International remitters living in the US can send money abroad from their local grocery store with the Poni PIN card from American Cash Exchange, which is offered as the first POS-based foreign money transfer product. Poni PIN cards, like phone cards, are sold at local grocery stores in pre-defined pesos amounts of $1000, $2000 and $3000 values (about USD 90 to USD 280) and recipients withdraw the funds from ATMs in their local currency. The product originator, American Cash Exchange, is in fact the only non-bank, non-credit card firm authorizing withdrawals from over 19,000 ATMs in Mexico’s ATM network.

Poni PIN cards are already available at 100 retailers in the states of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson, and do not charge any back-end fees, nor do users need a bank account required to transfer funds. The cards are targeted at the USD 13.2 billion US-to-Mexico remittance business, and in Mexico, over 150,000 Poni Cash cards have been distributed to migrant communities in seven states. Users of Poni Cash cards need only give their names and addresses to receive a free card, but the Poni Card system supports advanced tracking and audit trails so as to comply with regulatory and money laundering issues.

Another money transfer firm, American Card Services (ACS), is also targeting the Hispanic remittances market, which it estimates at about USD 50 billion per year, with USD 25 billion sent to Mexico alone. To maximize the uptake of its product, ACS differentiates itself by providing two ATM/POS debit cards with the Cirrus, Maestro and Star brands in its Ultima Card Twin-Access Debit Card Pack. Cardholders with ID can add up to two further Ultima Debit MasterCards, which can be used at over a million Cirrus ATMs, or at any Maestro card-accepting merchant globally.

(Hispanic Business)