Do you own a U.S. Airways Dividend credit card? Then you may be asking “Why did my U.S. Airways switch from Visa to MasterCard?” Well, it is very unusual for a financial institution to change from MasterCard to Visa and vice-versa. Historically, you only see this occur during a mergers and acquisitions, when the two companies are affiliated with different payment networks, so they therefore switch one so it’s the same for their entire card portfolio.

This is exactly what we saw with the U.S. Airways Dividend card. Bank of America sold off around two-thirds of the venture to Barclaycard (the American subsidiary of Barclays). It’s highly unusual that B of A will continue to own a small number of the accounts… neither companies would comment as to why.

If you a cardholder of the U.S. Airways Dividend MasterCard, there is no cause for concern. As of now, there doesn’t appear to be any other major changes to the accounts. Reps from Barclays have stated that they will ensure the accounts continue to be reported accurately to the credit bureaus and the length of time your account has been opened will be preserved.

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Written June 2009