on the spot.

From the release:

“This is the first application of RocketBux technology in the red-hot prepaid card space,” says Fred Boos, President of RocketBux. “nFinanSe cardholders will receive valuable offers right on their mobile phones, making it easy for customers to get the most out of their nFinanSe cards.”

Jerry R. Welch, nFinanSe’s Chief Executive Officer says “nFinanSe continues to find ways to help our cardholders save money during these difficult economic times. Coupon usage is increasing, and the convenience of a coupon on a cardholder’s mobile phone means the chances of it being used are increased significantly. Further, we believe this exciting new concept can make our cards more ‘sticky’ with our cardholders and increase the useful life of our cards.”

What we think?

This is an extremely simple service. Since it’s a 1d barcode, it can be used on any phone that can open MMS - you don’t need to download or install anything, you don’t a cameraphone. Just a phone with even an incredibly basic browser. It’s also guaranteed to be readable at any retailer on the nFinanSe ticket. There are cons, though. When people are actually at a check-out, they tend not to want to wait around. The speed of delivery for SMS is variable, particularly when pictures are involved. How annoying would it be to buy your groceries, and then receive a promotional barcode when you’re half way back across the carpark?