Thread: What is the difference between Visa and Mastercard?

For the consumer (you) there really is no difference for the most part. They are just different payment networks. Anywhere that accepts Visa almost always accepts Mastercard and vice-versa so there's not a whole lot of difference in terms of where you can use them. Overseas it may be different in some countries but in the US that's how it is.

As far as which one is better they are the same. What matters is the bank that issues them. You should care about that not whether it says Visa or Mastercard on it.

Visa and MC may have diffrent rates for overseas transaction fees in some countries. For example, early this year Visa tried to raise their standard overseas transaction fee from 1.0% to 1.2% for the cards issued in Korea, although couldn't due to the banks' and cardusers' resistance, while MC has years ago lowered their overseas transaction fee from 1.1% to 1.0%, maybe to match with Visa.
Other than that, differences are found in the services for Platinum or higher cards.

Visa does have a larger market share both domestically and internationally. If you want to have the most widely accepted card globally, it would be Visa. If you live in the US, it doesn't really matter which one you have because they both operate the same.