Am-Ex to Offer Phone Billing on Its Cards

NEW YORK — American Express Co. fired back at American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Monday, offering new services in long-distance phone billing just months after AT&T; launched its Universal charge card.

The move points to the heated competition in the charge card and telephone service markets, following AT&T;’s introduction of the popular Universal card earlier this year.

American Express said its service will eliminate separate long-distance telephone bills for users and can lessen the number of cards people carry when traveling.

The New York-based travel and financial services company said members will be able to have long-distance calls placed via MCI or US Sprint billed to their American Express card accounts.

It said bills will include full details such as the date, time, place, number called, length and amount of the call. With the service, called Connect Plus, calls may be billed from home or while the caller is traveling, American Express said.

The program, fully available to Sprint users Thursday and MCI users Jan. 1, is the latest response by a financial services firm to American Telephone & Telegraph Co.’s unexpectedly successful entry into the credit card business last March.

MCI Communications Corp., based in Washington, is the nation’s second-largest long-distance phone company after AT&T;, which dominates the market. Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, is owned by United Telecommunications Inc. of Kansas City.

In March, AT&T; introduced Universal, a telephone calling and general purpose credit card, which so far has 5.8 million cardholders on 3.6 million accounts, according to Bruce Reid, a spokesman for AT&T;’s Universal Card division.

No exact figures on the size of the market were available. But Reid said since the card was introduced, clients have spent $2.2 billion on long-distance calls and other purchases.