Green Dot Facilitates Growth of Prepaid Wireless Plans by Expanding Consumer Accessibility

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Next Estate Communications (NEC) announced that it has partnered with Cingular Wireless to offer consumers the Cingular Prepaid Visa Card. NEC is America's oldest and largest provider of retailer sold prepaid debit cards, and the creator and operator of the Green Dot(R) Financial Network, one of the country's largest retail-based cash acceptance financial networks enabling prepaid card reloading and remittance cash collection.

The Cingular Prepaid Visa Card, powered by NEC's Green Dot Financial Network, provides a payment solution and financial tool to Cingular customers that helps them qualify for more service plan options, conveniently establish their monthly automatic payments for their Cingular GoPhone(R) Pick Your Plan wireless account, and pay for purchases everywhere Visa Debit is welcomed.

"Next Estate is pioneering new payment solutions with wireless carriers and other service providers to help attract new customer segments by empowering consumers with more choices," said Mark Troughton, Chief Operating Officer for Next Estate Communications. "The Cingular Prepaid Visa Card, powered by the Green Dot Financial Network, is a financial tool offered directly by Cingular that allows its customers who do not have a credit or debit card to enjoy more calling plan options."

No credit check or bank account is required to get the Cingular Prepaid Visa Card, thus allowing the provider to rapidly expand its customer base to include unbanked consumers and those with limited or no access to credit -- groups which have tended to be overlooked by providers because there has not been a payment mechanism in place to meet the unique needs of these consumers.

"Service companies need to offer different payment solutions to their customers in order to compete successfully," said Tom Miezejeski, Vice President of Research for The PELORUS Group. "Next Estate has leveraged its Green Dot Financial Network to help consumers qualify for services that -- at one time -- were closed to them because providers' existing payment options did not fit the customer's lifestyle."

Cingular customers who choose the Go-Phone Pick Your Plan wireless account will be able to reload their Prepaid Visa card by purchasing a Green Dot MoneyPak(TM) Universal Reload, available at thousands of Green Dot Financial Network locations nationwide including: Rite Aid, CVS, Radio Shack, Walgreens, and many others. Consumers may find the nearest Green Dot location by visiting http://www.greendotonline.com/cingular.

About Next Estate Communications, Inc.

Next Estate Communications is America's first and largest provider of retailer sold prepaid debit cards with more than 45,000 purchase locations nationwide, including Rite Aid, CVS, RadioShack, The Pantry, Walgreens, and others. NEC also owns and operates the Green Dot Financial Network, one of America's largest retail-based financial networks providing cash acceptance services including prepaid card reloading and remittance cash collection. The Green Dot Financial Network enables consumers to get easy access to reload locations while leveraging its tens of thousands of blue chip retail locations nationwide. A privately-held company, Next Estate Communications is headquartered in the greater Los Angeles area. The cards are issued by Columbus Bank and Trust Company in Columbus, GA. For more information about Next Estate Communications, visit http://www.nextestate.com/, or call (626) 775-3718.