AccountNow® Double Winner in Prestigious Paybefore Awards

SAN RAMON, Calif., Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- AccountNow Gold Visa® Prepaid Card was chosen as a winner in the Best General Purpose Reloadable Program: Online Sales Category, and now it's been chosen as a winner in the Direct Marketing Category too. Paybefore, a unit of Prepaid Media, is the leading information provider to prepaid and stored value industry professionals.  The selection of the AccountNow Gold Visa Prepaid Card, issued by The Bancorp Bank, for awards in both the Online Sales and Direct Marketing categories by a five judge panel recognizes AccountNow, Inc.'s achievements as an industry innovator in reaching consumers without established credit or traditional banking relationships...an underserved demographic, but an important one with more than 40 million lower income people.  

"In each of its five years, Paybefore Awards has attracted a wider and more diverse group of nominations," said Paybefore CEO Marilyn Bochicchio. "This year's entries showed exceptional creativity and thoughtfulness in using prepaid to solve real world payment issues, and provide outstanding convenience, safety and control for individuals who are the ultimate users of these products," she said.

Paybefore Awards is the most prestigious recognition of excellence in the industry.  The awards are presented annually by Prepaid Media, whose Paybefore publications are the leading source of industry information for the global prepaid community.

"The global acceptance of prepaid is transforming payment methodology.  Competitors are continually improving products or creating new ones so we are especially pleased to be recognized by a panel of our peers by these two prestigious awards," said AccountNow, Inc. CEO Jim Jones. "It's an important milestone in our never ending pursuit of better ways to serve the underserved," he said.

AccountNow Gold Visa Prepaid Card is a unique way for consumers without traditional banking relationships to experience the power of the Visa brand, recognized at millions of locations worldwide, and the prestige of a gold card with high daily and monthly limits, when enrolled in Direct Deposit, to withdraw cash, make everyday purchases, shop online or pay bills.  And with $3000 or more in deposits during a month, the cardholder pays absolutely no monthly service fee.          

AccountNow Gold Visa Prepaid Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used wherever Visa debit cards are accepted.  

About AccountNow, Inc.

AccountNow (www.accountnow.com), headquartered in San Ramon, California, is a leading provider of financial solutions for the 40 million U.S. consumers who do not have established credit or traditional banking relationships. AccountNow provides consumers an alternative to "traditional" checking accounts and access to financial payments systems, including Visa and Mastercard prepaid cards, Online Bill Payment, card-to-card transfers and FDIC insured deposits.

About The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group

The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group, a division of The Bancorp Bank ("Bancorp"), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBBK), offers secure, creative and innovative payment solutions to the prepaid card industry. As a leading issuer of prepaid cards, The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group contributes to the success of Fortune 500 companies through the development of cutting-edge prepaid card programs that meet the rapidly changing needs of the prepaid industry.  Through long-standing relationships with the MasterCard, Visa, and Discover card associations, leading program managers and processors, The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group designs innovative and flexible prepaid card programs which deliver outstanding results. For more information about The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group please visit www.thebancorppsg.com.

SOURCE AccountNow, Inc.