Ford Motor Unit Adding Phillips Gasoline Card

Associates National Bank has shuffled the Phillips 66 MasterCard into the deck of gasoline cards on the market.

The Delaware-based bank signed an agreement with Phillips Petroleum Co. to issue the cobranded card, which will be available in September.

The bank said that initially the rebate card will be offered to a portion of Phillips' two million proprietary cardholders.

The oil company is the ninth-largest issuer of proprietary gasoline cards, according the The Nilson Report, an Oxnard, Calif.-based industry newsletter.

Details on interest rates and rebates have not been released.

Associates Corporation of North America, a subsidiary of the financial services group of Ford Motor Co., has a bank card portfolio of more than three million cards with $3.5 billion in outstandings.

Its other cobranding partners include Amoco, GTE, Citgo, Unocal, and Total Petroleum.

Associates spokesman Fred Stern said he couldn't predict how many consumers would be interested in the card, but he said it's "another program we can use to help build our bank card portfolio and help Phillips sell more gasoline."

Bartlesville, Okla.-based Phillips owns 7,000 gas stations in 26 states, mainly in the Midwest.

Robert Benz, Phillips' vice president of marketing, said the card is "another choice we can offer to customers who want more than a traditional gasoline credit card."

Phillips will be competing with several gasoline cards already on the market, including Shell and Exxon MasterCards, the Sunoco MasterCard, the BP Visa, and the Gulf MasterCard, as well as the other programs issued by Associates.

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