Dear dexterjames,
The Sears credit card business is operated by CitiCard, a member of
CitiGroup. I contacted a public relations person at CitiCard, who
explained to me that the Sears credit cards are now simply one of the
many credit cards offered by CitiCard. There is no specific division
which operates the Sears credit cards, although they do have their own
customer service website and contacts. Citicards is the world's
largest provider of credit cards (see ref. 1), and managing the new
Sears credit card acquisition apparently did not require them to form
a new company division.
CitiCards operates under the Citigroup Global Consumer Group within
the organizational structure of Citigroup. You can see more on how
Citigroup is organized at the following webpage.
Citigroup - About Citigroup
http://www.citi.com/citigroup/about/index.htm
The planned acquisition of the Sears credit card business by Citigroup
was announced in a press release on July 15, 2003, and was finalized
on November 3, 2003. (See references 2 and 3 for the full press
releases.) The transition was kept as seamless as possible to their
customers. Sears card holders do not need to go through the Citicard
website for customer service. Rather, the Sears card has its own
online services, and a full range of customer service contacts for the
various cards (see ref. 4 and 5).
Search strategies:
sears credit card
press release citi sears
citibank sears credit card
References:
1. Citigroup's Product Lines
http://www.citi.com/citigroup/about/productlines/index.htm
2. Citigroup to Acquire Sears Credit Card Business; Companies to Enter
Long-Term Marketing and Servicing Alliance
http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/press/2003/030715a.htm
3. Citigroup Completes Acquisition of Sears Credit Card Business
http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/press/2003/031103b.htm
4. SearsCard.com
https://www.searscard.com/default.asp
5. SearsCard.com - Contact Us
https://www.searscard.com/SearsCard/contact_us.asp
6. Sears Sells Its Credit-Card Business
http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/sears_credit.html
7. Citigroup - About Citigroup
http://www.citi.com/citigroup/about/index.htm
I hope this has been helpful to you!
- josh_g-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
josh_g-ga
on
17 May 2004 15:58 PDT
Just as a note, I realize that this answer is somewhat brief for the
price you've offered. However, I feel that the answer simply turned
out to be fairly straight-forward. If you require any additional
background information on the acquisition, or third-party news
reports, please let me know.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
dexterjames-ga
on
19 May 2004 14:11 PDT
Waht is the legal name of "CitiCard"?
|
Clarification of Answer by
josh_g-ga
on
20 May 2004 08:25 PDT
All of Citigroup's documentation on their website refers to "Citi
Cards", so it looks like I was mistaken in removing the space between
the words.
I tried a registered business search, however, and could not find a
business listed under Citi Cards. I've contacted Citi Cards PR again
(voicemail), and will finish clarifying as soon as they get back to
me.
|
Clarification of Answer by
josh_g-ga
on
07 Jun 2004 14:37 PDT
I received more detailed information from Investor Relations at Citigroup.
Quoting from their email:
Citi Cards as an organization is comprised of several corporations and
banks that make up Citibank's credit card business in North America.
Each of these corporate entities are wholly-owned subsidiaries of
Citigroup.
The principal service corporations in the US are:
Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. (sub of Citibank, N.A.)
Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. (USA) (sub of Citibank, N.A.)
Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. (Delaware) (sub of Citibank Delaware)
Citibank (Nevada), N.A. (a national bank) is also a principal servicing entity
The banks that issue credit cards for the organization are:
Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. for consumer products Visa, MasterCard
and private label oil programs
Citibank USA, N.A. for a number of private label programs including
Sears and Home Depot as well as commercial, small business and
government credit card programs.
Both banks are headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Citibank (Nevada), N.A. provides services to the issuing banks, but
also holds a participated interest in credit card receivables that are
originated by the two SD banks.
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