Penn Visa card pays off for U.

The card sports a picture of Benjamin Franklin, offers an introductory rate of 5.9 percent on purchases and cash advances and charges no annual fee. And you might have recently received a letter about it in your mailbox. At the start of the semester, University officials sent out a promotional letter -- co-signed by Interim Vice President for Business Services Marie Witt and Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum -- encouraging students, faculty and alumni to purchase the "Penn Visa" card, a project which is helping fund University programming with its substantial profits. As of now there are around 12,000 carriers of Penn Visa -- the only credit card endorsed by the University -- and 4,000 of them are current students. Penn Visa is issued by the MBNA America Bank -- a national bank based in Wilmington, Del. -- in the fall of 1997 through the combined efforts of three University departments: Business Services, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life. Upon creation of the partnership in 1997, Penn received $4 million from MBNA and continues to take in approximately $200,000 annually from the program. The initial revenue from MBNA was used to fund the University's ongoing lighting project -- an attempt to improve campus safety through increased lighting in Hamilton Village, on Locust Walk and along smaller pathways on campus, according to Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik. The $200,000 annual fee that the University receives from MBNA also goes to other programs that directly benefit students and alumni. The funding is divided between the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and the PennCard Center, according to Laurie Cousart, director of telecommunications and campus card services. Alumni Relations uses the funding to sponsor reunions and regional alumni events, said Director of Alumni Relations and Development Virginia Clark. When alumni invest in the Penn Visa, they reap the benefits of increased alumni programming, Clark said. Other fractions of the revenue are used toward the operating budget at the PennCard Center, according to Joy Williams, manager of campus card services. Cousart said one of the reasons the University decided to create the Penn Visa was because it could have "editorial control over all the marketing," which includes an annual mailing to encourage purchasing the card, a couple of telemarketing campaigns and promotions on Locust Walk. Frank explained that marketing the cards is successful because the prospective buyers are likely to be loyal to their institution and interested in supporting the project. MBNA has programs with approximately 500 universities and colleges in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Penn State University and Georgetown University, according to Peter Frank, MBNA director of media relations.

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