Kickback

NASHVILLE, TN– May 9, 2007 – In a direct response to the outrageous fees charged to merchants for accepting credit/debit cards KickBack Rewards Systems introduced their new KickBack ACH/Debit network and Instant Acquisition system last week at the National Association of Convenience Stores Technology Show (NACStech) along with several other major announcements.

The convenience store industry has been especially hard hit by the way credit/debit card fees are calculated. Most consumers don’t realize that retailers pay a percentage of their credit/debit card sales just for the right to accept those cards. As the price of fuel goes up so does the cost to accept the cards.

NACS spokesperson Jeff Lenard recently indicated that “credit card fees eat up about 10 cents a gallon at these gasoline-price levels.” Lenard also noted that convenience stores paid about $6.6 billion in fees to credit card companies last year. At the same time, he said convenience stores registered total profits, after taxes and fees, of $4.8 billion. “The credit card industry made more off our business than we did.”

“This new network holds the promise of saving retailers a great deal of money” according to KickBack CEO Patrick Lewis.

Lewis added that “the cost for the retailer will be a fraction of what they are currently paying because it will be based on a flat rate per transaction. Funds will be guaranteed to the retailer and KickBack’s patent-pending Instant Acquisition process makes joining the network quick and easy. With no more effort then it takes to write a check consumers can turn their loyalty card into a payment instrument accepted anywhere in the network.”

Also a partner in the Oasis Stop ‘N Go convenience store chain based in Twin Falls, ID Lewis went on to say “I know first hand how these fees are affecting the price we charge for fuel and ultimately how it impacts our bottom-line. It’s no wonder credit card fees paid by the industry went up 1.2 billion last year while at the same time profits went down 1.1 billion” quoting NACS State of the Industry figures. “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure this one out” added Lewis.

If KickBack’s ACH/Debit Network and Instant Acquisition process hadn’t taken center stage at the NACStech show then their other announcements would have garnered all the attention. “Because they are big steps in the right direction as well,” according to Lewis.

“Every year the counter space at our stores keeps shrinking as every new vendor needs room for their own equipment to process transactions. We just have so little counter space and up until now we couldn’t efficiently integrate the loyalty programs we develop for our clients into their primary point-of-sale system” said Lewis. This problem has reduced functionality in the convenience store channel limiting what retailers can do with their loyalty program and how they reward their customers.

KickBack announced that Oasis Stop ‘N Go is preparing to beta test later this month the Gilbarco Veeder-Root Passport Version 6 which supports the KickBack loyalty interface. Once loyalty is enabled they will be able to access KickBack’s full suite of functionality and data collection capabilities.

KickBack is also ready to beta test their loyalty interface on the Dresser-Wayne Nucleus POS system and is currently soliciting beta test locations.

“We’ve been working hard investing a great deal of resources to make these new capabilities available to our clients,” said Lewis.

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