Andrew Kahr
Encyclopedia
Andrew Seth Kahr was the founder and CEO of First Deposit Corp, which later became known as Providian
, and was acquired by Washington Mutual
in 2005; it is now owned by Chase Bank.
Andrew Kahr grew up in New York City, where he attended the Fieldston School of the Ethical Culture Society. He went to Harvard University in 1957 and graduated three years later, in 1960. He earned his Ph.D.
in mathematics
in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. His thesis was "A Minimal Reduction Class for the Entscheidungsproblem
". Following that he attended Harvard Business School.
In a July 1998 memorandum to David Alvarez and Dawn Greiner, Kahr urged the company not to tell customers that some credit cards don't have "grace periods," a limited time for paying off balances before finance charges kick in. And in a September 1998 memo to marketing executive Greg Pacheco, Kahr suggested how to promote a for-fee cardholder buyers club program that in most cases offered tiny 1% rebates at selected stores: "A 1% rebate is a 'discount on everything you buy.' We could easily make that discount 'up to 30%' just by randomly or systematically giving a few customers a big rebate."
In a September 1998 memo to Mehta, Kahr advised calculating the credit protection charge as a percentage of the customer's credit line:"The (credit protection) fee can be denominated at 9.8 cents per hundred dollars of line, or whatever, and this has the additional merit of making the $96 go away from the disclosure box." The recommendation was underlined and the notation "excellent suggestion," followed by the CEO's initials, was penned in the margin.
Frontline documentary "Secret History of the Credit Card". He claims to have introduced the two percent minimum monthly payment in the credit card business (as opposed to the usual five percent), as well as the idea of a zero percent financing introductory rate in mass mailings and solicitations.
Providian
Providian Financial Corporation was one of the leading credit card issuers in the United States when it was sold to Washington Mutual for approximately US$6.5 billion in October 2005. Providian was headquartered in San Francisco, California, and had more than 10 million card holders at the time of...
, and was acquired by Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual, Inc. , abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008....
in 2005; it is now owned by Chase Bank.
Andrew Kahr grew up in New York City, where he attended the Fieldston School of the Ethical Culture Society. He went to Harvard University in 1957 and graduated three years later, in 1960. He earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. His thesis was "A Minimal Reduction Class for the Entscheidungsproblem
Entscheidungsproblem
In mathematics, the is a challenge posed by David Hilbert in 1928. The asks for an algorithm that will take as input a description of a formal language and a mathematical statement in the language and produce as output either "True" or "False" according to whether the statement is true or false...
". Following that he attended Harvard Business School.
Class action lawsuit
In a 1999 cardholder class-action lawsuit against Providian, 12 internal company documents were obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle.In a July 1998 memorandum to David Alvarez and Dawn Greiner, Kahr urged the company not to tell customers that some credit cards don't have "grace periods," a limited time for paying off balances before finance charges kick in. And in a September 1998 memo to marketing executive Greg Pacheco, Kahr suggested how to promote a for-fee cardholder buyers club program that in most cases offered tiny 1% rebates at selected stores: "A 1% rebate is a 'discount on everything you buy.' We could easily make that discount 'up to 30%' just by randomly or systematically giving a few customers a big rebate."
In a September 1998 memo to Mehta, Kahr advised calculating the credit protection charge as a percentage of the customer's credit line:"The (credit protection) fee can be denominated at 9.8 cents per hundred dollars of line, or whatever, and this has the additional merit of making the $96 go away from the disclosure box." The recommendation was underlined and the notation "excellent suggestion," followed by the CEO's initials, was penned in the margin.
Publicity
For his role in forming the credit card business, he was interviewed by the PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Frontline documentary "Secret History of the Credit Card". He claims to have introduced the two percent minimum monthly payment in the credit card business (as opposed to the usual five percent), as well as the idea of a zero percent financing introductory rate in mass mailings and solicitations.