Mastercard Earnings: Revenue Up 14% With Credit Cards Carrying US Spending Growth on Its Network

By Stock Titan Editorial Team Published October 29, 2026, 08:18 AM EDT

Mastercard earnings for the third quarter of 2026

Net revenue was $9.8 billion, up 14% from a year earlier, or 14% once the effect of currency moves is taken out, according to Mastercard’s third-quarter earnings release.

Net income was $4.6 billion, or $5.28 a share. Adjusted earnings leave out gains and losses on Mastercard’s investments and items it treats as one-time, such as legal provisions. They came to $5.31 a share, against $4.38 a year earlier.

That was 17 cents above the $5.14 Zacks Consensus Estimate, the average of analysts’ forecasts that Zacks compiles. Revenue of $9.81 billion was above the $9.63 billion Zacks consensus.

In July, Mastercard had forecast net revenue growth for the quarter at the “high end of low double digits,” in the outlook pages of its second-quarter presentation. The reported figure was 14%, and the table below sets each recent quarter’s forecast words beside its result.

The amount spent and withdrawn on Mastercard cards, which the company calls gross dollar volume, grew 7% in local currencies to $3.0 trillion. Cross-border volume, money spent on cards outside the country that issued them, grew 11%.

Revenue from the payment network itself grew 11%. Value-added services, which include security solutions and the business and market insights Mastercard sells to its customers, grew faster, by 19%.

Mastercard credit card and debit card spending in the US

All US purchases on Mastercard cards grew 6.7% from a year earlier, to $803 billion, against 7.1% growth a year before.

Purchases on credit and charge cards (charge cards are paid off in full each month) grew 10%, to $455 billion. Purchases on debit and prepaid cards grew 2.8%, to $348 billion, according to the operating tables in Mastercard’s release.

In dollars, US purchase volume rose by about $51 billion, and credit cards accounted for about $42 billion of that rise. By our calculation, credit cards made up about 82% of the increase, against about 52% a year earlier.

Show the data

Category	Credit and charge cards	Debit and prepaid cards
Q1 2025	5.9%	8.1%
Q2 2025	6.1%	7.2%
Q3 2025	6.7%	7.5%
Q4 2025	6.6%	2.3%
Q1 2026	8.1%	1.4%
Q2 2026	9.7%	2.6%
Q3 2026	10.0%	2.8%

Capital One, which bought Discover, said in its annual report for 2025 that it had “substantially completed the reissuance of legacy Capital One customer debit cards onto the Global Payment Network,” the network it now owns.

Mastercard’s US debit purchase growth fell from 7.5% in the third quarter of 2025 to 2.3% in the fourth, the last quarter before that report. Its tables leave out transactions on other brands, as their footnote says. The move coincided with the slowdown, and neither company’s filings say how much of it the move explains.

Credit card growth sped up from 6.7% a year earlier to 10%. Mastercard does not say why. Its tables cannot separate higher prices from more purchases, or new card portfolios from shoppers changing habits.

Mastercard cross-border spending and travel

Cross-border volume on Mastercard cards grew 11% in local currencies in the quarter, according to the release. Mastercard splits that line between travel and other purchases only in its results presentation.

Show the data

Category	Online purchases from abroad	Travel, in person and online
Q2 2025	20%	12%
Q3 2025	21%	11%
Q4 2025	19%	11%
Q1 2026	19%	8%
Q2 2026	20%	6%

The gap has widened over the past year. In the April to June quarter, travel spending grew 6% while online cross-border purchases outside travel grew 20%, and in April alone travel grew only 2%, Mastercard’s second-quarter presentation shows. The company gives no reason for the travel slowdown in its slides.

Visa, which reported the same July to September months on October 27, said its total cross-border volume grew 14% in constant dollars, in its fiscal fourth-quarter release. Visa does not split travel from online purchases there, which is why Mastercard’s page is the closer read on travel.

Mastercard dividend, buybacks and debt

During the quarter Mastercard repurchased 5.3 million shares at a cost of $3.0 billion and paid $763 million in dividends, its release says. The average share count behind earnings per share, which includes stock awards that could become shares, was 876 million, against 905 million a year earlier.

Long-term debt was $22.2 billion on September 30, 2026, against $18.3 billion at the end of 2025, according to the balance sheet in the release. The release says $4.9 billion remained under its approved repurchase programs after further buybacks since the quarter ended.

Mastercard and US consumer spending

Outside the US, gross dollar volume on Mastercard cards grew 8.1% in local currencies, against 5.9% in the US.

For worldwide context, Visa’s payments volume grew 9% in the same July to September months, in constant dollars that remove currency swings, its release says. Spending by American Express card members, which the company calls billed business, grew 8%, according to its third-quarter release.

A credit card purchase is not the same as new debt, since many cardholders pay their balance each month. Mastercard does not lend to cardholders, as its annual report says, so balances and late payments show up at the banks that issue the cards. StockTitan’s article on JPMorgan and Wells Fargo’s third quarter covers the credit card defaults those banks reported.

Taken together, the quarter shows card spending still growing from a year earlier. On Mastercard’s US network that growth came mostly on credit cards.

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The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

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