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Cred-Ex , which offers an online credit service for customers paying for online purchases, last week launched Merchant Advantage, which is designed to help participating merchants increase their sales-conversion rates by 15% to 20% by giving customers a credit alternative to credit and debit cards. The Secaucus, N.J.-based company, which is owned by Emerging Technologies Inc., touts the security measures it uses to protect consumers' information when applying for credit (CardLine, 2/17). It does not store any sensitive data on its servers because it does not ask for bank-account or credit card information when consumers sign up. Besides basic information, such as name and address, Cred-Ex asks only for the last four digits of the consumers' Social Security numbers. The approval process takes five to 10 seconds, the company says. The program is designed to allow consumers to pay for online purchases typically in three to six installments. Stephane Touboul, Cred-Ex CEO and cofounder, tells CardLine. Cred-Ex also signed a deal with CardinalCommerce Corp., a processor that will offer the product to its base of 30,000 merchants, says Touboul.
