Sam's Club opens door to MasterCard payments

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Warehouse club operator Sam's Club announced Thursday that the company will immediately begin accepting MasterCard credit cards for the first time at its stores.

Sam's Club said the new policy applies both to its retail and small business consumers who shop at its 589 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart (Charts), is the No. 2 warehouse chain behind Costco (Charts).

The company previously accepted credit cards only from Discover and its own in-house cards. However, Sam's Club does accept MasterCard and Visa credit cards for gasoline and online purchases.

The agreement is a leg-up for MasterCard (Charts) in its market share battle with smaller rival Visa USA, which is preparing to become a publicly traded company.

"Our members have told us that they like having credit options for their purchases at Sam's Club. The addition of MasterCard is our commitment to meet their needs," Mark Goodman, executive vice president with Sam's Club, said in a statement.

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