American Telephone & Telegraph Co. jumped into the credit card business Monday, offering a single card that can be used to charge telephone calls and merchandise.

Called "The AT&T Universal Card," card holders have an option to align with either Visa or Mastercard and pay no annual fee as long as they make one purchase a year on the card.

Paul Kahn, president of AT&T Universal Card Services Corp., the organization set up to market the card, declined to reveal startup costs for the new venture. He also declined to predict how many customers the company anticipates. AT&T will solicit creditworthy long-distance customers for the card, he said.