Market Share by Credit Card Network

Market share based on number of cards in circulation:

Visa MasterCard American Express Discover
302 million 203 million 48.9 million 54.4 million
49.6% 33.4% 8.0% 8.9%

(Sources: Visa.com, MasterCard.com, AmericanExpress.com, Discover.com, Nilson Report, February 2010)

Market share based on credit receivables outstanding:

Visa MasterCard American Express Discover
$366.05 billion $267.57 billion $86.06 billion $52.51 billion
47.4% 34.7% 11.1% 6.8%

(Source: Nilson Report, February 2010)

Market share based on purchase volume:

Visa MasterCard American Express Discover
$764.2 billion $476.9 billion $419. 8 billion $100.4 billion
43.4% 27.1% 23.8% 5.7%

(Source: Nilson Report, February 2010)

Annual and monthly purchase/spending volume:

Visa MasterCard American Express Discover Overall
Annual $2,530 $2,349 $8,584.9 $1,845.6 $2,895.4
Monthly $210.8 $195.8 $715.4 $153.8 $241.3

According to Experian, there are 3.45 open credit accounts per individual, which means that the average individual’s credit card spending is $832.5/month and $9,989 on an annual basis.

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