NEW YORK The National Football League's decision to move its branded credit card business from Bank of America to British banker Barclays is forcing customers of the Charlotte-based bank to scramble to spend reward points before they expire next month.
On message boards, in between talk about coming training camps, fans are discussing how they'll spend their points in Bank of America's "NFL Extra Points" program. They have until the end of August, just before Barclays' new program begins in September.
Fans can get a one-hour appearance from the Denver Broncos mascot Miles for 40,000 points, Pittsburgh Steelers head rest covers for 3,250 points, or replica team jerseys for 10,400 points. Fans also can buy "experiences" such as visiting the playing field before the game. A point typically equals $1 spent on the card.
There's a giant countdown clock ticking away the time on the program's site, www.nfl extrapoints.com - 56 days as of today.
Ann Weinzimmer, 33, has racked up about 5,000 points on her Cleveland Browns card. Weinzimmer, a Cleveland lawyer, is frustrated that her accounts seem to keep changing ownership.
Weinzimmer will probably spend her points on baseball caps. "I might as well; otherwise you're just throwing it away," she said.
The market for credit cards affiliated with sports teams, universities or other special-interest ventures has been growing and consolidating amid the financial shakeout. The NFL likes having credit card partners because it gets a cut of the business beyond the initial payment for the rights to the franchise.
Credit card companies like the programs because rabid fans don't need much convincing to sign up.
Bank of America won't say why it and the NFL failed to reach agreement on an extension of a contract it has held since 1995. It is still the official bank of Major League Baseball and for four NFL teams, the Washington Redskins, New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, which let it issue debit cards with their logos but not credit cards.
The NFL, which announced the deal with Barclays last month, declined to make additional comments.
Stung by defaults
Bank of America's credit card business is large. It reached a peak of $184 billion in balances outstanding in 2008, but it was stung in the recession by growing defaults. The default rate went from 3.9 percent in 2006 after it acquired MBNA to 11.2 percent by the end of 2009, though the rate has started to improve.
The deal to market credit cards with logos of the NFL and the league's 32 teams is the latest sports-related marketing move in the U.S. for London-based Barclays and its Barclaycard U.S. unit. It has agreed to pay more than $300 million for a marketing partnership that includes naming rights for the New Jersey Nets' new NBA arena in Brooklyn.