When AmEx won its lawsuit against VISA/MasterCard (which freed up banks to issue cobranded AmEx, Discover and other cards without risking losing their VISA/MasterCard franchises), AmEx stated that it would soon go full force into getting banks to issue cobranded American Express cards. Looks like Canada is their first stop in this adventure: http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/news/2002/january/11b.html That article shows a picture of the new AmEx Entourage cards. (Hey, that almost rhymes with Diners Club Montage, lol.) Any Canadian Creditnet members who'll apply? Doc
Psych- It's a CIBC card (they solicit, approve, set terms, manage, report, etc). It's on the Amex network. This isn't any different than a Citibank card on the Visa network. I'm really curious what the "value add" of Amex network will be .. ? It's not accepted at as many places, merchants pay more to take the card ... why would anyone want a card like that __without__ the Amex added values (unsurpassed customer service, membership rewards, etc.)? -mj
Re: AmEx's new "Entourage" bank car Perhaps with other banks issuing AmEx cards, they will become more common and more merchants will take notice and start acepting them? Maybe with more volume, the AmEx network will become cost affective, thus lowering merchant fees. Maybe none of these will happen. But I think it will be good for the market to bring more options to consumers and keeping Visa and Mastercard on their toes. Trevor
