Discover Financial Services Inc. and Stored Value Systems Inc. plan to start the Merchant Gift Card program, which lets qualified merchants offer their customers gift cards branded with their logo.
The gift cards can be used wherever Discover Card is accepted. Discover Financial Services plans to begin marketing the program later this month and will pitch it to large and midsize merchant accounts.
Discover Financial Services said the program also lets merchants process transactions presented by customers using existing Discover Card processing technology provided by Stored Value Systems, a provider of retail cash and smart card services.
“The most attractive aspect of the gift card program is the ease of implementation our merchants enjoy by using our established point-of-sale platform,” said Tom Dailey, senior vice president of Discover Business Services.
Gift cards issued for use on the Discover Business Services network will be “rechargeable,” allowing customers to add value and use them as stored-value cards. They also can be used at retail locations and on Web sites.
