ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010005
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
Want true debt? Try `Platinum Plus'
NEW YORK - Book the next flight to Paris, dahling, and put all the fashionable boutiques on alert. Oh, and leave the cash at home.
Living it up has gotten a trifle more convenient now that MBNA America Bank of Wilmington, Del., has extended its credit limit to $100,000 on MasterCards and Visas.
But don't count on using the new ``Platinum Plus'' plastic for something crazy - unless, of course, you can meet the strict qualifications. That includes the ability to make the minimum monthly payments on a $100,000 balance: about $2,000. (Incidentally, someone with a $100,000 balance who made only the minimum payment on a card carrying a 16 percent interest rate would spend 43 years reducing the balance to $100.)
MBNA's $100,000 credit-card limit is the highest in the country, although some banks, including MBNA, have offered six-figure limits to certain elite customers in the past, said Robert McKinley, president of RAM Research, a credit-card research firm in Frederick, Md.
MBNA's no-fee platinum card - which it began marketing by telephone and mail this week - carries a five-month introductory rate of 5.9 percent on cash-advance checks and balance transfers. The rate on purchases is about 16 percent.
- Associated Press
Rainbo bread to be Earthgrains
The Rainbo Baking Co. of Roanoke said Thursday it is changing its name to The Earthgrains Co., matching that adopted by Rainbo's corporate parent, Campbell Taggart Inc. of St. Louis.
The company's Roanoke plant will continue to market its Rainbo and Roman Meal brand bread and buns, said Plant Manager Philip Bain. The 48-year-old Roanoke plant on Plantation Road employs 175 and serves central Virginia and parts of West Virginia and North Carolina.
The Earthgrains Co., with 40 plants making bread or refrigerated dough products, has annual sales of $1.5 billion. The company, known for nearly 70 years by the Campbell Taggart name, was bought in 1982 by the Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
Earthgrains will become an independent public company later this month when Anheuser-Busch spins off the company.
- Staff report
30-year mortgages climb slightly
WASHINGTON - Thirty-year, fixed rate mortgages averaged 7.41 percent this week, up from 7.32 percent last week
It was the highest rate since Nov. 2, when rates averaged 7.44 percent.
Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for those refinancing their homes, averaged 6.87 percent this week, up from 6.77 percent a week earlier.
- Associated Press
Competitors call NS best railroad
In a poll prepared for the March 4 issue of Fortune magazine, Norfolk Southern Corp.'s competitors ranked the Norfolk-based transportation company as the nation's best railroad, measured by such factors as quality of management, financial soundness and innovation.
Fortune polled executives and directors of Fortune 500 companies across the country for its annual survey titled "America's Most Admired Companies."
In a ranking of companies from all business sectors, Norfolk Southern came in 50th. Norfolk Southern has about 3,000 workers in the Roanoke Valley.
- Staff report
Briefly ...
Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. of High Point, N.C., said it has purchased 291 trucks and 825 trailers, an investment expected to exceed $25 million. The company, which has a terminal in Northeast Roanoke, said the purchase includes 160 Volvo Model WG trucks, a model made at Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. plants in Dublin and in Ohio.
The use of the new toll-free ``888'' phone numbers becomes effective today. The new 888 numbers will work the same way as the current 800 numbers, with the party called paying toll charges. Businesses who buy the new 888 numbers are being advised to include the fact that they are toll-free in their advertising, in order to avoid confusion.
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