The township of South Orange, N.J., is officially on the credit card
Last April, the northern New Jersey town began looking for a bank
Valley National Bank of Wayne won the contract in September, and the
The program has generated a lot of interest from other cash- starved
William R. Calabrese, South Orange's mayor and the creative force behind
It has been rumored that the Big Apple is shopping for such a deal to
Similar programs are beginning to pop up in other states. The Worcester,
The South Orange card is the only such MasterCard program linked to a
Visa, however, said several of its members have partnered with towns,
The central Pennsylvania issuer shares half of the $15 annual fee and a
So far, 800 people hold the South Orange card, out of what is considered
The potential doubles if the population of Seton Hall University and
South Orange's goal is to have 2,500 cardholders by the end of this
The 800 new customers have produced $4,000 for a fund that was set up to
One percent of the amount of each purchase made with the card goes into
But the money is not allowed to sit for long before it is spent on the
The mayor, who is a pharmacist in South Orange, said Valley National was
For its part, Valley National is sending out direct mail solicitations
The northern New Jersey bank said that, since the South Orange deal, it
The interest rate on the South Orange card is 14.20%, and there is no
The program has no benefits additional to competitive pricing and the
However, Mr. Calabrese has big plans for the card. He hopes to add
Fees generated from card spending could be as great as $100,000
"Houses in the town are going to increase in value as a direct result of