PayPal Issues Credit Card
PayPal and Providian Debut Co-Branded Credit Card, Expanding Payment Options And Privileges to PayPal Customers
Palo Alto, CA - Monday, June 18, 2001 - In a move to continue the expansion of services beyond traditional payment avenues, PayPal (www.paypal.com), the leading online payment service, and Providian Financial Corporation (NYSE: PVN), the fifth largest bankcard issuer in the United States, today announced the debut of the PayPal Visa credit card. Leveraging the companies' combined strengths, PayPal and Providian are bridging the online payment and credit card industries by debuting their first joint product since Providian announced a strategic alliance with PayPal.
"Our partnership with PayPal gives us an inroad into the online payment market and should help expand our customer base," said David Alvarez, president of Providian's credit card business. "With the launch of this card, we're providing PayPal cardholders added value through rewards, benefits and other services they can receive by using the card."
"Today's move marks another step forward in our strategy to revolutionize the world's payments systems," said Peter Thiel, chairman and CEO of PayPal. "With Providian, we can compete in new markets and offer PayPal users the benefits of a leading credit card company."
The PayPal card is available to Internet users in addition to PayPal customers, and offers cardholders a $5 credit after the first use and benefits such as a 0% introductory rate, and worry-free shopping with Providian's zero-dollar liability policy for unauthorized charges. Cardholders will also be able to use the unique transparent tinted card in all merchant stores that accept Visa credit cards -- on the Internet and in traditional merchant locations.
Users can apply for the PayPal Credit Card at www.PayPalCreditCard.com and receive a 30-second response online.
About Providian Financial
Winner of the 2001 Rochester Institute of Technology/USA Today Quality Cup for excellence in customer service, San Francisco-based Providian Financial is a leading provider of lending and deposit products to customers throughout the U.S., and offers credit cards and deposit products in the UK and in Argentina. Providian Financial has been named one of America's Most Admired Companies in a survey by Fortune magazine, one of the nation's top financial institutions by U.S. Banker magazine, and one of the most technologically innovative companies in the U.S. by InformationWeek magazine. The Company has more than $33 billion in assets under management and over 17 million customer accounts.
About PayPal
PayPal is the instant and secure online payment service that allows people and businesses to send and receive money by e-mail from bank accounts or credit cards. With nearly 8 million members and growing, PayPal is the world's first and largest Internet-based payment service, and the #1 financial site on the Internet*. PayPal is the preferred payment service for online auctions, online community and group Websites, and is seeing tremendous growth in e-commerce transactions for small businesses. PayPal members send approximately $8 million in more than 160,000 payments each day. Free to consumers, PayPal can be used from PCs or web-enabled mobile phones. Business users pay transaction fees to receive payments through PayPal.
PayPal is a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and was recently named one of the Top 25 New Companies by Fortune Small Business. The PayPal Website has been cited as among the "Best of the Web" by Forbes, Time, PC Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. For more information, please visit http://www.paypal.com.
(* according to research by PC Data Online.)