Wachovia Reenters Credit Card Market with Promise of Fewer Penalties, Generous Rewards

Wachovia
Reenters Credit Card Market with Promise of Fewer Penalties,
Generous Rewards
Wachovia Corp. is set to return as a major credit card issuer
next week, and the company is promising lower rates, fewer penalties
and generous rewards to compete for space in consumers’ wallets.
Among the perks: automatic waivers of one late fee and one over-limit
fee each year, the combining of credit and debit transactions
in one rewards program, and the promise of less aggressive repricing
for accounts that have minor breaches of the cards’ terms and
conditions.
Wachovia
will offer three new credit card products–Wachovia Classic,
Wachovia Platinum and Wachovia Signature.
Wachovia
is attempting to position its new offerings as more consumer-friendly
than other issuers’ cards, some of which have received bad press
for aggressively penalizing cardholders for relatively minor
infractions. Complaints from consumers have included late fees
for payments that arrive on the due date but after the time-of-day
deadline and interest rates that drastically increase after
a single late card payment, or even for late payments on bills
completely unrelated to the credit card itself. Wachovia says
it will not reprice an interest rate unless a customer has two
consecutive payments past due three times or three consecutive
payments past due in a 12-month-period.
Wachovia’s
Possibilities Rewards program sounds relatively unique for most
cardholders. It allows cardholders to choose between debit and
credit card transactions, while still receiving all the reward
points in a single account.
Wachovia
chose to re-enter the credit card issuing market after its previous
partner, MBNA, was acquired by Bank of America. MBNA had been
issuing Wachovia-branded credit cards since 2000. Bank of America
will continue to own the customers who signed up for those cards,
but Wachovia hopes that they will have the desire to stick with
the brand they put their initial trust in and will thus choose
one of Wachovia’s new offerings.
Disclaimer:The information in this article is believed to be accurate as of the date it was written. Please keep in mind that credit card offers change frequently. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information in this article. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards. Please verify all terms and conditions of any credit card prior to applying.
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