Uber and Lyft Look to Hail Credit-Card Deals
July 30 2017 - 11:01AM
Dow Jones News
By AnnaMaria Andriotis and Greg Bensinger
Ride-sharing rivals Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. may
soon take their fight to your wallet.
Uber is rolling out a credit card for its U.S. customers,
choosing Barclaycard, a unit of Barclays, as the issuer, the
companies said Friday. The card will be available in the fall,
according to a Barclaycard spokeswoman.
Visa is expected to be the network for the card, according to a
person familiar with the deal.
San Francisco-based Uber would be the first major ride-sharing
company to launch a credit card. It could help the firm lock in
more customer relationships, a crucial goal as it faces an
invigorated Lyft, which recently raised fresh funds and has been
expanding into new U.S. markets. Lyft is also working on rolling
out a credit card, according to people familiar with their
plans.
Uber, meanwhile, has been grappling with a series of scandals,
including charges it tolerated chauvinism, a lawsuit over trade
secrets and a depleted executive suite. It is nearing a decision on
a new chief executive after the surprise resignation of co-founder
Travis Kalanick in June.
Ride-sharing is a relatively new sector in the credit card
market, where partnerships with banks in the travel sector have
been mostly dominated by airlines and hotels.
"This partnership represents a unique opportunity for
Barclaycard to work with a globally-recognized disrupter,"
Barclaycard said.
The bank's CEO, Jes Staley, announced the partnership on
Barclays' earnings call on Friday.
An Uber spokeswoman said the company will be launching a
co-branded card with Barclays, but declined to share more details.
Consumers will be able to use the card outside of Uber. Potential
rewards for card users aren't yet clear.
Credit card issuers already have been including Uber benefits on
their cards to entice more usage, in particular with millennials.
When American Express boosted the benefits on its Platinum card
earlier this year it added $200 worth of Uber rides a year. An AmEx
spokeswoman said the benefit will continue.
Barclaycard is the ninth largest U.S. card lender based on
purchase volume and outstanding balances, according to 2016 data,
the most recent from trade publication Nilson Report.
Uber's decision marks the latest in a string of wins for the
card issuer that in recent years included the JetBlue credit card
account that was previously with AmEx and becoming one of the
issuers for the American Airlines co-branded card that it shares
with Citigroup Inc.
Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com and
Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 30, 2017 10:46 ET (14:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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