Credit Card Market Share - Visa Leads

According to the Feb. 2007 Nilson Report, there are 878 million credit and debit cards carrying the Visa and Master Card brands. That’s about 3 credit cards for every person in the US.

Here is the market share by 2006 purchase volume of the top general purpose cards - credit and debit:

• Visa Credit : 31%
• MasterCard Credit: 22%
• Visa Debit: 21%
• Amex Credit: 17%
• MasterCard Debit: 7%
• Discover Credit: 4%

The total purchase on volume on credit cards in the US was $2.4 trillion dollars in 2006.

Random Factoid: Visa processed 52% of that volume. That’s an average of $39,000 per second for the entire year.

You can call 1-888-567-8688 to opt-out of pre-approved credit card mails.

Every day, I get a few ‘pre-approved’ credit card offers in the mail. Today I got one for the American Express Green card. I noticed however, they have easy instructions for removing your name from mailing lists.

If you have good credit and receive a lot of pre-screened credit card offers from companies like Chase, American Express or Discover, it’s a good idea to call the credit bureaus and stop these offers from coming. You’ll eliminate a ton of junk-mail, and decrease the likelihood of identity theft.

There are several ways to do this:

• Call toll-free: 1-888-5-OPTOUT
• Visit: http://www.optoutprescreen.com/
• Write:
  • TransUnion Name Removal Option, PO BOX 505, Woodlyn PA 19094
  • Experian Information Solutions, PO BOX 919, Allen TX 75103
  • Equifax Options, PO Box 740123, Atlanta GA, 30374-0123

By calling the toll-free number or going to the opt-out web site, Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion are notified to stop offers within five business days of your request.

It’s worth doing now, because it will take a few months for the offers to stop coming altogether.  Since your name may have already been provided to some companies that have not yet mailed their offers, you may continue to receive offers for several months.

Discover is promoting a new credit card called the “Discover Motiva Card“.

Th Motiva card is designed for people who generally carry a balance and pay their payments on time.

The benefit of this new card is that when you make 6 months worth of payments on time, the following month’s interest rate will be added to your cash back account.

Compared to the regular Discover More card, which earns cash back, the benefit of the Motiva card is that when you are carry a large balance, you are not using it much for purchases, just trying to pay it off, so on the More card it wouldn’t earn cash back rewards for purchasing, whereas the Motiva card is reducing your interest cost.

If you have a good credit rating, Motiva might be a good card to consolidate your balance transfers on.
Here are the details on the Motiva card.

• Pay-On-Time Bonus equal to a full month’s interest each time you make 6 on-time payments in a row- twice a year, every year when you pay on-time every month
• 5% to 20% Cashback Bonus® at top online retailers through our exclusive online site
• Up to 1% Cashback Bonus on all other purchases
• Free payment by phone or online - even on your due date
• $0 fraud liability guarantee

Difference Between the Discover More Card and the Discover Motiva Card

The Discover More is the one that offers the “Get more program” that pays 5% cash back. That is where Discover offers popular categories that change 4 times during the year that pay the higher amount. They are free to you, but you do have to activate each category that you are interested in.

The Discover Motiva Card will offer the interest back to you twice a year for payments made on time. That is the difference between the two cards.

Both cards do pay up to 1% on all purchases.