Difference between Visa and Mastercard

It is your first job, in addition to processing a debit account, it would also be a very good idea to have a credit card, you complete the procedure and you find yourself at a fork Is MasterCard or Visa better? Taking into account that it is your first time in this duality of options to process a card, which one should you choose? And even for those who are not new to the topic

What could it mean to have a Visa or Mastercard? Is it really relevant? And what are really their significant differences? Here we clarify everything for you!

What is Visa or Mastercard

So much Visa and Mastercard are two world-known proper names, especially when paying. These are related to your debit or credit card, but often you don't know what each one refers to or whether one is better than the other.

The first thing you should know about them is that both Visa and Mastercard are tech networks, not really banks. They ensure that you can use your debit or credit card, both in Spain and in the rest of the world. In other words, they act as intermediaries so that payments are carried out, based on the conditions that have been established in a contract between the client and the bank.

Using Visa or Mastercard what allows you is to be able to operate in stores in more than 200 different countries, and in multiple businesses, be it accident insurance, medical assistance, special promotions, etc.

What is the difference between a Visa or Mastercard card

If we asked you directly what is the difference between a Visa card and a MasterCard card, you would most likely say that they are the same. But really it's not so. Each of them has its "peculiarities" that not many know about.

Specifically, we talk about the following:

• Rewards program. In the case of Visa, this program is based on discounts, which will depend on each country as well as the use that, as a customer, you give the card. For its part, with MasterCard the rewards are based only on each country, but they also give you a plus and that is, if you use certain brands or companies, you get discounts.
• Acceptance. The Visa card is accepted in more than 30 million stores and in 170 countries. In the case of MasterCard, it is accepted at less, 24 million. But in return it is accepted in more countries, 210.
• ATMs Here too there is a clear difference between the two. While Visa has more than 2,1 million ATMs; MasterCard runs only at a million.

In short, we are talking about two very similar cards, each with its own characteristics, very similar to each other. Although they are similar, they differ in certain aspects that are really what differentiate them between them. But when it comes to using them, they are the same, and as for the conditions that banks offer you for them, they do not differ enough to determine a great difference beyond those discussed in a general way.

Let's talk about Visa

It is a financial services industry, with open capital, founded in 1970 by Dee Hock in San Francisco, California United States. Its main products are debit, credit and wallet cards. This is dependent on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is one of the stock indices created by Charles Henry Dow, the main function of this stock index is to measure the performance of the 30 largest corporations listed on the United States stock market. from America.

Being a credit and debit card with worldwide operation, its operation is available to "Visa International Service Assoiciation", with official headquarters in San Francisco, California in the United States. It is known for being a joint venture of more than 20 thousand financial institutions that currently offer visa products.

What is a Joint Venture?

It comes from the anglicized joint venture that translates as "shared risks", in broad strokes we could understand that it is only an assumption of capital risks, but it is more than that. This term is also known as "Joint Venture". It can be one or more companies that make an alliance for strategic commercial purposes. It is a business association, in this association the partners share the risks with respect to the capital and the benefits according to the rates have been agreed.

Visa is positioned as one of the world's leading brands. Visa generates a high volume of sales annually, averaging more than 2 trillion dollars. Now after talking about dollars and America, What does Visa mean for Spain? In Europe there are more than 280 million credit cards, Visa debit, it has a high level of acceptance on an industrial and global level. In 2005 alone, Visa products were used to carry out electronic cash transactions totaling almost € 1 trillion.

Visa stands out so much worldwide thanks to its leading position in the global payment media industry and its vast number of members (financial institutions) that adhere to it (more than 20 thousand).

Visa offers us leading and cutting-edge products, being the security and ease of managing our money, purchases and financial movement, the main differentiated product that Visa provides. You can consult more about Visa on its official page: https://www.visa.com.es/

Let's talk about Mastercard

Mastercard is an open capital and financial services industry. It was founded in 1966 with headquarters in New York, United States.

Being a brand of credit and debit cards. This was originally created by the United Bank of California, despite this, for strategic and market purposes, it allied with other banking entities such as First Interstate Bank, California First Bank, Wells Fargo & Co and Crocker National Bank. Thus making Mastercard a public limited company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

About PayPass

Una new payment feature offered by Mastercard, based on ISO 14443 is the official standard that provides cards with an easier way of payment, this is facilitated with the use of a telephone or an F.OB key. or a terminal reader at a point of sale.

Since 2005, Mastercard has used PayPass or Payment Pass in certain markets.

In 2005, Mastercard began using services outside of PayPass in certain markets. Starting from July 2007, the following financial institutions have published the Mastercard payment pass:

• JPMorgan Chase.
• Kay Bank.
• Commonwealth Bank, Banco Garanti
• Montreal Bank
• Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank.
• Citibank
• Bank of America.

Among others.

BankNet, operated by MasterCard, is a telecommunications network that links all MasterCard credit, debit, acquisitions, process centers with an operations center in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. This interface was replaced by a brand also operated by MasterCard

MasterCard and Visa have a significant difference Since Visa's system is based on a Star network, with which all end points end in data centers, in this central all transactions are processed. While Mastercard uses the peer-to-peer mode in which all its transactions are terminated at endpoints. This difference makes the Mastercard system more resistant, if there is a failure at some end point, it remains isolated and does not affect the system as a whole or in a substantial fraction, it is only limited at one end point without affecting the others.

Which is better, Visa or Mastercard

Now, which one is best for you? Is Visa better? Maybe MasterCard? The answer is complicated; In reality, we cannot tell you that one is better than the other because everything will largely depend on the use you want to give it, on your profile as a buyer.

Choosing one or the other will be determined by knowing what promotions each one offers, as well as knowing your needs. For example, if you have to operate in several countries, you need to know if the card is accepted in all of them, since, as we have seen, Visa is not accepted in as many countries as Mastercard (and in turn this does not have as many ATMs to work with with her).

Thus, the final decision must be meditated upon. You have to put on the table the use that you would give it, but also the characteristics of each card and the promotions it has, in terms of commissions, interest rate and other aspects that could make you opt for one or the other.

Nationally, that is, in Spain, both one and the other are good, and the conditions they offer are very similar to each other, so there would not be so much problem in choosing. Perhaps where you can have most doubts is when you carry out operations abroad, which we will talk about below.

What are the differences between Visa and Mastercard?

In most of the times, the user in Spain is more interested in the financial institution that issues the card, be it credit, debit or electronic wallet, this because there are many offers, promotions and positive points that as consumers make us choose more to one bank than another. And with so much publicity regarding Visa and Mastercard, the consumer ends up confused regarding the advantages and disadvantages that this acquires when receiving a card issued in either of the two payment processing systems.

Visa and MasterCard, both are credit and debit card payment processors best known and used worldwide since 2010, based on the circulation statistics of Credit and debit cards of these industries. Visa and MasterCard apparently offer the same service (credit / debit card payment process) but offer different benefits and features in order to attract other banks and consumers (credit, debit and e-wallet users) to their brands. .

Something important that you must take into account as a user or cardholder is that Visa and MasterCard they are not banks, the product with which they become important in the financial world is technology Who has not felt insecure when paying for a product or service on the internet? Are they ripping me off? Will this be safe? Why do you ask for my card number so many times? How do I know that the page I'm on is safe? But don't worry, both companies are safe, they take the issue of security and privacy very seriously. Even in online purchases, both platforms safely support only certain types of pages and you can check that they have the security seal of either of the two, be it Visa or MasterCard.

In addition, there are others that you have to take into account:

• Worldwide coverage in establishments. Visa is accepted in 30 million commercial establishments worldwide, while MasterCard in more than 24 million establishments worldwide. Point for Visa? Not entirely if we analyze it with the following.
• Worldwide coverage. Visa is accepted in 170 countries while MasterCard is accepted in 210 countries. If you travel to many of these countries that do not accept Visa, you may prefer to stay with MasterCard, if you have a job in your city and you do not usually travel a lot or have future plans to go abroad, it may be better for you to stay with Visa and its large amount of available establishments.
• Operability and ATMs. Visa leads the way by operating more than 2 million ATMs globally, MasterCard operates only 1 million ATMs globally. The advantage or disadvantage depends again on the user, when was the last time you withdrawn money? How many purchases on the internet do you make? Is it necessary to go to the cashier? Let us remember that the future of the market is E-Commerce, so many stores of goods and services charge your card directly, but perhaps those stores of goods and services that you both attend as a consumer do not reach your town, the valuation is simple to do.
• You are surely interested. Visa has a service called Verified by Visa that uses a defined password at the time you make an online purchase from one of the businesses and establishments affiliated with Visa. MasterCard uses MasterCard Secure Code, which is a complete password that is generated when you want to make an online purchase with merchants and establishments affiliated with MasterCard. Both are leading in this contest, being a favorable issue for MasterCard its data processing system, since Visa uses star processing and that makes the multiple points of data emission that can suffer an attack more vulnerable, this does not points out that MasterCard ignores these attacks or a point of vulnerability but MasterCard has a data processing system with which if a point of issuance is vulnerable, this point is isolated and the entire network remains stable.

Which to choose? It depends on the type of customer you are, the needs you have and the way you handle your money.

Visa or Mastercard abroad

In the event that you carry out operations abroad, or that you live abroad, there may be a difference between using one or the other. Basically this is going to refer to the establishments that accept one and the other. That is, it may be the case that there are stores that do not accept Visa but Mastercard, or vice versa.

We could also set up the ATM network, but taking into account that it is increasingly common to make payments over the Internet without the need for a "face-to-face" payment, or with money, this would not be such a problem.

In short, we are talking about a decision that will depend to a large extent on the places where you should carry out transactions to know if a Visa or Mastercard abroad is better. If most establishments accept a type, you will have to obtain that card; On the other hand, if both are accepted, here it will depend on the promotions that they offer you to choose one or the other. Of course, keep in mind that, sometimes, banks do not ask you the type of card, if it is going to be Visa or Mastercard, since they usually do it automatically (but it may be the case that they have both options).

What is the difference between a credit and debit card?

In conclusion, You should know that the credit card is the one in which the bank "lends" you money that you will then have to return. The amount is fixed at the time of hiring it, and will be determined by your income and work situation. It is interesting when you have unforeseen expenses, but it is not recommended for those who have problems controlling their savings, since they also have the obligation to return what they have spent plus interest.

Related article:

Difference between credit and debit card

Debit cards, on the other hand, are those that allow you to spend only the money you have in your bank account at no cost if it is taken from the bank to which the card belongs. Therefore, you have better control of your expenses.

All in all, we hope that we have helped you decide whether to take out a VISA or a Mastercard.