Laurel Papworth

I was embargoed (gagged) about speaking on this until Thursday. So I promptly forgot about it and just remembered. MySpace has a ReCharge card – credit card for youngsters. “Load it up, Spend it how you want”…. basically, stick some money on it “prepay” and go shopping. In a nutshell:

Key features of the MySpace Recharge card include:

· Cards can be used at 30 million merchant locations worldwide where Visa Prepaid is accepted including online, over the phone and in stores.

· Cards can be used for cash withdrawals at ATMs that accept Visa cards.

· Cards are reloadable and have a maximum available balance of $1000.

· A card issue fee of $5.95.

· Purchasers do not have to be an existing ANZ customer or open an ANZ deposit account.

More on the card here.

Couple of things I guess. One is, I know it offers convenience but is it targetting the Australian MySpace generation strongly enough? Certainly, MySpace users in Australia are a lot younger than those in Amercia (35 y.o. women) but still….

I think they could’ve taken it further.

World of Warcraft Visa cards have been around for years – at least 5 years I think. Notice that it has Joi Ito’s Guild name on the card. Plus his avatar. Though why he didn’t Ctrl-Z out the names of the other players in Ironforge I don’t know.

Student Credit Cards that are editable

Naughty Pimp My Card

You can do it, too. Transfer any design you want onto your credit card, no matter how controversial, outrageous, or ridiculous. Your card will still work as usual, and there’s nothing the credit card companies can do.

A MySpace card that looks like my page is a Brand of One exercise that makes me want to flash my card at others. The grey of the MySpace generic card is frankly boring. Grownup, serious, and boring. They may have meant it that way. Convince parents that their little darlings won’t go on a shopping bender.

I’m not even going into the whole virtual currency meets real world currency – a MySpace Dollar or News Yen – but a bit of personalization would mean all the difference when Facebook brings out their cards. And they will – Peter Thiele is also a big investor in Acebucks and other Facebook currencies. The money is in the money – watch out banks, taxation and economists.

Marketing Mag have blogged this – their site is down. Also Digital Ministry but it’s basically a copy and paste of the press release. What do YOU think of branding your credit cards with your social network?