Originally Posted by
mizzou1
March 7 was a weekend day and Euro had a sharp decrease in value in March 6 (from 1.103 to 1.084). Since March 7 was a weekend day, effective currency exchange rates is usually picked from a time at previous business day and is kept about constant during the weekend. It seems that Visa has selected the most unfavorable rate and Mastercard has selected a favorable mid rate (or perhaps a rate based on the exact time of transaction). Such drastic changes in currency exchange rate are rare to happen for stable currencies, thus the difference between Visa and Mastercard rarely matters. But if somebody is making a transaction in countries with volatile exchange rates, the difference between Visa and Mastercard may be worth considering.
As I recall, there are some posts that indicate that ATM withdrawals (and perhaps even purchases?) made on non-bank business days tend to have less favorable exchange rates and that at least VISA indeed does appear to select the most expensive exchange rate during that period. If they do select the least favorable rate during a period, clearly having a period be up to a 4 day weekend (with holidays) vs 1 day bank day has a very high probability of them finding a less favorable rate.
A brief review of a few days both during the middle and end (non-business) days of the week in question would be most helpful and a much better test of VISA vs MC markups.
http://theinquiringinvestor.com/2013...exchange-rate/
has an informal survey that reflects both 2013 and updated for 2015, but unfortunately does not address the business day vs non-business day transaction variable. 2015 stats do indicate that MC is currently better (Barclay Arrival (no AF) or Arrival+ ($89 AF) are MCs with offline pin and no FTF). The speculation that VISA uses the least favorable rate for the rate period occurs in the comments there too. It has an expansive list of the various rating resources.