Credit Card Companies

I was paying my credit card bill and decided I wanted to see how they have been faring during these economic times.   I specifically looked at 4 credit card companies:

AXP   American Express
V        Visa
MA     Mastercard
DFS    Discover Financial Services

I first looked at the Year-To-Date (YTD) which was
AXP    (-3.62%)
V         (-16.26%)
MA     (-13.01%)
DFS     (10.8%)


It seems that Discover is the best company but we need to look further so lets look at the 1 month, 3 month and 6 month averages

1 month           

AXP   (-6.58%)

V        (1.02%)

MA    (7.57%)

DFS   (2.83%)

3 month

AXP   (-0.94%)

V        (0.08%)

MA    (9.80%)

DFS   (17.85%)

6 month

AXP   (-6.34%)

V        (-20.85%)

MA    (-12.33%)

DFS   (6.32%)

Now that we have tracked these companies recent performance we should examine its 1 year and 5 year averages

1year averages

AXP   (20.19%)

V        (8.03%)

MA    (11.49%)

DFS   (6.38%)

Talk about a discrepancy! Lets look at the 5 year averages.

AXP   (22.30%)

V        (13.82%)

MA    (395.52%) ** Explained by age of Mastercard

DFS   (43.90%)

So what are we left with?  Overall Credit Card Companies do very well for themselves! (SHOCKER!!! right?!)  That said Discover and American Express have both been exchanging top position in terms of performance with Discover currently on top.  

P.S. Justice Department celebrates agreement with Visa and Mastercard