The American Banker has reported that Wilmington-based Barclaycard US has introduced a Dream savings account. The division is part of the British banking giant.
The difference in the account, according to the publication, is its ability to reward cash bonuses for saving rather than spending. Such incentives have long been used in the credit card industry.
Barclays’ Wilmington-based predecessor Juniper Bank started out with plans to be a full-service bank with deposits and other services, but eventually settled for the credit card model used by Juniper co-founder Richard Vague, who helped build First USA (now Chase) in to a credit card giant.
Later came INGDirect, now CapitalOne, which did put an emphasis on savings and never offered credit cards during its existence. So far, it has been careful not to let the aggressive credit card style of CapitalOne intrude to far into its business model.
James Kelly, a co-founder of INGDirect in Delaware heads the CapitalOne operation.
Barclaycard has been rolling out innovative products in the credit card area, using social media, as it adds customer service staff in Nevada and Maine.
