What Are National Issuers?

The term "national issuer" refers to financial institutions that offer credit cards on a national scale, such as American Express (AXP), Citigroup (C), and Discover Financial Services (DFS). Though national issuers typically offer a smaller variety of credit card programs, their 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:loyalty programs tend to be well developed.

🐽On the other hand, smaller issuers such as regional banks usually offer a wider variety of cards but with fewer🐲 membership incentives.

Understanding National Issuers

National issuers are generally household names with established 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:brand equity. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:annual percentage rates (APRs) that national issuers offer tend to be fairly standardized. For this reason, customers who shop around may be able to ꦑfind better 🅘deals among smaller regional issuers.

Where the national issuers enjoy an advantage is in their cardholder reward programs. Because these programs rely on partnerships with large participating businesses, national issuers can leverage their scale and brand awareness to offer attractive benefits their smaller rivals can rarely match. Likewise, competition among national issuers tends to focus on loyalty programs, rather than financial terms such as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:minimum monthly payments or APRs.

Another important difference between national and regional issuers relates to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:cross-collateralization. It is common for regional issuers to require the collateral associated with a customer's other loans to be used to secur꧂e their credit card debt as well.

For example, if a customer has a car loan and credit card with the same regional issuer, the issuer might require the card to serve as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:collateral for both the auto loan and credit card. If the cardholder defaults on either, their car could be repossessed to cover the outstanding bala♋nce. National issuers, on the other hand, do not tend t🔯o require cross-collateralization of credit lines.

Example of a National Issuer

Emma is researching poten🐓tial credit card providers. She notices many of the most popular credit card issuers market their products nationw𒊎ide, whereas regional banks and credit unions market their cards in their own backyards.

In deciding what kind of credit card to choose, Emma's priority is to obtain the lowest possible APR while also avoiding account fees and other charges when possible. She is less interested in perks such as cash-back programs and membership rewards.

Because the national issuers tend to compete on the basis of membership rewards as opposed to attractive APRs and other terms, Emma opts for a smaller regional issuer offering the lowest available interest rate and fees.