Sam’s Club, the membership-only retailer owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is accepting MasterCard at its warehouse stores for the first time. The company won’t take Visa, the No. 1 credit-card brand.
Beginning today, Sam’s Club will process purchases using MasterCard at its 589 retail locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said in a statement. Sam’s Club has more than 47 million U.S. members, who gain access to its stores by paying a fee.
To date, the chain has only accepted credit cards from Discover Financial Services Inc., a unit of Morgan Stanley, and its own in-house cards. Sam’s Club accepts Visa and MasterCard debit cards, which withdraw funds directly from checking accounts, and takes both brands for online purchases.
Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest retailer. Costco Inc., its rival in the warehouse retail business, accepts only American Express in its stores.
MasterCard’s shares have more than doubled since the company’s initial public offering in May. Profit climbed 82 percent in the third quarter after it increased fees for cross- border transactions and cardholders’ spending advanced 15 percent. Visa announced plans last month to hold its own share sale within the next 12 to 18 months, after it completes a restructuring.
Purchase, New York-based MasterCard had 818 million cards in use as of Sept. 30. Visa has 1.46 billion cards in circulation, according to its Web site.
Antitrust Lawsuit Sam’s Club parent Wal-Mart led a group of retailers in suing MasterCard and Visa in 1996 for requiring merchants to accept what they claimed were overpriced debit-card transactions authenticated by customer signatures, in violation of U.S. antitrust law. The credit-card companies settled that case in April 2003 for $3 billion.
Later that year, Wal-Mart stepped up pressure to reduce fees by saying it would stop accepting some of MasterCard’s debit transactions because they cost too much to process. The retailer started accepting them again six months later after a new agreement was reached between the companies.
MasterCard spokeswoman Barbara Coleman said today’s announcement was a “brand decision” and not fee-based.
Sam’s Club members “have been asking for more payment options,” Coleman said. “When you look at Sam’s Club and MasterCard, the brand alignment is very, very close.” MasterCard doesn’t disclose the details of its financial arrangements, she said.
MasterCard shares, which were initially priced at $39 each on May 24, rose $2.44, or 2.8 percent, to $90.88 at 11:09 a.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Wal-Mart fell 15 cents to $46.88.
