Americans’ reliance on credit cards is the key to Capital One’s bid for Discover

By KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans have become increasingly reliant on their credit cards since the pandemic. So much so that Capital One is willing to bet more than $30 billion that they won’t break the habit. The combination could potentially shake up the payments industry, which is largely dominated by Visa and Mastercard. For customers of the companies, it might mean bigger perks and more merchant acceptance of Discover cards, and potentially lead to more competition in the payments industry. But most of the benefits will be going to the companies themselves, as well as the merchants who accept these cards.