Why Should I Care Who My Credit Card Company Is?

A Credit Article Contributed by Mark Mcclelland

* What Difference Does It Make Who My Credit Card Company Is?

From your perspective it might not make any difference at all who your credit card company actually is. Do you really need to know the difference between the bank that issued you your card and the association the bank belongs to that processes your transactions? Probably not. After all, you've never actually had any direct dealings with the MasterCard Association have you, at least that you know of?

Well actually, you have, even though you may not have realized it. The fact of the matter is that you deal with the MasterCard or Visa Association every time you use a card with their logo emblazoned on it.

The primary job of the bank (the company) that issued you your brand spanking new credit card is to provide you with loans that are used to make purchases with the card - up to the card's credit limit. And they charge you interest, just like any other loan, for that privilege. And your bank belongs to an association of the all banks that offer similarly emblazoned cards. There's a MasterCard Association of all banks that issue MasterCard's of any sort, and there's also a Visa Association that does likewise for Visa Cards of any sort.

The primary job of these associations is to actually process all the transactions made by cardholders of the member banks. They provide the bridge between the merchant that accepts the MasterCard or Visa and the banking company that issued you your card. The associations don't actually make any money; they simply process transactions on behalf of the card issuing banks.

* is There a Non-Bank Affiliated Credit Card Company?

So, you ask, are there any non-bank affiliated credit card companies, since, after all, it's the banks that make the loans. Actually, yes and no. American Express offers credit cards that provide a revolving line of credit underwritten by the American Express Centurian Bank. And Discover does the same with its Discover bank.

So, even though American Express and Discover couldn't (until recently) enjoy the benefits of having the myriad card issuers like MasterCard and Visa, their loans were still underwritten by a regular bank, albeit one they card issuing company "owned".

If I Need to Contact My Credit Card Company, Who Do I Call?

So, let's say you want to get a hold of your credit card company because you think your identity's been stolen. That's great - in fact, you need to notify all your credit card issuers and other creditors. But before you do that, notify the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, so that they can put a freeze of your credit report and history.

Well, what about a complaint? If it's serious enough you should not only contact the offending credit card company, but you might wan to consider sending the complaint to the FTC as well.

What about that astronomical interest rate? Well, unfortunately that's between you and your bank - the credit card company.