New credit card contributes to lenders who help minorities

RICHARD NEWMAN
Staff Writer, The Bergan Record

Wednesday, April 18, 2001
NEWARK -- American Express is going after altruistic small-business owners with its latest credit card offering.

Users of the new "Community Business" card will automatically contribute 1 percent of each purchase amount to non-profit lenders who help minority businesses get started.

"The target audience is successful small-business owners who want to give back to their communities," said Kerry Hatch, an executive vice president with American Express Small Business Services.

The credit card giant launched the card Tuesday during a New York teleconference.

One recipient of the funds will be the Greater Newark Business Consortium, a non-profit micro-enterprise lender that has given more than 200 loans to minority-owned small businesses in the Newark area and North Jersey over the past seven years.

The Newark group is one of eight members of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a national association of micro-enterprise groups, that will benefit from the credit card program.

Two other national organizations, ACCION and Count-Me-In for Women's Economic Independence, also will benefit.

ACCION provides loans and training for mostly Hispanic entrepreneurs in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Diego, as well as throughout Texas and New Mexico. Count-Me-In is an online micro-lender serving women entrepreneurs.

Except for the contribution feature, the card is the same as American Express' regular small-business credit card. The interest charged is about 6 percent over the prime lending rate, which would put the current rate at about 14.5 percent. An introductory rate of 3.9 percent is good for six months.

The 1 percent contributions are tax deductible for American Express, but not the card users.

The amount of funding for minority business lenders will depend on how many take the card and how much they use it, Hatch said. The company aims to be the top provider of private funding to micro-lending enterprises that receive most of their funding from government sources.

Morris County entrepreneur Deborah Rosado Shaw, author of "Dream Big," helped American Express with its pitch Tuesday, stepping forward as the first cardholder.

"What we have is the possibility of shifting the course of many lives," she said.