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A Real Credit Thaw or Just a Test |
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| A Real Credit Thaw or Just a Test |
| Tuesday, September 29,2009 05:39 PM |
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In July and August, Chase, Barclays, Citibank and Bank of America sent out more small-business credit-card offers than in previous months, according to Mintel Comperemedia, a Chicago firm that tracks direct mail. What's more, the number of mailings received by small businesses remained flat in 2009 -- a distinct improvement over 2008, when the number of business card mailings tracked by Mintel dropped 82%.
JPMorgan Chase's Chase Card Services is getting in on the action, too. Last week, the company announced plans to launch four business cards developed specifically for small businesses, including a pay-in-full charge card that will compete directly with American Express's Gold business charge card.
Economists and analysts see the developments as a sign that credit conditions are beginning to thaw. "For months, we haven't had much news, and, if anything, we've had a lot of negative news--it wasn't long ago that Advanta froze one million accounts," says Curtis Arnold, founder of Cardratings.com, a site that tracks and rates credit cards. But "when Chase makes an announcement where they don't just create one card, but four cards, and one of those cards is taking on AmEx in the charge card arena, from my perspective, that is a big announcement in and of itself," he says.
Read the rest at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125416054250446831.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_smallbusiness
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