FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 20, 2000

PREPAID GIFT CARDS ARE A HOT ITEM WITH PAYPOINT'S RETAIL CUSTOMERS

Since Los Angeles-based PayPoint Electronic Payment Systems, Inc. began promoting its Prepaid Gift Card program nationwide 18 months ago, the cards have proven to be popular with retailers. The cards reduce paperwork and theft while boosting sales. They also allow PayPoint to offer an additional payment option to retailers.

"Plastic gift cards are a growing trend with enormous potential," says PayPoint's Sales & Marketing VP Fred Coblentz. "We intend to become a major player. Gift cards help us get in the door to sell new clients on our basic debit, credit, and check processing services."

Eighteen months ago, PayPoint persuaded Dallas-based retail client CEC Entertainment, Inc. to try prepaid gift cards. The rollout was so successful that CEC, operator of Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, now offers the cards in all its participating locations. Paper gift certificates are no longer used.

"We felt the cards could increase sales and enhance security," says CEC's T.J. Schier. "The product has exceeded our expectations. Our gift certificate sales have dramatically increased."

From there, PayPoint began offering the cards to existing and prospective retail clients. New York-based grocer Dean and DeLuca offers the PayPoint Prepaid Gift Card in New York, Washington, North Carolina, and Kansas. The cards have been well-received by customers.

Says PayPoint's Coblentz: "Consumers like the portability of the cards. The cards provide merchants with another revenue source that's cheaper to process than paper gift certificates and credit cards."

PayPoint's development group designed this product to be activated at the point-of-sale as a fixed or reloadable amount. "We recently implemented the ability to reload an existing gift card or accept any value from the merchant's retail system," says PayPoint Development Vice President Rick St Cyr.

This ability to accept any dollar value from the merchant permits merchandise return dollars to be placed on a plastic card instead of a cash refund. PayPoint verifies the prepaid gift card and within seconds responds to the merchant with approval or denial. If approved, PayPoint subtracts the purchase from the card balance.

PayPoint offers a full-service card program for merchants. This includes production, distribution, inventory management, fulfillment, activation, authorization, processing, customer service, fraud protection, and reporting.

# # #

For additional information, contact:

Fred Coblentz, PayPoint Sales & Marketing VP at (213) 486-6475

John Gong, PayPoint Product Marketing Manager at (213) 486-2097

Bill Stephens at (323) 661-6109