Credit cards can be activated online by MBNA cardholders

MBNA are enabling its millions of customers to activate their credit cards online . The announcement means that credit card customers in the UK will have a choice of channels when activating new, replacement or re-issued MBNA credit cards for the first time.

This is in addition to MBNA's transition to paperless statements for new online accounts, which was launched earlier in 2010. The move also means that holders of affinity partner cards can take advantage of the service, previously only available to re-issued cards.

Ian Craig, customer service and channel fulfilment executive for Bank of America Europe Card Services, which operates under the MBNA brand in the UK and Ireland, commented Our customers tell us they want more online options to service their accounts so it makes sense to open up online activation to everyone. The majority of our new accounts are applied for online; so, for many, it is the right channel to offer more.

We've expanded the scope to activate our cards as it's quite right that we offer them the freedom to service their account via their channel of choice.

The service has already been taken up by hundreds of thousands of MBNA credit cardholders this year, and by more than half a million people since online activation was initially launched in 2008.