San Francisco-based Internet credit card company NextCard Inc.signed a marketing alliance with CompuCredit Corp. aimed at
making credit card offers “to consumers overlooked by traditional credit card
providers.”
The arrangement, perhaps an offer made in heaven for recently right-sized dot
com-ers, provides consumers who are not eligible for a NextCard the
opportunity to receive a firm offer for a co-branded credit card marketed by
Atlanta-based CompuCredit.
CompuCredit uses proprietary analytical techniques and information from
credit bureaus to identify customers who it believes are credit-worthy but
are being overlooked by more traditional consumer credit providers.
CompuCredit will manage the customer relationship and NextCard will receive
an unspecified per-customer payment for each co-branded account.
“This alliance with CompuCredit allows NextCard to provide a product to
applicants who are outside of our target credit population,” said John
Hashman, chief executive officer at NextCard. “This agreement leverages our
marketing expertise and technology and provides an opportunity to monetize
our site traffic and applicant volume.”
Launched in 1997, NextCard claims to be the first company to offer instant
online credit card approval. NextCard last week reported a second quarter net
loss of $14.4 million, or 27 cents per share. Operating revenue came in at
about $81 million, up 144 percent from a year earlier. The company has yet to
record a profitable quarter, but has been steadily cutting its losses.