Tully’s Coffee to Accept Visa Contactless Payments, Customers Speed Through Checkout Lines

SEATTLE, February 8, 2007–Tully’s Coffee (Tully’s) and Visa today announced their collaboration to make it easier for customers to grab their coffee and go by accepting Visa Contactless payments, an innovative new payment technology that speeds up transactions, making purchases faster and more convenient than cash transactions.

Visa Contactless technology enables customers to make a purchase by simply holding their Visa Contactless card near a secure reader at checkout instead of swiping it. Tully’s plans to install 162 contactless card readers to their existing payment processing technology powered by loyalty provider Chockstone. In all, Visa Contactless payments will be accepted at all 90 Tully’s corporate owned locations nationwide.

“Tully’s is continually looking for ways to reward our customers and make their coffee shop experience even more enjoyable and hassle free,” said John Buller, president and CEO of Tully’s. “We are excited to partner with Visa because we know efficiency at the counter combined with the speed of Visa Contactless transactions ensures that our customers are getting the best, most effective service every time.”

Visa Contactless provides even greater convenience to Tully’s customers by eliminating the need for a signature for most payments under $25, while cardholders receive all the same security protections the industry has come to expect from Visa. Cardholders making purchases at Tully’s with Visa Contactless enjoy additional layers of security because the card never leaves the customer’s hand, can only be read at extremely close proximity to a contactless reader, and uses data that is unique to each contactless transaction.

“Visa is pleased to partner with Tully’s to deliver the next generation of payment technology and enhance the customer experience,” said Brian Triplett, Senior Vice President of Emerging Product Development at Visa USA. “Visa cardholders consistently say they frequent merchant locations that offer them payment options, while maintaining speed and convenience. Thanks to our collaboration with merchants like Tully’s we are able to give consumers the experience they demand.”

About Tully’s Coffee Corporation

Founded in 1992, Tully’s Coffee Corporation is a fully handcrafted coffee roaster and a leading specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler, dedicated to small-batch roasting and hand-scooping each and every blend. Through company-operated and licensed specialty retail stores in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Arizona and its global alliance partner in Japan, Tully’s premium coffees are available at more than 350 branded locations. Tully’s wholesale division also distributes handcrafted coffees and related products via office coffee services, food service distributors, and leading supermarkets located throughout the western half of the United States. Tully’s corporate headquarters and roasting plant are located at 3100 Airport Way S. in Seattle, Wash. For more information, call (800) 96-Tully or visit the Web site at http://www.tullys.com.

About Visa

Visa USA is a leading payment brand and the nation’s 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. Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payment system – Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 13,420 member financial institutions, more than 488 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United States. Last year, U.S.-based financial institutions relied on Visa’s processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions with unparalleled reliability. Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources – anytime, anywhere, anyway.

Contact

Emy Noel
LANE PR
506.546.7883
emy@lanepr.com

Elvira Swanson
Visa USA
650.432.8352
elswanso@visa.com