COMMERCE BANK AWARDS DONALD REED $10,000 IN SKIP THE PIN, SIGN AND WIN SWEEPSTAKES

Hutchinson, Kan. - October 28, 2003 - Commerce Bank today announced that it awarded Donald Reed of Hutchinson $10,000 as part of its VisaŽ Check Card "Skip the PIN, Sign and Win" sweepstakes that awards cash prizes to randomly selected sweepstakes entrants.

Reed is employed at Sonoco. He won the prize by using his Visaâ Check Card to make a purchase at Tops and Bottoms, a clothing store in Hutchinson. "We are very excited," said Reed. "We plan to do a few home improvements, spend a little on ourselves and we opened a savings account so we can save it for a while."

"Now in its fifth year, we extended the cycle of 'Skip the PIN, Sign and Win' for the entire year and added three additional bonus prizes," said Jon Starks, president at Commerce Bank. "The more times a cardholder makes a signature-based transaction, then the more chances the customer will have to win."

"We hope to continue building awareness of the consumer benefits surrounding signature-based check card transactions with the contest," Starks added.

Benefits of Signature-Based Debits
Signature-based transactions have a number of measurable benefits check cardholders may not be aware of, some of which are:

• Commerce Bank's Zero Liability Policy eliminates the customers' liability for any unauthorized transactions that might take place. Customers must notify Commerce Bank within 60 days of receiving a statement showing unauthorized account activity.
• Customers can dispute purchases of goods and services that were never delivered or do not meet their expectations.

Every time a Commerce Bank Visa Check Card customer selects "credit" and signs for his or her purchase, he or she is entered in the sweepstakes. There is no waiting period for eligibility after a card is issued. Complete sweepstakes rules and alternative forms of entry are described at the Commerce Bank website at www.commercebank.com. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.

About Commerce Bancshares, Inc.
Commerce Bank is the principal subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBSH), a $13.3 billion regional bank holding company. For more than 135 years, Commerce has been meeting the financial services needs of individuals and businesses. Commerce provides a diversified line of financial services, including business and personal banking, wealth management and estate planning and investments through its affiliated companies. Commerce Bancshares operates across three states with more than 340 locations and also has operating subsidiaries involved in mortgage banking, credit related insurance, venture capital and real estate activities.

For more information contact:
Dana Haynes
Regional Marketing Specialist
316-262-4703

Website: www.commercebank.com
e-mail: mymoney@commercebank.com
SYMBOL: CBSH

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