U.S. Bank is moving to roll out mobile instant-credit apps for its key cobranded retail credit card partners after a successful pilot.
The Minneapolis-based issuer on April 10 announced a new iPhone credit card app for its cobranded Visa rewards card with Ace Hardware Corp. The app enables customers to make purchases immediately using a virtual card on their phones after receiving instant approval for new credit card accounts.
Customers may apply for the Ace Rewards Visa card using the downloadable app. If approved, cardholders receive a virtual credit card displayed on their iPhone they may use at checkout for purchases until the plastic card arrives in the mail, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.
A version of the mobile app will be available for Android phones during the third quarter of this year, U.S. Bank said in its press release.
Nailing down Ace Hardware for an instant-credit app is a bit of a coup, Brian Riley, research director with TowerGroup, tells PaymentSource.
"Home-improvement is a huge credit sector where people tend to want to finance larger household purchases and projects on the spur of the moment," Riley says.
And the sector is also ripe for mobile-payments innovation.
"Home Depot has grabbed a lot of attention with its PayPal mobile-payment app, and the timing is good for U.S. Bank to show it's got some mobile action going on with Ace," Riley says.
U.S. Bank was first in the industry to launch a mobile instant-credit application when it began a pilot last October with Recreation Equipment Inc. (
The issuer is in discussions with other, undisclosed cobranded card partners that also plan to bring out mobile instant-credit apps, the spokesperson says.
U.S. Bank has 22 cobranded credit card programs with retailers that include Kroger Co. and Harley Davidson Motor Co., the spokesperson says.
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