Mastercard or Visa...

[Anonymous]

I've looked around the forums, But Can't Quite nail it Down... Are there any Benefits, and If so Please Specify Which Bank , To have a "Mastercard" with, VS, any Good decent Bank with a "Visa"...... Cards...??? I mean Are there Serious's better to have Having a Master-Card Logo...? I mean Arn't they the same ???  Have I Missed some Difference...??  Be It "HUGE"... Srry for My Large Logo's Big, Still Working on shrinking them to Normal ...  Any input with those HTML's , I'm surely appreciate that too...

Thanks,

Kudo's, &

Kudo's too All...!!!

[pipeguy]

MasterCard and Visa are two different issuers, but in fact, they have pretty much been one in the same as far as acceptance in the USA for many years - that's not 100% true worldwide, but generally, if a merchant takes one they take the other. Is there an advantage of one over the other based on the logo, no.  Is there a difference between issuing banks/lenders, yes that can and does vary from one to the other - not based on the logo, but based on which "benefits" are offered by Chase or Cap-1 or Fidelity.... Whereas Discover and even AmEx are not "universally" accepted by merchants I think you'll find ANY merchant that accepts credit cards (other than an in-house store card only) if they accept Visa they accept MC in the USA and throughout most of the World.  

Issuing companies (like Chase) pay a fee to Visa or MC and considering the number of transactions, it can be a considerable amount of money - this is why you saw Costco go from AmEx to CitiBank and Walmart dropping Synchrony in favor of Capital One. You'll see some discussion on  so-called elite status cards such as Visa Signature or MC "World/World Elite" these are extras "perks" that issuing lenders (like Chase) offer - most are pretty worthless unless you spend half of your life on planes and in hotels. By the way you the customer end up paying for these extra perks through higher merchant swipe fees (interchange fees or merchant "discount") which are rolling into generally a higher cost of products. 

Bottom line, and the simple answer is no, there is no real difference in the USA between a generic Visa and MasterCard as far as the cardholder having one or the other accepted.   

You might want to read this article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/credit/how-do-credit-cards-work/ar-BBMfWiX?ocid=U142DHP

[Anonymous]

WoW Excellent, Very informative... I like... I will have to read it again, to let it fully sink in... Mucho kUDO...!!!

 For all the "Like Me's" & Kinda Easy Thinker Guy's & Gals Here.... Means In Easy

ENGLISH Visa vERY "COOL" FOR Us ...

Hey PickAboo-Icu

[UncleB]

Moved to 'Credit Cards' for addtional exposure.

@Anonymous, I also adjusted the size on the images in your signature. 

--UB

[FireMedic1]

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@UncleB wrote:

Moved to 'Credit Cards' for addtional exposure.

@Anonymous, I also adjusted the size on the images in your signature. 

--UB

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You beat me to it. Just PM'ed and gave him the HTML code to use.

Anyway OP. To me it doesnt matter if its MC or Visa. As long as its a credit card. The high end rollers here benefit from the elite benefits and so forth. For us everyday peeps. It doesnt really matter. Good luck on your journey!

[UpperNwGuy]

Do not be confused by people who post in this forum about their desire to always have at least one Visa and one MasterCard.  They are now essentially the same (unless you shop at Costco).  I closed my last MasterCard more than a year ago and currently have seven Visa cards.  I didn't plan it that way, but that's how it turned out.  I'd be equally happy with seven MasterCards, or with four of one and three of the other.

[Cred4All]

I can also state that after having both VISA and/or Mastercard over the last 2 decades, there was not 1 single moment the question of "Which  card needs to be used?" came into the equation.  As posted above here, they're one in the same in essence as providers accepting one will be accepting the other.   I can also guess noone here ever had to ask a cashier "Do you accept Visa or Mastercard?" as the question for me sometimes is "Do you accept AMEX?"  .

[AverageJoesCredit]

Boo UncleB i liked the big cards in siggy. Very BOSS

The age old MC vs VISA . if it swipes it must be right.

I want to have 1 of each type of Visa, MC, AMEX and Discover😋

Now thsts a worthy goal😂

[Anonymous]

BOTH !!!
I have only one Mastercard credit card and I am extremely glad. ( have 4 but Care Credit dont count, Cap1 has low limit )
My local credit union allows me to pay both of my car loans and also my signature loan with my
IHG Mastercard.

For some reason, they do not accept Visa for loan payments.
I pay these loans with my IHG and earn points on my card doing somthing I normally do every month anyways.

I would definitely say it's best to have both !
You never know what's going to happen...

[SBR249]

No practical difference in 99.9% of the situations you are likely to encounter in the US (and many other countries). Most people face the issue commonly at places like Sam's or Costco which have network exclusivity agreements to minimize swipe fee costs. 

However, for those that go abroad, there could be a tiny difference between the two networks when it comes to foreign exchange rates. While there are no definitive proof that I've seen and it could very well be due to chance, my anecdotal experience while living in Europe has been that MC gives a slightly better exchange rate than Visa many times. The difference is miniscule (a fraction of a cent most of the time) but that's just my personal experience. As I said, there's no definitive proof that I could find to validate this and even I don't really factor that into my considerations when I decide which card to use abroad.