USAA Switching Credit, Debit Cards to Visa From MasterCard

The current move is the continuous processES of weaning away big portfolios by these two companies, as well as, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP).

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA), one of the largest issuers overall of debit and credit cards in the United States, announced over the weekend that it is moving its portfolio (of both types of cards) to Visa, ending – as The Wall Street Journal notes – a 30-year relationship with MasterCard. However, it is rather unusual for such a long relationship to be severed.

There was also increasing competition on specialized cards offering perks, as well as, rewards for its customers.

The card issuer has worked with MasterCard for roughly 30 years, but is switching payment networks because Visa offers more benefits, such as no foreign transactions fees for USAA Visa credit cards in 2016, according to a statement.

USAA, based in San Antonio, offers financial services to its members, including insurance, banking and retirement planning. Fifth Third Bancorp, which is MasterCard’s second largest debit card issuer, accounted for $20 billion of purchases. Meanwhile, USAA is Mastercard’s largest debit-card issuer, with $26 billion of purchases made on its cards in 2014.

Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) clarified that it was part of its business and there was nothing to lose.

Economic details about the new partnership have not been released.

USAA is the 10th-largest domestic credit-card issuer with $17.53 billion in outstanding loans as of June 30, according to a Nilson Report.