Chevy Chase Bank in Md. Offering Cobranded MasterCard with Rickel Home

Chevy Chase Bank and a leading home center have teamed up to issue a cobranded card.

The Rickel Home Value MasterCard carries no annual fee for the first year and a prime plus 5.65% interest rate.

The Maryland bank has been offering consumers two lines of cards. After the first year, a "high line" card comes with a prime plus 9.9% rate. A $40 annual fee is waived if cardholders make $3,500 of purchases that year on the card. A standard version carries a prime plus 10.9% rate and a $25 fee, which is waived if cardholders charge $2,000 on the card.

Consumers will receive a 2% rebate on all purchases made with the card. "Rickel Rewards" will be sent to cardholders every six months and can be applied to purchases at any of the 91 Rickel Home Centers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

There are no caps on cardholder rebates, according to Jules Borshadel, president and chief executive officer of Rickel Home Center.

Rickel, with annual sales of $670 million, was ranked 14th in the National Home Center News Scoreboard last year.

MasterCard is billing this as the first-ever cobranded home-center card. There have been private-label cards issued for this segment.

In February, SPS Transaction Services Inc. said it had signed a five- year agreement to provide private-label credit card services for HomePlace, a Ohio-based chain of home furnishings superstores.

Beneficial National Bank USA of Wilmington, Del., the third-largest private-label card bank in the United States and a strong player in the home-center industry, recently indicated a desire to pursue cobranding possibilities.

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