Forget the Web. There's another way to share photos of your cute kids and pets with strangers: On your bank card.
Eastern Bank, one of the largest community banks in Massachusetts, last week began letting customers to upload most any picture they want and paste it onto their debit card, joining a raft of banks around the country offering similar gimmicks.
"It gives customers a choice to create a card that is personal,'' said Kelly Orlando, an Eastern vice president. "We think they will be more proud and excited to use a card they created themselves."
Several major credit card providers, including Bank of America, already offer a similar service. And more debit card providers, including Clinton Savings Bank in Massachusetts, have jumped on the bandwagon.
"We are getting contacted on almost a daily basis by banks" interested in the feature, said Lee Poskanzer, a marketing executive for DimpleDough, the Ohio vendor Eastern is using to make the cards. "It's almost like a vanity license plate."
But the popularity varies. Poskanzer said some banks that have aggressively promoted the service have seen up to 10 percent of customers use it. But Bank of America, which launched the service in 2006 for credit cards, said only "a very small portion" of customers have used it, even though it's free. Bank spokesman T.J. Crawford said the company decided not to expand it to debit cards because of both the expense involved and because so few customers have used it.
Eastern initially plans to offer the service for free, but is considering charging as much as $5 starting later this year. Poskanzer said some other banks charge as much as $20 per card. "Banks are looking for a lucrative source of revenue," Poskanzer said.
And banks typically won't let you put just any image on the card. Eastern bars submissions that could be considered too political or offensive for fear it could tarnish its own brand (which would also appear on the card).
"We are independent and don't want our brand associated with a particular position," Orlando said.
