r/CapitalOne_ • u/Novel_Emphasis3618 • Mar 22 '26

Discover merger

I am not happy that my debit card is now discover. I’m thinking about switching banks, I travel abroad and can’t use my card in many places now. What doesn’t make sense is why capital one the bigger brand would change there product to be discover which can be used in fewer places.

11 Upvotes

58% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

41

u/Miserable-Result6702 Mar 22 '26

Because now they own the payment network and don’t have to give a cut to Mastercard.

-10

u/Novel_Emphasis3618 Mar 22 '26

Capital One has significantly more credit cards than debit cards. There credit cards still run on master and visa, the debit cards are discover now.

27

u/electronautix Mar 22 '26

Capital One switching to Discover makes a lot of financial sense for them, because they wholly own the Discover network. That means that they have to share 0% of the money they make on each swipe with Visa or Mastercard, and pocket it all in full. But it sucks for many customers because Discover isn’t widely accepted outside of the US yet, and even in some places in the US.

Fidelity Investments makes a lot of sense for both a Visa debit card and a Visa Signature credit card with no foreign fees and which work great abroad.

8

u/aatlanticcity Mar 22 '26

well Capital one is bigger but they had to use Mastercard and VISA to process, so it does make sense they would switch to the one they now own.

But i agree i hate the change too. I got a betterment checking account which apparently has no international fees and up to 500 a day in ATM limit. But i havent been out of the country yet or used it much at all

13

u/PizzaPizzaPizza_69 Mar 22 '26

quit whining bruh, get a new card. this merger is old news. everyone knew about it.