Contributed by mm | December 13, 2004 10:37 AM
PST
Do you have more Visa or Mastercard? Do you charge more to your Visa or Mastercard? To me, the answer to both questions is Mastercard. As a matter of fact, all my favorite cards, the 5%/1% cashback Citi Dividend Platinum, 1.5% cashback Fidelity Investment Rewards, and the 10%/1% cashback MBNA Cashback are in the camp of Mastercard.
Nevertheless, my case is not representative. Look at what the national survey says.
According to CardWeb, "[a]t the end of the third quarter, VISA had $293.5 billion in U.S. credit card outstandings, compared to $282.7 billion for MasterCard." Both Visa and Mastercard captured more than 40% of the market share, only leaving 7.1% for Discover and 5.8% for American Express. In terms of credit card accounts, "MasterCard ended the quarter with 218 million credit card accounts, about three million more than VISA."
If you want to add debit cards, check out this second survey. When debit cards are included, Visa is the clear leader with 52% market share or 452.5 million cards in force, while Mastercard has 325.8 million cards.
I don't even remember what's the last time I swiped a Visa credit card -- it must be at least three months ago. Is it just a coincidence that all the best reward cards carry the Mastercard logo?
10 Credit Card Tips for 2005(January 08, 2005)
CardWeb is probably the best resource for consumer to track major credit card news. It publishes about 3 to 5 short stories every week at its consumer section. The first piece for 2005 includes 10 tips for wiser credit card usage, which makes it a ... Read
Average Size Of Credit Card Transaction(December 27, 2004)
CardWeb reported that in the last year, the average size of credit card transaction tops $100 for the first time. 2003's average of $101.64 is 1.9% higher than last year's $99.76 and represents 16% increase in 10 years. Read
MBNA Customers, Be Aware(December 09, 2004)
Do you know that the Visa card you use most often can, without your consent, become an American Express card? This is what happened to many MBNA customers recently, as reported by New York Times. Read
Free Credit Reports Are On The Way(November 23, 2004)
Another week and some of us will be able to get our free credit reports from all three major credit reporting agencies. As announced by FTC back in June, residents of western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah ... Read
MasterCard charges merchants a bit more to accept a thier card than Visa does. The charge is called "intechange". The "interchange" is given back to the card issueing bank (Citi, MBNA, etc). The issueing bank has more money to pay for marketing incentives if they issue the Mastercard.
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