SAN FRANCISCO and PURCHASE, N.Y. -- Visa and MasterCard, the twobiggest credit card brands, rolled out their holiday sweepstakespromotional campaigns on Nov. 6 and both are taking care to danglelots of cash in front of shoppers.

MasterCard will award one of its cardholders $350,000 toward thepurchase of a new home in its "A Home for the Holidays"sweepstakes. Cardholders will also be able to win rooms full ofhome furnishings through the Daily Instant Win Game atpriceless.com. Each time a cardholder uses their MasterCard onlineor at point-of-sale, they are entered to win.

By contrast, Visa, the larger card brand, will give 10 winningcardholders $100,000 each in its "100K Holiday" plus a chance towin $25,000 in additional prizes, including a $1,000 gift card. Itwill also automatically enter cardholders each time they use theirVisa card in a transaction.

Each brand has scheduled significant media efforts around eachsweepstakes.

"Our research tells us that, more than anything else, consumerswant to spend time with families and friends around the holidays,"said Amy Fuller, a MasterCard executive. "But they spendconsiderable amount of time shopping for the holidays--away fromthe ones they love the most. This year's 'A Home for the Holidays'sweepstakes provides two ways to win a home, offers a compellingdaily prize online and serves to motivate consumers to keep theirMasterCard card at the top of their wallet when shopping thisholiday season."

According to a recent MasterCard survey conducted by IpsosInsight, consumers plan on spending nearly 11 hours shopping forholiday gifts this year. Most of those surveyed responded that ifthey could save time on shopping, they would spend that time withfamily.

Meanwhile, in addition to all the prize money, Visa has said itwants to help consumers manage their overall holidays better.

"We want to reward cardholders for using their Visa card fortheir holiday purchases. Cardholders will be entered for a chanceto win when they use their Visa card, so the more they use theircard, the more chances they get," said Kellie Krug, senior vicepresident for Visa USA.

"In addition to the '$100K Holiday' promotion and theinstant-win game, we are also instituting Jaye Hersh, celebrityshopping expert and owner of L.A.-based Intuition, as Visa's 'ChiefShopping Officer.' In this role, Jaye will be providing consumerswith holiday shopping advice--from how to budget and manage stresslevels to offering tips on finding the best last-minute gifts."

More than 685 member financial institutions and 355 merchantpartners, representing more than 1,437 merchant locations thatshare Visa's interest in rewarding cardholders over the holidays,will be participating in the national promotion through statementinserts and marketing collateral. [email protected]