MONEY SAVVY WEEKEND : An Amex Card Designed for Net Shopping

American Express Co. is launching a credit card, called Blue, with features designed to make shopping over the Internet more secure.

The Blue card has a traditional magnetic stripe for shopping in stores, and it also has a so-called smart chip that will hold personal information, such as shipping addresses and account data, that a cardholder can give online merchants in a secure manner.

Starting in November, customers with Blue cards will be able to enter personal purchasing information of the sort demanded by Internet merchants into a new program called American Express Online Wallet. When a customer opens a personal electronic “wallet” to make a purchase over the Internet, the information will be entered automatically on a merchant’s purchase form, the company said.

A smart-card reader would connect to the cardholder’s computer and would read the digital code on the card to allow the cardholder to unlock his or her wallet, American Express said.

The card issuer would charge no interest for the first six months; after that, fixed rates for customers with good credit could be 9.99%.

At the company’s Web site,https://www.americanexpress.com/blue, customers will be able to pay bills online, download personal financial information and use online financial tools to calculate cash flow and retirement goals, American Express said.