American Express Takes on Capital One

It appears American Express is going after Capital One. This isn't happening in the court system but in the court of public opinion. American Express, which largely has a history of producing high brow or clever, but savvy, ad campaigns is taking more of a "head on" approach as it compares itself to the competition.

The competition in the new campaign is not mentioned by name, but it appears obvious. Recently, Capital One has been boasting about how easy it is to customize the image you want on your platinum credit card. Kittens, mom, the kids, all of these are regular choices of happy card users, according to the ads. You simply upload your images and the next thing you know you are showing off the thing, or person, or whatever you are proud of in each transaction.

American Express is arguing that such cards are not what you want to display when making business purchases. There is the poor guy who has his credit card littered with kittens and he says he is going on a business trip. As a result of the card, he faces interrogation and even cavity expections! Meanwhile, the person who walks up with his American Express Platinum Card gets on board of his flight without incidence. Then there is the poor fool who uses a super hero imaged credit card at a business meal. He thought his guests were impressed by his presentation. That positive impression was wiped a way by a silly credit card.

I'm not use to seeing American Express taking a confrontational stand, it will be interesting to see how good it is for business.

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Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

What are the Five Worst Credit Card Companies?

According to Calvin Brown (of Credit Restore, Inc.), Houston Business Show Advisor on Credit Strategies, you are going to recognize them immediately.

On Friday's Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650), I interviewed our new Houston Business Show Advisor and Calvin pointed out the five worst credit card companies.
Here’s a quick run down of the five companies that have a reputation of destroying a client’s credit and even their financial reputations:

* Bank of America. The largest bank of America has a terrible reputation at damaging one's economy. The purchase of a smaller credit firm has weakened the economic structures of the larger company.

* Discover Financial. One of the hardest cards to get is one that you might want the least.

* Capital One. In spite the nifty commercials that position themselves as the savior of credit card users, they have a reputation of worsening one's credit situation.

* World Financial Network National Bank (WFNNB). You don't know this company because they underwrite the credit efforts of many other firms. But when you get something financed, they might be the ones underwriting it.

* Washington Mutual/Providian. Another company that has suffered from the practices of its acquisitions.

These companies’ are all noted for being unforgiving, rude customer service, overextending credit, and weak ID theft controls.

Calvin went into detail on these companies and has developed a report that he is making available upon request plus five others. For that list of the top ten and details why they were chosen, ask for a report at Info@HoustonBusinessShow.com.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show, M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650.