19 credit card companies - who are they?

Ollieblue

Further to an article in one of the Sunday papers, it was said that whilst there are 100's of credit cards abound, there are only 19 credit card companies. Does anyone know who they are and which cards they support?

I have looked at the Existing Customer Balance Transfer Offers Table: (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1102103277,92385,) but this does not outline which card is produced by which company - Martin, perhaps if you know who these companies are, you could add them in, please?

The reason I ask is that I assume that it is easier to get a card from a company if you are a new customer, than if you already have done the rounds with two or three cards from the same company. This is in relation to balance transfers. Correct me if I am wrong...

Rafter

Here are the ones I know of that are distinct....

1 Lloyds TBS (inc accucard, easy, Goldfish)
2 HSBC (including household, First Direct, &More, )
3 Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS) (including Coutts, Mint, Nat West, Tesco)
4 Halifax Bank of Scotland(HBOS) (including Halifax, Bank of Scotland, AA, Brittania, IF, Sainsbury)
5 Morgan Stanley
6 Citibank
7 Capital One
8 MBNA (including Virgin, Abbey, A&L)
9 Nationwide Building Society
10 The Cooperative Bank (including Smile)
11 Egg
12 Vanquish (part of Provident financial)
13 American Express
14 GE Capital (Including ASDA)
15 Bank of Ireland
16 Barclaycard (Including Monument, Littlewoods)
17 Clydesdale Bank (Part of National Australia Bank)
18 Liverpool Victoria
19 First Trust Bank (Northern Ireland)

Not sure if the Irish ones count really.

Apacs has 16 card issuers on its members list at

http://www.apacs.org.uk/

R.

Chris2000

Cahoot (Abbey National)

MSE_Martin

Just to say that we're currently putting together a graphic table to list every card and show who its parent company is - its a few weeks away from completion as it is a tough task - but it should help

martin

Clariman

Hi OllieBlue

You can find a list of the most common ones here

http://www.stoozing.com/cards.htm

James

Does anyone know if all 19 are 'Signed Up,' yet to the Banking Code?

ericpode

and this list on TMF:

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/comment/2005/c050412d.htm?ref=foolwatch