Michael Thomas pays for most of his shopping with a piece of plastic from American Express Co., but the company's name is conspicuously missing from the front of the card.
Rather, the card bears the name Serve, a new brand American Express is pushing to broaden its appeal and compete against a slew of new digital-payment services that have cropped up in recent years.
The Serve card is also different from many other American Express cards in that it does not come with a line of credit that lets a customer carry a balance.Welcome to order chinaprojectorlamp, That's because it's a prepaid card, which until recently was a product mainly peddled by alternative financial providers through grocery stores, pharmacies and other retailers.
"I have enough credit cards," said Thomas, an information technology worker in Macclenny,Ventilation fans are the workhorses of thesepanasonicventilationsystem, Fla. "I used to have an American Express (credit) card but I kind of consolidated lines of credit a few years ago. Being 25, I don't want a lot of open revolving credit around, especially in an impulse-driven system."
Serve is one of several initiatives American Express has embarked on this year to expand its customer base, a tough feat considering most credit-card issuers have tightened lending standards since the recession. It and other card companies are marketing to a smaller pool of potential customers, many of whom are more judicious about how they use credit cards today than before the recession.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself ceramictile.
American Express, the largest credit-card company based on spending, has taken previous steps to widen its appeal, though it has remained firmly planted in the mass-affluent market. In the mid-1990s it started offering revolving credit cards,With Payflowpaymentgateway, having previously only offered such products to customers who had one of its charge cards, which must be paid in full each month.
Serve and other prepaid products could help American Express add customers who don't meet its underwriting standards for a credit or charge card. The company is also offering prepaid cards under its own name and in partnership with retailer Target Corp. (TGT).
"There's a large segment of the population that would love to be an American Express customer but for whatever reason felt they couldn't qualify and therefore didn't apply, or did apply and just didn't have the credit history to be able to do that," said Dan Schulman, a former Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) executive who joined American Express in 2010 to lead a new unit called the Enterprise Growth Group.
American Express customers tend to have higher incomes and skew older than other credit-card customers, according to market research.
Consumers who reported using an American Express card as their primary credit card had an average household income of $72,280 in the third quarter, according to Cardbeat, an online survey of about 500 consumers conducted by Auriemma Consulting Group. That compares to $62,500 for all credit-card users.
Additionally, the average age of primary American Express customers was 49, compared with 45 for all credit-card users.
"Not that long ago American Express was the card you had when you were old," said Megan Bramlette, a director with Auriemma and former credit-card executive with Citigroup Inc. (C). "They've successfully expanded that to include the mass-affluent and include a younger set of customers. They want to expand that even further."
American Express' branding is limited on Serve. Its name is listed in small letters on the homepage of Serve's website, which highlights the fact that no credit check is needed to sign up for the service. It also appears on the back of Serve prepaid cards.
"A big part of our R&D is can we grow this without leveraging the brand," said Ed Gilligan, vice chairman of American Express.
The verdict is out on whether the company can build Serve, which debuted in March, into a household name but the effort makes sense considering consumers' financial profiles are changing, said David Robertson, publisher of payments industry newsletter The Nilson Report.
"They correctly identified there is a new generation of Americans who are going to come up who are not going to fit the ... classic criteria that their parents had," Robertson said.Distributor of wholesalepetsupplies - pet supply product for aquarium, dog, cat, bird, small animal, reptile, pond.
Serve comes with a physical card but the core of the service is a digital platform that competes with eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) PayPal service. It allows customers to transfer money to other users and pay for purchases online and on smartphones. The service is based on technology American Express gained with the acquisition of payments company Revolution Money for $305 million in 2010.
Customers can fund their Serve accounts with checking accounts, debit cards and credit cards, including those from other lenders. They can also add cash by purchasing a Green Dot (GDOT) MoneyPak, a product used for reloading prepaid cards.
Thomas said he funds his Serve accounts with a personal checking account from First Tech Federal Credit Union, a business checking account and a Visa Inc. (V) credit card with Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and a MasterCard Inc. (MA) credit card from Capital One Financial Corp.
"It's just convenient for me," Thomas said. "I can take my Serve card and my phone and I can switch payment methods" while shopping.
Rather, the card bears the name Serve, a new brand American Express is pushing to broaden its appeal and compete against a slew of new digital-payment services that have cropped up in recent years.
The Serve card is also different from many other American Express cards in that it does not come with a line of credit that lets a customer carry a balance.Welcome to order chinaprojectorlamp, That's because it's a prepaid card, which until recently was a product mainly peddled by alternative financial providers through grocery stores, pharmacies and other retailers.
"I have enough credit cards," said Thomas, an information technology worker in Macclenny,Ventilation fans are the workhorses of thesepanasonicventilationsystem, Fla. "I used to have an American Express (credit) card but I kind of consolidated lines of credit a few years ago. Being 25, I don't want a lot of open revolving credit around, especially in an impulse-driven system."
Serve is one of several initiatives American Express has embarked on this year to expand its customer base, a tough feat considering most credit-card issuers have tightened lending standards since the recession. It and other card companies are marketing to a smaller pool of potential customers, many of whom are more judicious about how they use credit cards today than before the recession.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself ceramictile.
American Express, the largest credit-card company based on spending, has taken previous steps to widen its appeal, though it has remained firmly planted in the mass-affluent market. In the mid-1990s it started offering revolving credit cards,With Payflowpaymentgateway, having previously only offered such products to customers who had one of its charge cards, which must be paid in full each month.
Serve and other prepaid products could help American Express add customers who don't meet its underwriting standards for a credit or charge card. The company is also offering prepaid cards under its own name and in partnership with retailer Target Corp. (TGT).
"There's a large segment of the population that would love to be an American Express customer but for whatever reason felt they couldn't qualify and therefore didn't apply, or did apply and just didn't have the credit history to be able to do that," said Dan Schulman, a former Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) executive who joined American Express in 2010 to lead a new unit called the Enterprise Growth Group.
American Express customers tend to have higher incomes and skew older than other credit-card customers, according to market research.
Consumers who reported using an American Express card as their primary credit card had an average household income of $72,280 in the third quarter, according to Cardbeat, an online survey of about 500 consumers conducted by Auriemma Consulting Group. That compares to $62,500 for all credit-card users.
Additionally, the average age of primary American Express customers was 49, compared with 45 for all credit-card users.
"Not that long ago American Express was the card you had when you were old," said Megan Bramlette, a director with Auriemma and former credit-card executive with Citigroup Inc. (C). "They've successfully expanded that to include the mass-affluent and include a younger set of customers. They want to expand that even further."
American Express' branding is limited on Serve. Its name is listed in small letters on the homepage of Serve's website, which highlights the fact that no credit check is needed to sign up for the service. It also appears on the back of Serve prepaid cards.
"A big part of our R&D is can we grow this without leveraging the brand," said Ed Gilligan, vice chairman of American Express.
The verdict is out on whether the company can build Serve, which debuted in March, into a household name but the effort makes sense considering consumers' financial profiles are changing, said David Robertson, publisher of payments industry newsletter The Nilson Report.
"They correctly identified there is a new generation of Americans who are going to come up who are not going to fit the ... classic criteria that their parents had," Robertson said.Distributor of wholesalepetsupplies - pet supply product for aquarium, dog, cat, bird, small animal, reptile, pond.
Serve comes with a physical card but the core of the service is a digital platform that competes with eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) PayPal service. It allows customers to transfer money to other users and pay for purchases online and on smartphones. The service is based on technology American Express gained with the acquisition of payments company Revolution Money for $305 million in 2010.
Customers can fund their Serve accounts with checking accounts, debit cards and credit cards, including those from other lenders. They can also add cash by purchasing a Green Dot (GDOT) MoneyPak, a product used for reloading prepaid cards.
Thomas said he funds his Serve accounts with a personal checking account from First Tech Federal Credit Union, a business checking account and a Visa Inc. (V) credit card with Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and a MasterCard Inc. (MA) credit card from Capital One Financial Corp.
"It's just convenient for me," Thomas said. "I can take my Serve card and my phone and I can switch payment methods" while shopping.
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