Whats the difference between Visa and Mastercard?
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.
