What is the Difference Between MasterCard and Visa Credit Cards?

If you’re searching for a new credit card, you might be wondering which card would give you more benefits-Visa or MasterCard. To help to decide which is best for you, here’s a comparison of MasterCard and Visa cards. Both Visa and MasterCard provide the technology and network required for the processing of payments made by the cards. For instance, if you make a payment with your VISA card, then the transaction will be processed by the VISA card network from the merchant to the relevant bank. Similarly, MasterCard credit card processes your transaction via MasterCard payment network. Neither MasterCard nor Visa card issue or distribute credit cards, they both just process the payment between the merchant and bank. Individual banks offer Visa or MasterCard depending upon which payment processing network they wish to use. However, both Visa and MasterCard have fewer differences in them in regards to annual fees, specific card features, interest rates, benefits, etc. When it comes on deciding the Visa vs. MasterCard, it’s usually important to check what you’ll get in a credit card such as cash back, rewards, or 0% balance transfer rather than what the payment processor includes. Let’s discuss various factors of Visa and MasterCard: Benefits: Both Visa and MasterCard offer various benefits to its customers, but it all depends upon a specific card. Different cards offer different benefits from time to time despite being a part of the same network. For example, Visa or MasterCard credit cards might offer benefits of different retailers or there can be some differences in the travel insurance cover offered by the two card networks. Visa standard cards have slightly lesser benefits than Visa premium cards. Visa premium cards have some enhanced features such as purchase protection, lost card liability, travel insurances, etc. Visa premium cardholders can enjoy added benefits such as accelerated reward points, airline class upgrades, complimentary night on their hotel stays and much more. Similarly, MasterCard offers best benefits to its premium cardholders. With these credit cards, one can get avail shopping vouchers, hotel room upgrades, late checkouts, complimentary priority pass and much more. Contactless Payments: Credit cards with Visa pay Wave or MasterCard contactless payments functionality enables the cardholders to make payments simply by tapping their cards for completing the payment process. Cardholders can also add these contactless Visa and MasterCard credit cards to their compatible mobile payment services through which they can use their mobile phones for making purchases. Online Shopping Protection: Both Visa and MasterCard offer various security platforms which gives multi-layer security to online card payments. Visa has a security platform called Verified by Visa and MasterCard has Secure Code which gives added security to the transactions made through the card. You need to register for one of these services, where you need to enter a password or one time password (OTP) code when you make purchases at online stores. Acceptance: Visa and MasterCard credit cards are widely accepted across the world. It has a network base of over 2 million ATMs in more than 200 countries and territories with around 28 million merchants. Likewise, MasterCard features over 30 million merchants. Most of the merchants across the globe, accept both Visa and MasterCard credit as well as debit cards. It is very rare that people come across merchants that accept one payment network and not the other. Furthermore, the rates and rewards of a credit or debit card are usually determined by its specific issuer and not the payment network. Thus, if you are looking for a new card, then you should better off focusing on the benefits, terms and rewards offered by a particular credit card, and not pay much attention to its payment network.