Coffee Credit Card: Starbucks is Introducing the Duetto Card
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little 'Business Buzz' right now. There will soon be a brand new way for you to pay for your morning coffee. Carrie Lee has the details from the Nasdaq market site in New York. Will we save money on this deal -- Carrie?</s>CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I don't know if you will save money, Carol, but some people may be spending more money to fuel their caffeine addictions. Starbucks today is introducing a new type of card that will act as both a prepaid card in its Starbucks stores and a credit card at any merchant that also accepts Visa. Now this card is rolling out today. It's called the Duetto, and it can be used at any Starbucks as well as other merchants. And here's how it works. When Starbucks fans use the card, they earn points that can be used for beverages or merchandise at the stores. Starbucks has a pretty good track record with this type of product. They rolled out prepaid cards originally in November of 2001. Today, more than 16 million Starbucks customers carry these cards. And you can bet that this is going to heat up the competition with some other credit card companies as they try to rope in some deals with the retailers. In fact, American Express has recently rolled out a new prepaid card and Visa also has a number of other ones, too, Carol. So more ways to pay. The problem with prepaid cards, since your money is loaded into these, just have to make sure you don't lose it. I guess that's the only potential downside.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, but what a cute name, the Duetto.</s>LEE: Absolutely.</s>COSTELLO: Very clever. Hey, quick look at the futures.</s>LEE: Things look strong this morning. Looks like we are going to see a solidly higher open. Remember the bond market is closed today for Columbus Day, but stock market open for business as usual. We're coming off of two weeks of gains. The Dow, the Nasdaq, the S&P; 500 all gaining pretty nicely last week. You can see the Nasdaq leading the way up. A lot of profit reports coming out this week to keep an eye on. And finally one stock to watch, AOL Time Warner, parent company of CNN. "The Wall Street Journal" today reporting the company is opening up the bidding for Warner Music. They have been talking to EMI. Looks like they are going to expand that. "The Journal" also notes that the company is going to change its name formally back to Time Warner this week, Carol, so a lot happening in the business world. Back to you.</s>COSTELLO: We'll keep our eyes peeled, thank you. Carrie Lee reporting live from the Nasdaq market site. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com Card>