Amex, Wells Fargo partner on credit card

Key Points

• Wells Fargo will begin offering new cards issued on American Express network
• Partnership %27makes complete sense%2C%27 industry observer says
• Not much impact on consumers%2C another says

Wells Fargo will begin offering new credit cards issued on the American Express network by mid-2014, the two companies said Wednesday.

Customers of the bank will be able to apply for the cards through mail, online, phone and 6,000 retail store locations. Wells Fargo will have a pilot program for customers in select U.S. markets starting in the third quarter of 2013 before in the first half of 2014.

“Our goal is to offer Wells Fargo customers a suite of cards that help them meet their financial goals,” said Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf.

Henry Wells and William Fargo, the founders of Wells Fargo, were also two of the founders of American Express.

The partnership “makes complete sense” in that both companies have generally good reputations for customer service, said Gerri Detweiler of Credit.com.

“However, they’ve got their work cut out for them to create a card that really stands out among all the other offers already out there,” she added. “If they come up with a card with rich rewards, backed by the reputations of Wells Fargo and American Express for customer service, they can.”

A case in point, she said, is American Express’ Bluebird card, which “shook up the prepaid market with its low-fee, highly accessible card available through Walmart.”

Another industry observer, Bill Hardekopf, doesn’t see much of an impact for consumers.

“Wells Fargo may promote these cards a little more aggressively since this is a new partnership and there is some synergy behind it,” noting that both share the same founders.

But there are still places that don’t accept American Express cards because of their higher fees, he said, “so that may affect consumers when trying to make a transaction.”