Capital One Will Acquire Discover Financial [Extension]

Update 2/11/25: Capital One & Discover have agreed to an extension until May 19, 2025 due to ongoing litigation and need to secure regulatory approvals.

Update 12/22/24: Capital One has received approval by the Delaware State Bank commissioner for the acquisition of Discover, they anticipate fully completing the acquisition by early 2025

Update 10/25/24: Deal won’t close this year.

Capital One will buy Discover Financial Services, WSJ reports. The bank will keep the Discover brand. The massive merger will combine two of the largest credit card issuers in the US.

Capital One uses Visa and Mastercard for most of its cards. They plans to switch some of their cards to the Discover network, and continue using Visa and Mastercard for others.

Now, what’s on my mind: will Discover start doing 3-pulls for credit card applications? 🙂  In all likelihood, it will be many years until there are any changes to how either bank operates. It remains to be seen if this will affect credit card or bank signup bonuses in the longer term.