What's the difference between Visa and Mastercard?

Answer 1

They're just different brands of credit cards...

They both license their "brand" to other banks for use with credit cards. They each have their own "network" through which transactions are processed. Same with Discover and American Express. Though I've noticed that AmEx and Discover tend to do a lot more "annual fee" / "membership fee" based cards rather than "interest-based" (annual percentage rate) cards. So they rake in money regardless of whether or not the card is used. Whereas APR-based cards only pull in money when there is a balance on the card that revolved longer than the repayment "grace period" appx 20 days to pay off the entire balance before APR's are applied to any new balances. If you pay off the whole card before the grace period expires you don't get charged interest.

I tend to dislike fee-based cards, just because I pay of my balances regularly and I prefer they don't charge me anything unless I'm actually USING the card. So, I avoid AmEx and Discover. Though I've seen some cards using a licensed AmEx symbol and the AmEx network that use the APR model rather than fee-based model. I actually have one of those since the rate was decent. Don't know if Discover is proprietary or if they license their brand and network... I thnk they might be proprietary?

When looking at credit cards, you should look at the APR (anything under 10% is decent, anything under 9% is better, if you can get pre-approved for 8% from a decent company you must have a good credit rating). Anything over 12% is basically a "penalty" interest rate, and I tear it up out of hand (heck, I tear up anything over 10%, and glance at card offers with less THEN tear them up). I figure if banks will pre-approve me for 8-9%, why should I ever even LOOK at anything over 10%? I laugh when idiot banks send me card offers with a steady 23% DEFAULT rate as the offered APR. That's just ridiculous. I shred them and then burn them. No one should START OUT at a default rate, unless they've maybe declared bankruptcy 3 timed and never paid a dime on ANY of their cards, been sent to collections several times, etc. But for someone who pays on-time every time for the last 3 years straight and has no realistic demerits in that time, they really shouldn't even be SEEING rates over 10%, but some banks are just dumb.

You should also look at default rates (if you miss a payment or two, banks may raise your entire balance to the default rate, which is often upward of 18-23% which is ridiculously high). You should also look at the cash advance rate (using card at ATM or for "cash back"), which is often lent at 15-20%.

You should also see what protection and security features the card offers, like zero-liability for fraud, security digits printed on the back of the card to protect you online or whatever.

You might also consider the calculation method used: one-cycle or two-cycle average daily balance. I generally prefer one-cycle average, since sometimes two-cycle averages can lead to odd things happening.

Answer 2

To we the consumer, no difference except on those very rare occasions when a merchant will accept one but not the other. Almost unheard of in the States, although I've run across it once or twice in smaller towns. It isn't necessarily a problem with Visa or Mastercard themselves - often it's a matter of the clearing house the vendor uses having a better rate for one than the other. IOW, the vendor pays, say, 2% of the transaction on Visa, but 3% for Mastercard - which would YOU rather accept? ;-)

Visa came out of Bank of America's BankAmericard back in the...I wanna say late 50s...Mastercard came right when the game was getting hot in the 60s and the two have been the Coke & Pepsi of the credit game ever since.

Answer 3

VISA starts with a 4, and MASTERCARD starts with a 5.

Answer 4

They're two different companies that pretty much do the same thing. It's almost unheard of for a buisiness to accept one and not the other. Both will occasionally run (gimmicky) promotions, but really, there's almost no difference between the two.

Answer 5

It depends more on the bank that issues the card rather than the actual card.

Acceptance is different throughout the world depending upon whether it is a MC, Visa, Amex, Discover.

Depending upon the bank, the amenities included with the card will be different as well.

Answer 6

The only real difference between the two cards that effects you is visa is accepted in more places then mastercard.l

Answer 7

Well, I've heard that Mastercard offers a better APR.

Answer 8

"There is no real difference between the two, it all depends on your credit status, if you have good credit, you'll get a better offer as far as rates goes.

Answer 9

Visa is priceless...

Answer 10

Nothing.