Will tens of millions of active credit cards out in circulation, there are plenty of choices for customers wanting to sign up for plastic. The credit card companies that can boast that they have the most general purpose major credit cards in circulation are Chase, Citi, Bank of America, Discover, and American Express. They are followed by Capital One, HSBC, GE, Target, and Wells Fargo. But in terms of which kinds of cards have the biggest piece of the pie, Visa outranks the rest, outpacing MasterCard by a huge margin. Credit card issuers who use the Visa system and logo make up more than 60 percent of the market, while MasterCard’s logo is found on about half that many cards. American Express operates independently and snags about 10 percent of the overall market – meaning that about one out of every ten major credit cards carried around in the wallet are issued by Amex. Meanwhile JCB and Diners Club make up only a fraction of the world’s major credit card market. In the USA, the competition between major credit card companies Visa and MasterCard is a little fiercer, with MasterCard claiming about 35 percent of the market and Visa winning the battle by having about 45 percent of the total cards in circulation. American Express is used by about 12 percent of those who carry a major credit card, and Discover cards pick up what’s left among the major credit cards with about 5-6 percent of the American market. Of course hundreds of different credit card companies issue cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo, and the biggest market share in the USA credit card issuer industry is captured by Chase Bank, followed by Bank of American and Citi. All three of those major credit card companies enjoy over $100 billion in credit card business. Other big players who rake in at least $40 – $70 billion a year include American Express, Capital One, and Discover. Meanwhile in the market for prepaid credit cards, the top credit card issuers in the USA are H&R Block, MetaBank, and JPMorgan Chase.

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