OnePay and Synchrony Bring Credit Card Program to Walmart

Owned by Walmart, fintech firm OnePay is partnering with financial services company Synchrony to issue credit cards. Synchrony, a leader in retail credit accounts, will make underwriting decisions and issue cards starting in a few months. OnePay, launched by Walmart and venture capitalist Ribbit Capital in 2021, will handle customer service via its mobile app.

Through the partnership, two types of credit cards will be available from OnePay. One will be a general-purpose card, meaning it can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The other card will be limited to only Walmart purchases. According to CNBC, consumers who do not meet the financial qualifications for the general-purpose card will be offered the branded Walmart card.

“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” said OnePay CEO Omer Ismail in a press release. “We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people.”

The move aligns with OnePay’s mission to become a one-stop shop for consumers. Current offerings from the fintech include savings accounts, debit cards, and peer-to-peer payments through a digital wallet. OnePay users can also use Klarna to pay for Walmart purchases.

Walmart Makes Room for OnePay

Synchrony has been involved with Walmart before. Prior to 2018, Synchrony was the bank behind Walmart credit cards. However, the financial firm lost its partnership with the world’s largest retailer when rival Capital One sealed a new deal with Walmart.

Two years ago, Walmart filed a lawsuit against Capital One for various failures, including taking too long to post transactions to customer accounts. Capital One fought back, saying the alleged complaints did not justify the contract’s termination. Capital One went further by accusing Walmart of only ending the deal in order to transfer accounts to OnePay.

Ultimately, the lawsuit was settled between the parties in mid-2024 when a judge ruled Walmart could terminate the partnership. At the time, about 10 million customers had a Walmart credit card issued through Capital One, collectively owing about $8.5 billion in outstanding loans.

Through OnePay, Walmart will expand further into the financial lives of its customers. As such, traditional banking firms may need to pay attention as Walmart quietly gobbles up market share.

“There’s an ability to serve this segment that is somewhat underserved financially but also to digitize a lot of the services that we do today in an in-person fashion,” said Walmart CFO John David Rainey, per Bloomberg.