Riverwoods, Illinois, July 18, 2006 – Discover
®
Network, a business unit of Discover Financial
Services and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), today announced
that it has signed an agreement with Dollar Tree
Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR), that will provide for
exclusive acceptance at a majority of its stores.
Under the terms of the agreement, Discover Network
cards will be the only credit cards accepted for
payment at more than 2,100 of Dollar Tree's nationwide
locations. Dollar Tree Stores is the nation's
largest $1.00 discount variety store chain.
Dollar stores are one of the fastest-growing
retail categories in the nation. Dollar Tree Stores,
a leader in this retail market with reported sales
of nearly $3.4 billion for 2005, also reported
a 14 percent growth in sales for the first quarter
of 2006.
“With its incredible sales
growth and focus on customer convenience and value,
we're extremely pleased to have Dollar Tree join
our growing list of merchants that exclusively
accept Discover Network cards,” said Harit Talwar,
executive vice president, Discover Financial Services.
“Through this agreement, Dollar Tree Stores provides
its customers with an additional payment option,
while making it even more convenient and rewarding
for customers to take advantage of the great products
and value Dollar Tree Stores offer.”
In
addition to exclusive card acceptance at a majority
of its stores, Dollar Tree will offer Discover
Network card acceptance at all of its locations.
Dollar Tree operates more than 3,100 stores in
48 states.
The agreement with Dollar
Tree represents another important step for Discover
as it evolves from a single product issuer into
a broad-based payments company supporting multiple
issuers and products, while bringing choice and
value to merchants, issuers and consumers. Recent
initiatives include: agreements with multiple
credit and prepaid issuers to issue cards on Discover
Network; the launch of Discover Debit, Discover's
signature debit program; the strategic alliance
with China UnionPay; agreements with Wal-Mart
®
and GE Consumer Finance to issue Wal-Mart Discover
credit card on Discover Network; and the acquisition
of the PULSE ATM/debit network.
Discover
Network cards include all credit, debit, and prepaid
payment cards that bear the Discover Network acceptance
brand mark on the front or back of the card.
About Discover Network and Discover
Financial Services LLC Discover
Financial Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan
Stanley (NYSE: MS), operates the Discover Card
with more than 50 million Cardmembers, and the
Discover Network, which is the largest proprietary
credit card network in the U.S. with more than
4 million merchant and cash access locations.
Discover Financial Services also operates the
PULSE ATM/debit network, which serves more than
4,200 financial institutions and includes nearly
250,000 ATMs and approximately 3.4 million POS
terminals. For more information, visit
www.discovercard.com,
www.discovernetwork.com
or
www.pulse-eft.com.
About Dollar Tree Stores
Inc. Dollar Tree Stores is the nation's
largest $1.00 discount variety store chain. As
of July 6, 2006, Dollar Tree operated 3,146 stores
in 48 states, compared to 2,845 stores in 48 states
at July 7, 2005. These stores are supported by
a network of nine distribution centers, strategically
positioned to provide economical and efficient
logistics support to any point in the contiguous
United States.
CONTACT:
Leslie Beyer
Discover Financial Services LLC
(224)
405-5154