Mastercard is aiming to clean up reputation of secured credit cards.

Setting itself up as an authority on secured credit cards, MasterCard International Inc. is launching a national educational and consumer awareness campaign.

A panel of 15 card executives met in New York last month to discuss and review several programs that MasterCard will introduce in mid-November.

Brochures describing how a secured product works, pitfalls to avoid, and questions to ask, will be distributed to MasterCard members, which in turn will make them available to customers.

At the same time, the MasterCard Assistance Center - reachable at an 800 number - will. field customer requests for the brochure and provide a list of MasterCard members who offer secured cards.

|Grass-Roots Effort'

"No one else is doing what we are doing," said Gary Flood, vice president of MasterCard standard cards. "This initiative is a grass-roots effort to educate consumers."

While the New York-based association is not planning an advertising campaign, it will form alliances with consumer groups to get the word out about the brochure and the telephone number.

Secured cards, which require a deposit as collateral for a line of credit, had a negative reputation until recently. when larger issuers such as Citibank and Fleet Bank began peddling them.

Both Visa and MasterCard also began efforts about two years ago to remove shady operators from the secured market. One of their major accomplishments was forbidding the use of pay-per-call 900 numbers for secured-card marketing.

Caveats for Consumers

However, con artists have not entirely disappeared, and the Federal Trade Commission produced a publication in October titled "Secured Credit Card Marketing Scams."

The publication says that consumers should be wary of advertisements that offer "easy" or "guaranteed" credit. The FTC explains that no issuer can guarantee credit. because legitimate providers will examine a consumer's credit history first.

By spearheading a national program that relies on input from major secured card issuers, MasterCard is hoping to squelch any remaining blot on secured cards' reputation.

A Different Clientele

"In the past the media focused on people who had credit problems, but we see a great need to reach the people who have not established credit or who need to reestablish credit because, for example, they are divorced or widowed," said Jeannette Williams, MasterCard's director of secured cards.

"We are very committed to the product," added Mr. Flood.

As MasterCard continues to refine its education programs, the secured card panel, which met for the first time in June. will convene twice a year.

MasterCard's goal is also to increase the number of issuers offering secured cards.

Based on information from 700,000 existing secured bank card accounts, MasterCard maintains that secured cards are strong revenue generators.

Big Issuer in Maryland

Apparently, issuers are beginning to feel that way too, according to Robert M. Bouza, who is a member of MasterCard's panel and president of the credit card operations at Key Federal Savings Bank in Owings Mills, Md.

"There are more and more issuers out there offering secured programs," said Mr. Bouza.

Key Federal Savings was the first bank, in 1982, to offer secured credit cards. Since then it has issued more than 350,000 secured cards.Secured Card Sampler Interest Annual Application rate fee feeOcean Independent Bank 12.99% $75 $35Fleet Bank 13.40 25 NoneOrchard Bank 13.90 45 NoneUnited Bank of Philadelphia 17.99 15 NoneAmerican Pacific Bank 18.90 35 None

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