Cubis Financial CEO Plans To Target Travel, Payroll Cards in '09

/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Cubis Financial Ltd., a provider of closed-loop credit cards based in Las Vegas, plans to promote its travel cards and sell its cards to payroll program managers in 2009, Phil Huston, Cubis CEO, tells CardLine. Cubis promoted Huston to CEO from vice president of product development on Dec. 4 (CardLine 12/4). Cubis offers cards to subprime and unbanked customers via the Internet, Huston says. Consumers can use the cards to shop at 10 online stores that Cubis runs, he adds.Cubis has about 55,000 active accounts, Huston says. The company charges $9.95 a month for its credit card and does not do a credit check. To help keep defaults down, it calls cardholders to confirm their orders. "We want to make sure the purchase is really what the consumer wants and we give them the opportunity for buyer's remorse" before they make the purchase, Huston says. While he declines to reveal the company's default rate, Huston says it is under 5%. Cubis plans to start offering its cards to payroll card managers so that the managers can offer it to their customers as a way to shop and build credit since Cubis reports transactions and payments to the credit bureaus, Huston says. The company also has a travel card program that consumers can use to buy vacations.