"Necessity" of carrying a MasterCard?

[Anonymous]

When I first started reading up on these forums, I'd notice some people that seemed to believe religiously that it was important to keep all 4 major issuers (VISA/MC/AMEX/DISCO) in the wallet.

I'm currently sorting out my wallet/cards in general, and am pretty torn on whether or not I should keep my Citi DC simply due to the fact that it's a MasterCard. I don't have any no FTF MCs, and that's fine if I get an "effective" 1% FTF while using this card should I ever need to use a MC.

However, that's where my question comes into play. For those of you that travel out of the country (heck, anybody honestly), have you ever gone somewhere that you can recall within recent 5-10 years that ONLY accepted MC, but not VISA? 

I ask this because, of my 8 card slots (2 of which are debit, so 6 available for CC) I'd have 5 VISA CCs and 1 Disco CC, along with 2 more VISA Debits. 

So, cumulatively I'd have 7 VISA and 1 Disco.... just due to the cards that I happen to be feeling more "attracted to" happen to be VISA branded. 

I'm torn on whether I should swap one out to carry the CITI DC MC, just to have a MasterCard for "worst case scenarios", but wasn't sure how common, if ever, that may become an issue.... 

FWIW, there'd be 4 different CC issuers (3 different issuers within VISA, and of course the 4th issuer would be Disco just because). So, they wouldn't all be blocked due to any unexpected fraudulent flags at the same time, I wouldn't think... just basically thinking on whether or not there'd ever be a time that I'd wish I had an MC in my wallet...

Again, this may be over-dramatic/overthinking, but figured it didn't hurt to ask for peace of mind even though I'm fairly certain I'm just being paranoid haha.

Sorry for the long-winded post, any insight others have would be much appreciated.

Short version: Have you ever been somewhere that did not accept VISA/DISCO/AMEX, and ONLY accepted MasterCard?

[Anonymous]

In my experience, no.

When I travel abroad, I usually take a Visa and MC. Both have been accepted (unless it was a small local business that only accepted cash and that was very rare). 

[Peteyglad]

Only one place for me. College .they only took MasterCard for any type of school fees. 

[Blodreina]

Can't recall a situation where only mastercard was accepted.  But I am one who carries each network with me anyway.  

I once came across a parking meter that only accepted Discover, so things like that can happen.

[kdm31091]

I think in general people overstress about this. There is no need to have a card from every network. If there isn't a card in a network that has benefits that you will actually use, then don't keep it just because of network.

Remember that the general public does not think about these things much and somehow gets through life just fine. I think it's smart to have a couple networks available to you in the (very rare) chance that one network goes down, but don't stress about having all 4.

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I think in general people overstress about this. There is no need to have a card from every network. If there isn't a card in a network that has benefits that you will actually use, then don't keep it just because of network.

Remember that the general public does not think about these things much and somehow gets through life just fine. I think it's smart to have a couple networks available to you in the (very rare) chance that one network goes down, but don't stress about having all 4.

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I agree.

I am not so much stressed about all 4, as I haven't really enjoyed AMEX much with my experience thus far. 

But as of now I am basically just between all 5 VISA and 1 Disco, or having 4 Visa, 1 Disco, and 1 MC that wouldn't get touched except for the rare occasion that MC is the only network being accepted at said merchant... Versus a 5th Visa that would see slightly more usage/benefits long term.

[Anonymous]

I’ve spend quite a bit of time in Asia, South America, Australia and the South Pacific. I carry a visa and Amex. I’ve never ran into a time when neither of those two cards were not accepted. The Amex is not as easy to use sometimes but they always take Visa/MC if Amex isn’t an option from my experience.

[UpperNwGuy]

I have seven credit cards.  All seven are Visa.  I don't have any MasterCard, Amex, or Discover cards.  I don't need them.  I have traveled to a number of European and Latin American countries in the last ten years and Visa has never failed me.

[OmarR]

I posted a similiar thread several months ago.

After analyzing "MY" habits, the only major vendor that came close to just taking MC (and nothing else) was if I ended up in a Costco in Canada. 

[Anonymous]

Your first question to yourself would be, do you plan on traveling abroad?  And last minute at that, before you would have time to retreive differnt cards from home? Also, I think you're carring too much plastic at any one time. lol

I only carry what I truy need at any given moment, which is 2 CC, 2 debit, and 1 charge in case of emergency. Of course I'm not constantly traveling either, or in a situation where I'd need all my cards at one time.

On a differnt note, I used to have more Visa than MC. But somehow through the years it has reversed, now only one Visa with the rest being MC. Aside from Discover and Amex.