'Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge' Announced

San Francisco, CA - Visa U.S.A.'s annual "Back to School Survey" reveals that more than half of parents with children going back to class this fall will be providing their children not only with new clothes and school supplies, but also with a lesson in practical money skills. The 2002 survey shows that 54 percent of parents- up from 51 percent a year ago - will use the traditional back-to-school shopping season as an opportunity to teach their children basic money management skills.

"'Back to School' is a great opportunity for us to bring financial literacy into the forefront and to ensure that today's youth are equipped with the knowledge necessary to help them deal with any financial situation they may encounter in the future," said Rosetta Jones, Visa U.S.A. Director. "These survey results also demonstrate an opportunity to encourage parents to use the 'Back to School' season to sit down with their children and begin basic budgeting discussions. By doing so, their children can start the new school year with the greatest school supply: practical money skills that they can use for life."

Additionally, the survey shows that 94 percent of parents want to ensure that students learn practical money skills prior to graduation. The majority of parents (53 percent) said that their children have not taken any classes in school that teach personal money management. In fact, 33 percent said that their children's schools do not offer such classes.

"These survey results confirm what parents across the country have been telling us for years now - they want their children to learn and master money management skills that will be essential to their future before they graduate," said Jones.

Other survey highlights include:

Visa's annual "Back to School" financial education campaign is an important component to its ongoing commitment to improving financial responsibility and literacy.

Additional components of Visa's ongoing campaign to enhance personal financial literacy include:

• In addition to providing a free personal finance curriculum, Visa U.S.A. continues its efforts to bridge the digital divide by donating computer equipment to schools in need and providing training for teachers. During the 2002-03 school year, Visa U.S.A. expects to continue this program by donating 10 computer labs to ten high schools across the United States. To date, Visa has donated more than 35 computer labs nationwide.

• In an effort to increase financial literacy of America's youth, Visa is sponsoring the Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge. High school teachers can go to www.PracticalMoneySkills.com now to enter their classrooms in the contest for a chance to win computers and school supplies.

The Visa U.S.A. Back to School Survey interviewed 1,000 adults in July 2002. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.

About Visa U.S.A.
Visa is the world's leading payment brand and largest consumer payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumer and merchant customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives. More than 14,000 U.S. financial institutions rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate over $915 billion in annual transaction volume - including roughly half of all Internet payments - with virtually 100 percent reliability. U.S. consumers carry 376 million Visa-branded smart, credit, commercial, prepaid and check cards, accepted at approximately 24 million locations worldwide. Visa's people, partnerships, brand, payment technology and security standards are helping to create universal commerce - the ability to safely conduct transactions anytime, anywhere, anyway. For more information about Visa, please visit www.visa.com.

About Practical Money Skills for Life
The Practical Money Skills for Life curriculum is teacher tested and teacher approved. At the 2001 National Education Association Expo, the program was put before teachers to evaluate and grade. Fully 99 percent of teachers who reviewed the site said they approve of the Practical Money Skills for Life program; 98 percent said they would recommend the site to other educators and 94 percent gave the program a "B" or better. The curriculum is currently being used by 2.5 million teachers, 37 million students and in 100,000 schools. Beyond a focus on educating high schoolers to be smart money managers, Visa U.S.A. has also partnered with the Reserve Officers Association to make available Practical Money Skills for Life resources to military families at installations across the United States. Additionally, this program won the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators 2002 Achievement in Consumer Education Award (ACE) for the best innovative program for the private sector, named an "Honorable Mention" by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy's 2002 Soaring$tar Award, was listed on the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse Digital Dozen, earned a "four star" rating from both Blue Web'n and from The Detroit Free Press, was given the Teacher Information Network Gold Award by Teacher.com, and accepted the prestigious Golden Web Award. Visa U.S.A. was also a strong supporter of the Leave No Child Behind Act of 2001 and its allocation of $450 million in block grant funding for financial literacy education in public schools.

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EDITORS NOTE:For a copy of Visa U.S.A.'s Back to School Survey or to arrange an interview with a Visa spokesperson, please contact Maria Hatzikonstantinou at (703) 683-5004 ext. 131.