FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, April 27, 2005

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jack Gillis for CFA: 202-737-0766
Steve Burke for Visa: 703-683 5004, ext 108

Washington, D.C. – April 27, 2005 – A new, nationwide survey released today by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Visa USA finds that a lack of personal savings to cover periodic emergency expenditures was a principal cause for financial worry among women, especially younger women. This has resulted in sleep and job productivity loss as well as deteriorating health. In direct response, CFA and Visa have teamed up to launch a “Save $500 Challenge: Preparing Women for a Rainy Day,” to encourage more women to open and maintain a savings account.

Nearly three quarters (71 percent) of the women surveyed said they had worried about their personal finances in the past year and two-thirds (66 percent) cited unexpected expenses as a cause for those worries. Even more surprising, 88 percent of younger women, between the ages of 18-24, said unexpected expenses was also a contributor to their financial worries.

One of the main causes for these concerns was the fact that they had little or no money set aside for emergency situations. In fact, 42 percent of all women surveyed said they had emergency savings of less than $500. And, 55 percent of women, between the ages of 25-34, said that they did not maintain an emergency savings account of at least $500.

"The concern of younger women about their personal finances is far more widespread than we had imagined, and far greater than that of older women," said Stephen Brobeck, Executive Director, CFA. "The fact that more than one-half of younger women do not have available at least $500 in emergency savings may help explain this concern," added Brobeck.

In response to these findings, CFA and Visa have launched a “Save $500 Challenge: Preparing Women for a Rainy Day” to encourage women, especially younger ones, to build savings for unplanned emergencies. The initiative is a call to action for women to maintain a minimum of $500 but ideally $2,000 in emergency savings.

"There is clearly a need to better educate consumers, and women especially, about the importance of having a savings account for emergency financial situations," said Rhonda Bentz, vice president, Visa USA. "As part of Visa's commitment to helping consumers better manage their finances, we strongly encourage women to sign up for this Savings Challenge,” she added. Women can enroll in the challenge by visiting http://www.save500challenge.org/. All participants will receive a weekly email finance savings tip and will be eligible to enroll as an American Saver, an America Saves service entitling consumers to free information and financial planner advice. (www.practicalmoneyskills.com). They can also access Practical Money Skills for Life (PMSFL), Visa’s award-winning, online personal finance curriculum for consumers of all ages and financial needs. It is available in English, Spanish and Chinese and can be accessed for free at www.practicalmoneyskills.com.

The survey was administered by the Opinion Research Corporation to a representative sample of 1,031 adult women in mid-November, 2004. The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

About Consumer Federation of America
CFA is a non-profit association of some 300 pro-consumer groups, which seeks to advance the consumer interest through research, education and advocacy.

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, teachers graded and evaluated the program. Nearly 100 percent of teachers who reviewed the website approved of it; 98 percent said they would recommend the site to other educators; and 94 percent gave the program a "B" or better. The curriculum currently reaches 2.5 million teachers, 37 million students, and 100,000 schools. 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 and was named an “Honorable Mention” by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy’s 2002 Soaring$tar Award.

About Visa
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs. Jointly owned by nearly 14,000 financial institutions, Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payments systems - Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its Members, more than 458 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders, which are accepted at over 5.7 million locations within the United States. Each year, U.S.-based financial institutions rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions with virtually 100 percent reliability.

Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accepted at nearly 22 million locations, accounting for $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.

Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources - anytime, anywhere, anyway.

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