Wachovia Introduces New Foreign Remittance Card

CHARLOTTE, NC – Wachovia Corporation today announced it is offering a foreign remittance product — the Wachovia Dinero Directo Card — that customers may use to send money to friends and family who reside in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Mexico. The card is part of Wachovia Cuenta con Todo, a new package of deposit products Wachovia is offering its customers.

Customers with a Wachovia checking or savings account can fund the Dinero Directo foreign remittance card with money from their Wachovia accounts. The recipient then may use the card at any ATM in the Visa/PLUS network, which consists of more than 950,000 ATMs in 160 countries. The funds are available immediately, and the sender may add money to the card at any time using several funding methods. Wachovia tested the card in 11 financial centers in Naples, Fla., and Elizabeth, N.J., prior to introducing it in phases to all markets as part of Wachovia Cuenta con Todo.

“We’ve seen the amount of money sent from the United States to Latin America increase dramatically over the past several years to $36 billion, indicating a real need for a remittance product,” said Jorge Moller, director of Wachovia’s Hispanic Segment Strategy. “Fifty percent of the Hispanic households within Wachovia’s footprint are from countries other than Mexico. For this reason, we expanded the capabilities of our Wachovia Dinero Directo Card so customers can send money to friends and family throughout Latin American and Caribbean countries as well as Mexico — and we’re the first major bank to do that. We combined this remittance product and other popular deposit products into one account offering, Wachovia Cuenta con Todo, to make it easy for customers to get the products they want in a convenient package.”

In English, Cuenta con Todo translates to “account with everything.” In addition to the Wachovia Dinero Directo Card, Wachovia Cuenta con Todo includes a free checking account, complete with a free Visa Check Card, the easy-to-use Visa Extras rewards program and free Online Banking with BillPay. A savings account, systematic saver CD, and security and identity protection are also part of the package. Additional information is available on Wachovia’s Spanish-language Web site at http://www.wachovia.com/espanol.

“We know saving is important to our customers, so in addition to the one- of-a-kind free checking account, Wachovia Cuenta con Todo gives customers two savings options,” Moller said.

Wachovia also plans to offer Spanish-language banking statements to customers later this year. All customers with existing accounts and customers who open new accounts will have the option to receive their banking statements and transaction descriptions in Spanish.