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Seeking to entice small businesses to pay for purchases using their Visa business card, Visa Inc. on Wednesday launched Visa SavingsEdge, a program that rewards small businesses that have Visa business cards with savings and discounts on business-related services from about 60 merchants.
The rewards and incentives include everyday savings on business expenses that can be applied as credits to monthly card statements and discounted offers that can be redeemed instantly on select merchant Web sites, which Visa is touting as instant savings.
Instant savings awards include receiving the first month of service from Bench Accounting, a provider of bookkeeping software for small business owners, for free, plus a 30% discount for the next three months. The offer is available to small businesses that sign up for the service through Visa SavingsEdge. Small businesses using the new program can connect their Visa small business card to pull in transaction data for automated bookkeeping, reporting, and tax preparation. The offer is valid through Nov. 1 and cannot be combined with any other offer.
Visa small-business cardholders can also receive 50% off System Mechanic, a personal computer performance and maintenance program from Yahoo! Inc. that can fix more than 30,000 personal-computer issues. The offer is valid through Dec. 31. In addition, small-business cardholders can access Dovly Inc., credit engine designed to help raise consumer credit scores, and identity-theft prevention tool NortonLifeLock.
“Despite over 80% of small businesses using a credit card for their business spend, we see that almost one-third still use their personal card,” Veronica Fernandez, senior vice president and North America head of business solutions at Visa, says in a prepared statement. “Business cards and their associated benefits are extremely important for SMBs; they can help with cash flow, drive savings, and increase business efficiencies. With Visa SavingsEdge, when small businesses use their business card, they can take advantage of offers and discounts with key business-related suppliers while helping to support their bottom line.”
Another offer to entice small businesses to use their Visa business cards is a two-day promotion to help businesses reduce the costs associated with getting online and accepting digital payments. During the weekend of Feb. 11-12, small businesses in the United States signing up to use Visa’s Authorize.net platform will have the monthly gateway fee waived for the life of the account. Transaction fees for the first 50,000 transactions will be waived at 10 cents per transaction, equaling a $5,000 savings. In addition, $25 monthly gateway fees are also waived.
Visa says the incentives provided through Visa SavingsEdge build on its goal of helping 50 million small and medium-size businesses accept digital payments.
