Amex Co-Brands

American Express and 7-Eleven have introduced a co-branded, prepaid Internet shopping card. The convenience store operates more than 5,200 stores in the U.S. The card is not available in 7-Eleven's 490 Canadian stores. Although the card can be used at the stores, the primary purpose of the card is to give customers a means of making purchases on the Internet. The card is available in denominations ranging from $250 to $1,000. According to CardLine (the online payment card newsletter published by Thomson Financial Media/ Faulkner and Gray), this is the second joint venture of the two firms. In November 2000, 7-Eleven stores began offering AmEx gift cards.

Amex has also closed a co-branding deal with ShopRite. The platinum card of Amex will replace ShopRite's MasterCard, either the gold or standard card. Last fall Amex purchased the MasterCard portfolio of Valley National Bank of Wayne, NJ. The portfolio was comprised of 230,000 accounts with $70 million in outstandings. Holders of the Amex platinum credit card will not be charged an annual fee, and cardholders will not have to pay off their accounts in full at the end of each month, as is the case with the regular Amex card. In addition, cardholders are enrolled in a rewards program under which they earn rewards amounting to one percent of their purchases at ShopRite and 0.5 percent on all other purchases.