Fleet Credit Card Services

Fleet Credit Card Services was a subsidiary of Fleet Financial Group, later known as FleetBoston, and based in Horsham, PA. It offered several credit card services, including consumer accounts (regular, gold,and platinum) and business accounts. In 2001, Fleet Credit Card Services was purchased along with Fleet Financial Group/FleetBoston by Bank of America. Prior to the merger, Fleet Credit Card Services was 8th in the nation for issuing credit cards, with over 20 million accounts and over $20 billion in accounts receivable. Fleet Credit Card Services and Fleet Financial Group fully merged with Bank of America, and completely dropped the Fleet logo and branding. Today, Fleet Credit Card Services and Fleet Financial Group exist solely at entries in banking records and on credit reports. If someone is looking to settle an old Fleet Credit Card Services debt, they will need to contact Bank of America directly, either by phone at 1-800-732-9194, or on their website at http://www.bankofamerica.com.

History

Fleet Bank began as Providence Bank, in Providence, Rhode Island. After the late 70’s, it expanded dramatically, beginning to purchase banks outside Rhode Island in the late 1980’s. The most notable of these purchases was Norstar Bankcorp of Albany, New York, in 1988, and the Bank of New England in 1991. Following these purchases, Fleet Bank renamed itself Fleet Financial Group, and renamed its credit card division Fleet Financial Card Services.

Providence-based Fleet Bank began to acquire banks outside Rhode Island in the 1980s and early 1990s, most notably Norstar Bank of Albany, New York in 1988 and the Bank of New England in 1991. In 1988, Fleet merged with Norstar Bancorp to form Fleet/Norstar Financial Group. In 1992, the company was renamed Fleet Financial Group.

The mergers continued in 1995; Fleet Financial Group acquired Shawmut National Corporation, its largest competitor, creating a large conglomerate that controlled one-third of the accounts in New England. At this point, Fleet Financial Group was the ninth largest bank in the United States. While well known in New England, they became nationally known by their purchase of the naming rights for the new arena in Boston, which opened as the FleetCenter in 1995. Fleet continued its spree of acquisitions, picking up Quick & Reilly, the country’s third-largest discount brokerage, in 1998. They also acquired several smaller financial services companies and credit card divisions, consolidating them under the Fleet Credit Card Services name.

Fleet Financial Group’s biggest acquisition occurred in 1999, when it acquired the Bank of Boston (which had recently acquired BayBank in 1996). Following this acquisition, FleetBoston (as it was now known) was the seventh-largest bank in the United States, with over $200 billion in assets. It had over 50,000 employees, with 20 million customers, and annual revenue of $12 billion.

FleetBoston fell on hard times, however, during the 2001 recession, and placed itself up for sale. Luckily, they found an interested suitor. Bank of America was locked in a dogfight with J.P. Morgan and Citigroup for dominance in the U.S, and was aggressively courting market share. After Bank of America acquired FleetBoston, it vaulted J.P. Morgan to become the second-largest bank in the United States.