Twenty-plus years into card co-brands, Barclays’ newest launch – a card integrated into Samsung’s wallet – offers both new challenges and opportunities.

When Barclays entered the U.S. credit card market in 2004, it bet on a partnership model to set itself apart from competitors.

Twenty-two years later, a co-branded card originally started by the bank it acquired – the Frontier Airlines credit card, started by Juniper Bank in 2003 – is going strong. The partnership was extended in June, through 2037.

In July, Barclays launched another co-brand: the Samsung Galaxy Card, which automatically integrates into the Samsung wallet when a customer is approved. (It also has the potential to be its most far-reaching, as according to Samsung, one in seven people worldwide have a Galaxy phone. Some 30% of U.S. smartphone users are Samsung Galaxy customers, according to Counterpoint Research.)

Launching this product was different than Barclays’ other co-brand products, in part because of an added “layer of coordination” between the bank and its partner, said Doug Villone, head of U.S. cards and partnerships at Barclays’ U.S. consumer bank. But the effort is paying off as adoption numbers are promising, according to Villone.

Villone explored this and other topics late last month with Banking Dive at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas.

DOUG VILLONE: Something you worry about when you launch a new co-brand, especially one with a very strong value proposition within the partner's properties, is that the card ends up being used to buy a phone [in Samsung’s case] but doesn't get used to buy your coffee.

Source link