Two more Baby Bells may follow Pactel with cobranded cards.

Household International's announcement last week that it will develop a cobranded credit card with Pacific Bell comes amid speculation that at least two more Baby Bell telephone companies are considering developing cobranding programs with banks.

On Thursday, the companies said the cobranded card will be a general purpose MasterCard or Visa. Features of the card, such as annual fee, interest rate, rebates, and discounts, will be determined during the next two months.

"We're not launching the product until the appropriate time," said Jim Gorman, director of business development for Household Credit Services Inc.

The Pacific Bell card will be issued to qualifying customers by Household Bank in Las Vegas and serviced by Household Credit Services in Salinas, Calif.

San Francisco-based Pacific Bell, a unit of Pacific Telesis Group, provides telecommunications services to more than 14 million residential and business customers in California.

Household, the Prospect, Ill.-based financial services company, has extensive experience in the cobranded credit card arena, with the General Motors MasterCard, the Charles Schwab Card, and with another regional phone company, Chicago-based Ameritech.

Officials hope the Pacific Bell card will be as successful as Ameritech, Mr. Gorman said. "It's another weapon in our arsenal."

The no-fee Ameritech Complete card was introduced in September 1991. Ameritech said it expects to have 800,000 Complete cardholders by yearend, tapping its vast pool of 12 million customers in five states. Last year, receivables grew 66% to $464 million.

Ameritech Complete cardholders are given a 10% rebate on local and long distance calls charged to the card. Ameritech offers a tiered interest rate structure based on the balance on the card.

Because regional phone companies have a lock on most of their customers, Household is not competing with itself to introduce a second cobranded program, said Stephen D. Drees, senior vice president of Affinity Partners Inc., in Newton, Mass.

Telephone companies have been a force in the creidt card arena, from AT&T Universal and GTE to U S West, which offers a card through U.S. Bank Corp. in Portland, Ore.

Four other regional bells -- Nynex, Bell South, Bell Atlantic, and Southwestern Bell -- do not have cobranded programs. Nynex will reportedly announce a cobranded program soon.

"There's immense competition" in the long-distance communications business, with "a lot of volleying for who's going to have control of a customer," noted Michael J. Auriemma, managing director of Auriemma Consulting Group, Westbury, N.Y. "The more accounts a customer has with you, the less likely they are to switch."

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