Visa Inc. Survey: Tooth Fairy Spending Rebounds, Up 15%

Visa Creates Free App for Parents to Determine Their Own Payment Amount      

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Economic conditions in the U.S. are improving in at least one sector – children who receive money from the Tooth Fairy.  A survey released by Visa shows that the Tooth Fairy is leaving an average of $3.00 per tooth this year, an increase of 15% over the $2.60 left in 2011. 

"The Tooth Fairy may be the canary in the economic coal mine.  She's showing signs of life by leaving 40 cents more per tooth this year," said Jason Alderman, Senior Director of Global Financial Education, Visa Inc.  "This is not only good news for kids, but an ideal teachable moment for parents to engage their children in thinking about how to budget their windfall by saving a portion," Alderman added.

To help parents answer the perennial question of how much their children should receive from the Tooth Fairy, Visa has created a new mobile app and online calculator that recommends an appropriate amount to leave for each tooth. 

The free app and calculator uses Visa's survey data and factors in demographics such as gender, age, home state, income and education levels to formulate how much money the Tooth Fairy is leaving in comparable households. The app is available for iPhones and iPads at the iTunes Store, while the calculator is available at: www.PracticalMoneySkills.com/ToothFairy. 

Additional findings in the survey include:

• 3% of children receive less than a dollar, down from 7% last year.
• 30% of children receive exactly $1.  Last year's survey showed that 29% of children received exactly $1.
• 13% of children receive between $2 to $4, down from 18% last year.
• 18% of children receive $5, the same amount as compared to last year.
• 8% of children receive more than $5, compared to 3% last year.

The calculator is part of Visa's free, award-winning financial education program, Practical Money Skills for Life, which reaches millions of people around the world each year.  Launched in 1995, the program is now available in 10 languages in more than 30 countries.  At Practical Money Skills for Life, educators, parents and students can access free educational resources including personal finance articles, games, lesson plans, and more. 

*The survey results are based on 2,000 telephone interviews conducted nationally from July 13 – July 17, 2012 in cooperation with GfK Roper's Omnibus Service "OmniTel". The margin of error is +/-4 percentage points.                        

About Visa Inc.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

SOURCE Visa Inc.