So far this season we've seen the introduction of the Exxon MasterCard, Federated Stores VISA (Lazurus & Bloomingdales), Quaker State VISA, Rolling Stones VISA and the American Express True Grace Optima card.
The latest: Coors Extra Gold VISA. (The "Extra Gold" refers to the beer not the benefits.) The Coors VISA offers applicants a special limited edition firefighter poster. Coors cardholders will see one half of one percent of all purchases made with the card given to fire-related organizations. Chevy Chase FSB is offering the card in two octane levels: unsecured and secured.
Credit card bankers are not the only ones gearing up for the holiday season. Fraudsters love to see all this plastic being tossed around too.
During 1993 VISA lost nearly $400 million and MasterCard nearly $300 million in credit card fraud. As much as $300 million may be lost for both VISA and MasterCard during the 1994 Christmas season. Hopefully the losses will be lower this year since both VISA and MasterCard have introduced a number of new security measures in the past twelve months. Some big issuers are going the photo card route too. This month Bank of America is introducing VISA and MasterCards with the cardholders photo added to the card.
Nonetheless American cardholders must remain on guard to preserve the most convenient payment system in the world.
