Mastercard or Visa??

Calibos · 26-09-2003 3:44pm #1

Applied for an AIB Visa Card last week and got a Mastercard instead! I never felt the need for one till now as I prefered to save money for a purchase. Of course with Rip off Ireland here with a vengence there is a fortune to be saved by buying online. I've been using the mothers visa card up till now but finally decided to get my own. I intend to save for purchases as I did before, use the card for the purchase and then pay the full balances off every month and therefor incuring no interest.

How does a mastercard compare though. I'm lead to believe that you're charged interest from the moment you make the purchase. What are the pro's and con's of each. Should I return the mastercard and demand my Visa card.

*** I reckon it was a DIS-honest mistake on their part. Other than the interest on my car loan which finished in August, they've never made a penny on my current a/c other than quarterly bank charges because I've never gone overdrawn. Theres always enough in the a/c for my DD's. I reckon they know from experience that I'd pay my full visa balance every month and thought they'd chance their arm and send me an interest bearing (for them ) mastercard!

Or am I being Paranoid!!

:D

So anyway, should I send it back and get a visa or keep it??

oneweb · 26-09-2003 3:48pm

With the Visa card, you can use TransactOnline Essentially it lets you generate a unique card number for each transaction to protect your real card from being misused over the net.

MrPinK · 26-09-2003 5:50pm

Originally posted by Calibos
How does a mastercard compare though. I'm lead to believe that you're charged interest from the moment you make the purchase. What are the pro's and con's of each. Should I return the mastercard and demand my Visa card.

What gave you that impression? I've a visa card myself, but I'm almost certain that they are identical in the way they charge interest. Interest isn't charged until you're late in paying your bill. There is very little difference between them.

jesus_thats_gre · 26-09-2003 6:55pm

They are virtually the exact same for joe soaps like ourselves.

Duffman · 26-09-2003 6:56pm

Originally posted by Calibos
Of course with Rip off Ireland here with a vengence there is a fortune to be saved by buying online.

I was going to get a student credit card based on the same logic until I realised that there is an annual €40 tax to be paid... feck that ***

Kappar · 26-09-2003 8:59pm

You're only charged interest straight away if you get cash at an ATM. This is to stop people getting the money out to pay the card bill so as not to get charged interest

Calibos · 26-09-2003 9:46pm

Originally posted by Duffman
I was going to get a student credit card based on the same logic until I realised that there is an annual €40 tax to be paid... feck that ***

Surely the savings you make on online purchases make up for an annual €40 tax. Sure its another money grabbing exercise by the government and it shouldn't have been introduced but surely its an expensive way to stick two fingers to the government.

I won't be using the card to pay for the weekends drinking etc but for CD's, Dvd's, Video Games, PC components, consumer electronics etc.

For instance. I wanted to buy a Panasonic AE300 video projector. Not available anywhere in this country or anywhere that I could find. If I could have found it in a bricks and mortar store it would have cost several hundred more than the RRP in an equivelent UK store (even taking currency conversion into account). By buying online (using the mams card) from an online European retailer (komplett) I saved a few hundred more from even the UK RRP.

ie What would have cost €2700-€2800 cost me €1930!!

Originally posted by MR PinK
What gave you that impression? I've a visa card myself, but I'm almost certain that they are identical in the way they charge interest. Interest isn't charged until you're late in paying your bill. There is very little difference between them.

So why have 2 separate card systems then? So you don't reckon I should bother changing it to Visa?

Originally posted by oneweb
With the Visa card, you can use TransactOnline Essentially it lets you generate a unique card number for each transaction to protect your real card from being misused over the net.

Yeah I know. I have that setup on the mothers card. Its a great system.

MrPinK · 26-09-2003 11:55pm

Originally posted by Calibos
So why have 2 separate card systems then? So you don't reckon I should bother changing it to Visa?

It's two rival companies. One of them isn't going to give up just because the other is selling the same product

I can't give you any advantage one has over the other, so I wouldn't bother changing. Not unless there was big difference in the interest rate being charged.

rymus · 27-09-2003 1:21am

ive two mastercard credit cards... yaay for getting ridden by banks!

Zaph · 27-09-2003 1:29am

There's no real difference between Mastercard and Visa, they're simply two different brands. For years Bank of Ireland only issued Mastercard and AIB only issued Visa, but they both issue both cards now, as do National Irish Bank and possibly Ulster Bank.

Silvera · 27-09-2003 3:32pm

Calibos,

You can avoid paying quartely account fees by moving to Ulster Bank - I did !

Silvera.

byte · 27-09-2003 9:49pm

Don't think there is much (if any) difference. You may find differences if taken on holidays, where some places may only accept Visa or Mastercard, but even that would be incredibly rare nowadays.

Fry · 28-09-2003 12:15am

the gf got 2 credit cards from boi..visa & master and a second copy for me. So we have 4 credit cards between us but get the one statment. There all the same..

Silent Bob · 28-09-2003 12:06pm

Originally posted by rymus
ive two mastercard credit cards... yaay for getting ridden by banks!

Hmmm... you might be able to use this to get free money.

Take the card with the lower limit and max it out buying stuff
Use the credit on the other card to pay back the first.
When the second is due to be paid, use the credit from the first to pay it off
rinse, lather and repeat

Congratulations! The first lot of stuff costs you nothing

rymus · 28-09-2003 2:37pm

either that or I'd have a nice €40,000 cc debt and be getting regular visits from BOI legbreakers

rob1891 · 28-09-2003 3:08pm

This is two years ago, but when I got my first mastercard ther were two options. One was the usual pay at the end of the month thing, the other had a very low interest rate, but that interest was charged from the moment a purchase was made.

Not sure why anyone would go for the latter, they're still available, info on the website. I'd call up and find out if you have been issued one of these by accident.

byte · 28-09-2003 6:05pm

Yeah, when I applied for my AIB Mastercard, it was teh same options, though I chose the standard "pay at end of the month" option. Don't think the options are available with Visa though I could be wrong

Mastercard or Visa??

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