You may also be thinking that which is better MasterCard or VISA. There's not really much of a difference between Visa & Mastercard. So we will see all the differences and similarities, starting with small introduction of both.
MasterCard : MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, New York, United States. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the "MasterCard" brand debit and credit cards to make purchases. MasterCard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. The company was created by two entrepreneurs in Louisville, Kentucky, named Raymond Tanenhaus and Stanley Benovitz. It was absorbed by the United California Bank in year 1966. Prior to its initial public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the 25,000+ financial institutions that issue its card.
VISA : Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered on 595 Market Street, Financial District in San Francisco, California, United States, although much of the company's staff is based in Foster City, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit card and debit cards. Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash-access programs to their customers. In 2008, according to The Nilson Report, Visa held a 38.3% market share of the credit card marketplace and 60.7% of the debit card marketplace in the United States. In 2009, Visa’s global network (known as VisaNet) processed 62 billion transactions with a total volume of $4.4 trillion.
Visa has operations across Asia-Pacific, North America, Central and South America, Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East. Visa Europe is a separate membership entity that is an exclusive licensee of Visa Inc.'s trademarks and technology in the European region, issuing cards such as Visa Debit.
While both Visa and Mastercard are both huge payment processing networks, there are some differences in their acceptance at merchants and the fees that they charge. Both companies also have different financial metrics such as revenue, net income and employee count.
| Some diffences and similarities between MasterCard and Visa Card |
|  |  |
| Type | Public | Public |
| Traded as | NYSE: MA S&P 500 Component | NYSE: V S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Financial Services | Financial Services |
| Founded | 1966 | 1970 |
| HeadQuarters | MasterCard International Global Headquarters
Purchase, New York, U.S. | 595 Market Street, Financial District, San Francisco, California, United States |
| Area Served | Worldwide | Worldwide |
| Key People | Ajay Banga (president & CEO)
Richard Haythornthwaite (chairman) | Joseph Saunders (chairman & CEO)
John Partridge (president) |
| Products | Credit Cards, payment systems | Payment Systems |
| Revenue | US$ 5.539 billion (2010 | US$ 8.065 billion (2010) |
| Operating Income | US$ 2.757 billion (2010) | US$ 4.638 billion (2010) |
| Net Income | US$ 1.846 billion (2010) | US$ 2.966 billion (2010) |
| Total Assets | US$ 8.837 billion (2010) | US$ 33.408 billion (2010) |
| Total Equity | US$ 5.216 billion (2010) | US$ 25.014 billion (2010) |
| Employees | 5,600 (2010) | 6,800 (2010) |
| Website | www.mastercard.com/ | www.visa.com |
Acceptance
Almost all merchants accepts both VISA and MasterCard. But some merchants do not accept certain cards because of higher payment processing fees, although such fees do not affect consumers, they do affect the merchants. A recent survey found that
- 72% of online retailers accept all 4 major credit cards (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, VISA)
- 10.3% of online retailers accept American Express, MasterCard and VISA
- 7.7% of online retailers accept Discover, MasterCard and VISA
- 9.9% of online retailers accept VISA and MasterCard only
List of merchants that accept VISA but do not accept MasterCard
Dollar General Corp.
List of merchants that accept MasterCard but do not accept VISA
Sam's Club (they do accept VISA debit cards but not credit cards. In fact, they accept VISA credit cards online and for gasoline)
List of merchants that accept neither MasterCard nor VISA
Costco Wholesale Corp. (they accept American Express cards exclusively)
In January 2005, Washington Mutual decided to switch its 10.5-million-card debit portfolio from VISA to MasterCard.
I think both cards are good. The more important thing is to look for the bank that is providing the card, i.e. Chase, Citibank, etc. I think it is the bank/financial institution that determines what interest rates, credit limit and rewards programs to offer. Sometimes, merchants have special "promo" offers with certain types of cards. In order to take advantage of all such promos, it may be advisable to have both types of cards.
Please Note : Some of the information has been taken from wekipedia, visa.com and mastercard.com. Also if you have any further information then please mention it in comment.
