MasterCard to Offer Credit Card Customization

MasterCard

to Offer Credit Card Customization

Credit card

companies have bent over backwards to offer unique credit cards

that fit their customers' lifestyles, from airline and hotel

reward cards to credit cards with college and pro sports logos

to credit cards featuring consumers' favorite retailers. Now

MasterCard is ready to up the ante.

MasterCard

International today introduced MasterCard Card Customization

Services, a proprietary design system that allows issuers to

offer consumer and small business cardholders the ability to

create their own unique credit, debit or prepaid cards. Cardholders

can upload a personal image and customize the look of the card

using online editing tools. They would then submit a final design

that must be approved by the issuer. Ultimately, every consumer

could have his or her own individual card design.

To

prove the desirability of customized credit cards, MasterCard

offered these survey statistics:

• Almost

  70% of consumers and 85% of small business owners expressed

  interest in obtaining a customized card.

• For consumers,

  76% of those expressing strong interest would make it their

  most often used card.

• For small

  business owners who expressed strong interest, 33% said they

  would use the customized card more frequently.

According

to MasterCard, consumers who are inclined to use a customized

card are more likely to be younger, have larger households,

and have children under 18 at home. Many small business owners

saw the customized card as another tool to promote their businesses.

Individual

card issuers will offer the customization service via a MasterCard-hosted

Web site.

Published 11/14/05 (Modified 05/07/12)