Word: amex
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Perhaps to avoid riling the banks that sell its traveler's checks, Amex is planning to run ads only in Atlanta for now. Elsewhere the push will be through the mail. If you are a cardholder in one of the initial markets (Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia), don't be surprised to find an offer in your June statement...
...just because Karl Malden won't be brought to overbear on this doesn't mean Amex considers it unimportant. "Membership Savings will be the basis for establishing a broader financial relationship with Cardmembers," reads an internal marketing piece. "In time, we plan to offer several savings and investment products" -- IRAs and annuities, for example. With millions of affluent cardholders, Amex can quickly accumulate tens of billions of dollars in deposits with nary a bank branch or broken ball-point...
Membership has its privileges, but depositing money at 6.54% is a privilege Amex is willing to extend to anybody. (Not least because it can turn around and lend that money to its Optima cardholders at 16.25%.) Noncardholders won't be billed, but can make deposits by mail...
...fact is, almost anything that gets a nonsaver to save is a service, and for $50-a-month savers, 6.54% is a perfectly respectable rate of interest. The Amex plan is laudably efficient. Amex is already sending millions and millions of monthly bills and reply envelopes, already processing payments; millions of us are already having to pay those bills. Combining a savings deposit with the payment costs Amex next to nothing and saves us time, a check and a stamp...
Just promise me you'll withdraw your savings each time they build up past $1,000 and transfer them someplace that pays more interest. You promise? Sure. As Amex knows, many of you won't get around to making the switch. You'll forget; you'll agonize for months over where to put the money. Face it, sports fans: Amex, already the Babe Ruth of marketing, has found the perfect way to get folks to accept 6.54% on money that could be earning more...