Steve Case takes on credit card giants with the new GratisCard

A decade ago, America Online (TWX) co-founder Stephen Case helped bring the Internet to the masses. Now, he hopes to create a similar buzz with millions more consumers hungry for another product: credit. BusinessWeek has learned that Case's latest venture is a new payment system called GratisCard, which will use the Internet to lower transaction fees paid by retailers and, Case hopes, increase access to credit and debit cards for lower-income shoppers as well as consumers with bad credit.