Credit Card News: "MasterCard Monthly Bonus Sweepstakes", and "Small Business Zero Liability"

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MasterCard promo 1) The "MasterCard Monthly Bonus Sweepstakes" Runs Through May 31, and is a debit promotion targeting women. The promotion offers MasterCard debit cardholders in the U.S. the chance to win a $1,000 monthly bonus over the course of 10 years.

Each occurence of a purchase with a Debit MasterCard? card will reward an automatic entry for a chance to win. Tap N Go? purchases made with a Debit MasterCard PayPass? will receive double entries. The bonus will be deposited directly into the winners' checking accounts each month.

According to a MasterCard survey conducted by Millward Brown, 61 percent of the heaviest debit users are women. Moreover, approximately 75 percent of women hold the primary responsibility for managing financial activities for their households, including reviewing and paying bills. Debit allows women to simplify their purchases, avoid fumbling for cash or change, easily track their spending, and ultimately save time and energy.

Guideline Research performed a MasterCard survey, which discovered 43% of participants would use a $1,000 monthly bonus to reward themselves or their family, either in the form of family vacations, nights on the town, shopping, or trips to a spa. The remaining 57% participants said they would use the money to pay bills.

The MasterCard Monthly Bonus Sweepstakes will be supported by radio and print executions of the award-winning Priceless? advertising campaign. MasterCard will also provide direct marketing support to customer financial institutions, including statement inserts and in-branch communications. Online content, promotional information, and educational debit background will be available on priceless.com.

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MasterCard promo 2) The "Zero Liability Protection for U.S. Small Business Card Members"

The Zero Liability Protection takes effect September 1, 2006 for the MasterCard BusinessCard? and Debit MasterCard BusinessCard? cards. For the first time, U.S. small businesses will receive the same fraud protection and peace of mind that personal cardholders have enjoyed for years.

With zero liability protection, U.S. small business owners and their employees will not be held liable by card issuers in the event of an unauthorized use of their U.S.-issued MasterCard BusinessCard or Debit MasterCard BusinessCard in a store, over the telephone, or online. In 1994, MasterCard was the first in the industry to establish a U.S. rule of zero liability for the consumer from the unauthorized use of payment cards. With today's announcement, MasterCard becomes the first to extend this protection to both its small business debit and credit cardholders.

To qualify for this zero liability protection, MasterCard BusinessCard and Debit MasterCard BusinessCard cardholders must meet certain conditions including having exercised reasonable care in safeguarding their cards and notifying their issuing bank of the loss, theft and/or unauthorized use of their cards.