Barclaycard Buys Goldfish
8th February 2008
Barclaycard, the UK's biggest credit card issuer, has purchased the Goldfish and Morgan Stanley credit card business from Discover Financial services, an American based credit card issuer. The transaction is expected to to be complete by the end of June this year and Barclaycard is reassuring customers that it is "business as usual" until then.
Some 1.7 million credit card accounts will transfer to Barclaycard as part of the takeover, including around 800,000 Goldfish credit cards and all of the Morgan Stanley branded credit cards. It is not yet known whether Barclaycard will keep the Goldfish brand alongside Barclaycard.
Goldfish was launched in 1996, as a joint venture between Lloyds TSB and British Gas owner Centrica,and was one of the fastest growing credit card issuers in the late 1990's. Lloyds TSB took full control of Goldfish in 2003 before selling the business to Morgan Stanley at the end of 2005.
The Goldfish credit card, was re launched late last year with a balance transfer offer of 4.9% until February 2011, with a handling fee of 3% for each balance that is transferred, typical 12.9% APR variable. The Goldfish credit card is a MasterCard which is available online.
