NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Patty Hirsch.

And I'm Whelan Wong. You know, until this week, I thought I mostly understood how credit cards work.

I use them all the time, I get my points, I don't carry a balance, so I thought

I had it figured out until this big new story about Discover and Capital One came out.

Ah yes, this $35 billion acquisition between the credit card company's Capital One Financial

and Discover Financial, which is all about giving Capital One the card issuer, access to discover settlement and processing services.

Yeah, and this is where I start to get a little bit lost, right?

I understand that there are these names of corporations on my credit card, but it's like, what does the bank do versus a processor

versus an issuer?

Like what happens behind the scenes when I swipe?

It's a real, it's a mystery.

But today, I think we're going to solve this mystery,

or at least maybe solve some of these questions

that you might have about what's in your wallet.

We've got five big questions we want to answer about this deal

and the mysterious meandering way that credit cards work.

And I hear you are bringing in a ringer Patty to answer these questions for us.

The one the only NPR business correspondent, Scott Horsley coming into enlighten us that's coming up after the break.

Scott Horsley is the chief economics correspondent at NPR,

which means we have to roll out the red carpet and polish up the silver

here at Planet Money when he comes to call.

Welcome, Scott.

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