Visa: http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/p...card_order.jsp
MasterCard: http://www.mastercard.com/us/persona...d/issuers.html

They each have their different issue fees, fees over time (such as assessing a monthly maintenance fee starting at 6 months, 12 months, or some other time period), sometimes the fees are different depending on if you have an account at the bank, and there's varying expiration dates for them. Sometimes the tradeoff for a lower issuance fee in the beginning is an earlier maintenance fee window (such as US Bank $3.95 issuance fee, then $2.50 monthly maintenance starting at 6 months, versus WaMu (Chase...) $5.45/$7.95 issuance fee (depending on the card's value) and then $2.50 monthly maintenance starting at 12 months). Which scenario provides a better value is dependent on what you plan on doing with the card, such as how much value it'll have and the amount of time you plan on having it around.

This is all I can provide. I don't buy these for gifts, usually I just give cash, or if it's a high amount, I write a check. Hopefuly this is somewhat helpful.

-A