October 2008: MasterCard Worldwide has announced the launch of MasterCard Saving - calling it "a new, innovative program that provides Debit MasterCard and eligible Prepaid MasterCard cardholders with hundreds of significant merchant-funded discounts and special offers each day from thousands of merchants across the country. Debit and prepaid MasterCard cardholders can quickly enroll at http://savings.mastercard.com. There is no cost to cardholders."
Through MasterCard Savings, cardholders will be able to select which merchants they receive promotional offers from and set up e-mail alerts so that they can be notified when discounts and other unique offers such as exclusive in-store shopping events become available from preferred merchants. In this initial launch, cardholders will be able to take advantage of discounts both on-line and in stores through the use of promotional codes, printed coupons and direct links to the discounts available from their personalized MasterCard Savings portal.
"MasterCard Savings is the next generation of cardholder reward platforms," said Patricia Preston, Senior Vice President, U.S. Debit Product Management & Development, MasterCard Worldwide. "This unique program offers an extraordinary breadth of rewards and special offers from thousands of merchants across a wide range of merchant categories that go far beyond those traditionally associated with debit and prepaid cards."
The MasterCard Savings platform will be available to all U.S. issuers of MasterCard debit and prepaid cards. Cardholders will be able to access the program directly through http://savings.mastercard.com. A simple enrollment process will enable them to sign up and choose their preferences for the types of merchants they are interested in and the offers they want to receive. The more preferences they choose, the more relevant the offers will be to their interests. Additionally, the MasterCard Savings homepage will also feature weekly hot deals, the most popular merchant offers and alerts about remaining days on limited time offers.
The program already has thousands of participating merchants across a wide range of categories, including: Armani Exchange, Avon, The Container Store, The Home Depot, Lands' End, Office Depot, Omaha Steaks and Sears.
Debit and eligible prepaid cardholders can participate at no cost in the Basic-Level Program, with discount offers averaging 5% to 20% and/or free shipping. In addition, a Premium-Level Program, with discount offers averaging between 20% to 50% as well as limited time offers and special in-store events can be purchased for an annual fee of $29.95 by cardholders.