NEW YORK (AP) - Fidelity is switching partners for its cash back credit card, dumping American Express and Bank of America for Visa and U.S. Bank.
The move is another loss for American Express Co., coming nearly a year after warehouse store operator Costco said it would end its exclusive partnership with the credit card company.
AmEx representative Keri Buster said the Fidelity cards are a small part of the company's business, accounting for less than 1 percent of its billings. Bank of America said it agreed not to renew the partnership because it has been moving away from providing services for credit cards of financial institutions.
The new Fidelity card will continue to earn cardholders 2 percent in cash on every $1 spent, which can be deposit into Fidelity's checking or retirement accounts. Fidelity is a major provider of retirement accounts and other financial services.
Fidelity said the new Visa Inc. card will be accepted at more places than the AmEx version and can be used with new payment services Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. The Fidelity AmEx card did not support those digital payment services, but AmEx's other credit cards do. U.S. Bank, owned by U.S. Bancorp, will take over the billing process from Bank of America Corp.
Current cardholders don't have to do anything. A new Visa card will be automatically shipped by July to replace the AmEx card and cash earned will be transferred over to the new card, Fidelity spokesman Robert Beauregard said. New customers will be issued the Visa card before July, and current cardholders can get it before July by contacting Fidelity, Beauregard said.
The current card has about 550,000 customers and has earned users more than $1 billion since the card was first issued in 2003, Beauregard said.
Published: Thu, Jan 07, 2016
