MC and Visa, difference?

flogen

Is there any actual difference between Mastercard and Visa at a base level, besides the odd place that doesn't accept one or the other??

Just wondering as I'm likely to end up getting a CC at some point soon and would like to know what the difference is, I imagine the actual card off (the bank/company is offering itself) is what matters, not the card type?

vector

visa vs mastercard... well for AIB>

pro-Visa
visa from AIB allows you to use their transactonline gizmo in their online banking which generates throwaway "card numbers" each with their own limit, for use at dodgy cardholder-not-present merchants

pro-mastercard
AIBs FX rate for mastercard is less then that for visa, nobody talks about it and its buried on their website, and considering most of my online purchases are in USD this matters, its only like 0.25% approx cheaper then visa though

and now in general>
any merchants that accepts one will accept the other, except for the olympics where visa have a deal with the organisers, and some other large-scale event like the worldcup? where mastercard did the same

in the irish context some people look down on mastercard because it happens MBNA issued them and still do for the fad cards like sports teams, and AIBs student card is a mastercard. I'd be inclined to say forget about image, but for some the physical appearance of the card is important, thats on of the reasons people like gold cards

if you are the kind of idiot that actually pays interest on your card (ie you don't pay off the balance in full every month) then the APR will be many will advertise an amazing low rate but it will only last for an introductory period.

drdre

vector wrote:

visa vs mastercard... well for AIB>

pro-Visa
visa from AIB allows you to use their transactonline gizmo in their online banking which generates throwaway "card numbers" each with their own limit, for use at dodgy cardholder-not-present merchants

hi what do you mean by this.it sounds interesting.

vector

RTFM

http://www.google.ie/search?q=transactonline

>

http://www.aib.ie/transactonline/

drdre

thanks vector.i never knew aib have that facility.

vector

AFAIK the drawback is you have to install a local program, its not all done on their onlinebanking website

Imposter

Visa is more widely accepted worldwide.

I've seen a situation in Crete airport (duty free shop) where they didn't want to accept mastercard and only did because we had no other way of paying. They had one terminal that accepted mastercard and it wasn't in the shop we were in!

Tazz T

I've had similar experiences in Greece. I travel there a lot and have to have both Mastercard and Visa as a lot of places will use one but not the other. Mostly it's Visa that's accepted though.

BuffyBot

Visa is more widely accepted worldwide.

Generally acceptence is 50/50 worldwide.

monkeyfudge

I've seen a lot of places on my travels that specifically specify that they don't take Mastercard. I've never come across anything like that for Visa.

Orion

There's another difference that annoyed a mate of mine. Seemingly the origins of MC is religious (can't remember which one). One thing they won't allow is payment from gambling sites such as Betfair. So you can lodge money with a MC but if you're lucky enough to win and want to withdraw cash they have to send you a cheque. With Visa they can just lodge it directly to your card.

BuffyBot

Seemingly the origins of MC is religious (can't remember which one)

Sounds like a dodgy story to me, with nothng that I can find to back it up. MC was founded by Wells Fargo and a few others from what I can remember. Off the top of my head, none of those the founding banks had religious foundations. Apart from anything else, they no longer have any real control over it - banks around the world now have various shareholdings, so I doubt any "religious" objections to transaction from gambling sites would even figure anymore.

parsi

Macros42 wrote:

There's another difference that annoyed a mate of mine. Seemingly the origins of MC is religious (can't remember which one). One thing they won't allow is payment from gambling sites such as Betfair. So you can lodge money with a MC but if you're lucky enough to win and want to withdraw cash they have to send you a cheque. With Visa they can just lodge it directly to your card.

I think it's actually slightly different - MC charge immediate interest on bets/lottery tickets etc as they consider it cash advances. I had a run-in with them a few years ago in relation to a German lotteryticket which used have a cash advance charge slapped on each time it was paid. They claimed it was because it was gambling and thus subject to treatment as a cash withdrawal. They eventually refunded the charges.

GerardKeating

vector wrote:

in the irish context some people look down on mastercard because it happens MBNA issued them and still do for the fad cards like sports teams

MBNA also issue Visa cards, and Mastercard are also issued by AIB/BoI and others.

GerardKeating

Macros42 wrote:

There's another difference that annoyed a mate of mine. Seemingly the origins of MC is religious (can't remember which one). One thing they won't allow is payment from gambling sites such as Betfair. So you can lodge money with a MC but if you're lucky enough to win and want to withdraw cash they have to send you a cheque. With Visa they can just lodge it directly to your card.

Not true.

All the Card schemes charge the merchants for processing transactions. Mastercard charge more.

American Express charge even more, which is why RyanAir do not accept them.

irishguy

I would go for Visa had loads of problems trying to use my mastercard to withdraw money from ATM's in Vancouver last summer. Visa worked everywhere

Skyuser

Macros42 wrote:

There's another difference that annoyed a mate of mine. Seemingly the origins of MC is religious (can't remember which one). One thing they won't allow is payment from gambling sites such as Betfair. So you can lodge money with a MC but if you're lucky enough to win and want to withdraw cash they have to send you a cheque. With Visa they can just lodge it directly to your card.

Really? I was wondering cause on my paddy power account when I had a Visa it would go straight into my account but since I changed to Mastercard they send cheques.

Orion

Fair enough - I'm just repeating what I was told - and it could be complete crap as to the reason why. But the fact remains that for reimbursements you can only get a cheque from Betfair (and Paddy Power according to Skyuser - both gambling sites) with MC - but with Visa you can get it debited to your card.